The Nebraska Alumni Association will recognize 20 accomplished University of Nebraska Alumni, seven promising students, and an outstanding family at the Annual Awards Banquet, an All-University Celebration on May 7 at the Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center. Seven of the 20 alumni were chosen for the Alumni Achievement Award Category, and include two General Aviation aviators living in Granby, Colorado.
The pair, William Alexander Hamilton and Penny Rafferty Hamilton, spent many years in Nebraska leaving their mark on aviation in the Cornhusker State.
Penny Rafferty Hamilton, M.A., 1978, Ph.D., 1981. Her 40 plus years of work experience includes: university teaching, leading business and conference workshops, and print/broadcast media. Hamilton is also a private pilot and aviation educator and co-holds with her husband, Bill, a World Aviation Speed Record set in 1991 from Lincoln to New Orleans. She was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame and is the director of both the Colorado Airport History Preservation and the Teaching Women to Fly Research Project. Hamilton earned the Greater Granby Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award, the Grand County Realtor of the Year and the Colorado Association of Realtors Good Neighbor Award. In 2012, she received the National Association of State Aviation Officials’ Aviation Journalism Award. In 2013, she was named the Outstanding Alumna of Columbia College. She is a founding officer of the Friends of the Granby Airport, Inc. and serves as the Airport Support Network Volunteer for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association at the Granby/Grand County Airport — Emily Warner Field (KGNB).
William Alexander Hamilton, Ph.D., 1978 is recognized for four distinguished careers: military, aviation, business, and journalism. He is a laureate of the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, with Penny Hamilton, the winner of the Lincoln Independent Business Association Gambler Award, and is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame. Currently, he serves as president of the Friends of the Granby Airport, Inc., and as a Representative for the Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association. He and Penny, writing as William Penn, are the co-authors of four action/adventure novels that usually involve Emily Warner Field in some fashion.
