Gerald R. Sherratt to Receive USU Alumnus of the Year Award 2006

Utah State University alum Gerald Sherratt has been named the 2006 Alumnus of the Year by the USU Alumni Association. He will be honored during USU’s 2006 Homecoming activities (see related story).

Sherratt is the current two-term mayor of Cedar City, Utah. He graduated from USU with a bachelor’s in elementary education and a master’s in educational administration.

 

“Gerald Sherratt is a visionary man who is committed to the betterment of the communities he is part of,” said Kellie Schultz Wood, president of USU’s Alumni Association. “His accomplishments during his time at USU and in Cedar City speak volumes about the man he is. He has done many great things, and I know he will continue to do great things throughout his life.”

 

The USU Alumnus of the Year award is presented to an individual alum who has demonstrated outstanding traits of leadership and character, bringing credit to the recipient and the alma mater.

 

During his term as mayor Sherratt has overseen the recent growth and economic development of Cedar City, bringing a new airport and rail service to the area, as well as improved Interstate 15 access, in and out of the city. He began the Utah Summer Games, the state’s largest amateur sports event and created a two-week Christmas festival to solidify Cedar City’s moniker as “Festival City USA.” Cedar City is home to the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival. Sherratt is currently overseeing efforts to bring fiber-optic cable to Cedar City in an effort to make the town more attractive to high-tech industries.

Sherratt worked at Utah State as assistant to the president and then as vice president of University Relations in the early 1980s. During his time with the university he founded the Festival of the American West and wrote “The West: An American Odyssey,” a pageant that was presented each summer for 30 years. He founded the USU Robins Awards and was instrumental in the formation of the Old Main Society.

In 1982, Sherratt became president of Southern Utah University and during his 15-year tenure took the university and turned it into one of the state’s best teaching colleges.

Sherratt is a member of the Utah Educators Hall of Fame and the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame. At USU he was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1974.

 

Sherratt will be honored by the USU Alumni Association as part of the university’s Homecoming festivities at a special dinner at the David B. Haight Alumni House Oct. 6. USU alum Jed H. Pitcher, the 2006 Grand Marshall of USU’s Homecoming Parade, will also be honored that evening. 

 

Pitcher is a Utah native who earned a bachelor’s in business administration from USU. He currently serves as chair of Utah’s Board of Regents with the Utah System of Higher Education.

A business and community leader, Pitcher recently retired as the chairman of the board of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah and as the president and chief operating officer of The Regence Group, the parent company of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah. (see related highlight in Utah State Today’s archives.)