Bill Dean

Lifetime Service Award 2017

For more than half a century, Bill Dean, Ed.D., has been a vital part of the Texas Tech University community.

He holds three degrees from Texas Tech—a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1961, a master's degree in secondary education in 1965, and a doctorate degree in education administration in 1971.

And Bill has received numerous awards while here at TTU: Best Teacher at Texas Tech University (in a student poll) 14 times, the President's Teaching Award for Excellence twice, and the Faculty Distinguished Leadership Award and the Mass Communications Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1997.

Bill is a Lubbock native who graduated from Lubbock High School in 1957 and enrolled at Texas Tech the same year.

He played baseball at Lubbock High and Texas Tech from 1956 to 1960, and was elected as student body president with the notable honor of flipping the switch that turned on the lights for the first Carol of Lights ceremony.

After graduating in 1961 with his bachelor's degree, Bill served in the United States Army, both on active duty and in the reserves, with an honorable discharge as a First Lieutenant in 1967.

After earning a master's degree in secondary education, Bill was hired at Lubbock High School, where he taught journalism and served as director of publications for the school.

After serving in a similar capacity at Coronado High School, Bill returned to Red Raider Country as director of student publications and as an assistant professor in Journalism.

While he remains a faculty member and has successfully served as an associate dean in the College of Media & Communication, he also holds another position—president and CEO of the Texas Tech Alumni Association. With 38 years of experience in this role, he is well respected in the alumni field, having been elected to serve as the president of the Council of Alumni Association Executives.

He received the Gold Medalist Award for Community Service from The Association for Women in Communications in 2009.

Bill, and his wife Peggy, were honored when the Texas Tech Alumni Association's National Board of Directors named the most recent expansion of the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Association Center after the couple. That same year, they received the Lauro F. Cavasos Award from the alumni association in recognition of their services to the institution.

Bill has served as an adviser to numerous student organizations, including Phi Delta Theta, the Texas Tech cheerleaders, and the Saddle Tramps spirit group for more than two decades.

Bill has also served the Lubbock community, directing the National Baseball Congress Tournament, and in March 2000, Bill was honored with the Kal Segrist Lifetime Achievement Award. He also served as chair (or president) of various community boards, including the YWCA and the American Red Cross.

He and his wife, the former Peggy Clark Dean, also of Lubbock and a Texas Tech graduate, married in 1966. They have two sons, Troy and Rob, and Rob and his wife have two daughters, Ryleigh and Madi.