The Founders Day Medal, first awarded in 2010, honors CSU’s best of the best for their contributions to the University and the world.
Founders Day, Feb. 11, celebrates the day CSU was established as Colorado’s land-grant institution in 1870. It highlights the values that have sustained the university, the people who shaped it and its enduring mission of service through teaching, research and engagement.
Albert Yates, 12th president of Colorado State University is the recipient of 2019 Founders Day Medal.
Previous winners included the Monfort family (2010); Peace Corps visionary Maurice Albertson (2011); philanthropist Pat Stryker (2012); CSU’s eighth President, William Morgan and his wife, Lilla; longtime professor Tom Sutherland and his wife, Jean ; decades-long friends of the University Bob and Joyce Everitt (2015); veterinary oncology pioneer Dr. Stephen Withrow (2016); alumnus and Tuskegee Airman John Mosley (2017), and alumnus and business icon Walter Scott, Jr. (2018).
Read more about these extraordinary men and women below.

CSU Founders Day Medal recipients
CSU President William Morgan with wife, Lilla; daughter, Dorcas; and son, Bryan, in their University residence (now Diversity House), in 1958.
Maurice Albertson was a civil engineer and a CSU professor whose vision of clean water for all helped launch the Peace Corps.


Bob and Joyce Everitt at the 1870 Dinner, Feb. 4, 2012.

Dr. Stephen Withrow at CSU Flint Animal Cancer Center.