~The Annual Alumni Merit Award is the highest honor given to Southeast alumni

Dr. Bernard DuBray is one of seven recipients of this year's Alumni Merit Award at Southeast Missouri State University. More than 70,000 Southeast alumni were considered to receive the award. The interview with DuBray was conducted over the phone.

Dubray graduated from Southeast in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science in Education with a double major in social science and history and a minor in biology. In 1982, DuBray became the superintendent of the Fort Zumwalt school district in St. Charles County, which is the sixth largest school district in the state with more than 19,000 students, five high schools, four middle schools and 15 elementary schools.

Dubray has had a career in education for 45 years but has been a superintendent for the Fort Zumwalt school district for 29 years. He is now known as the longest serving superintendent in the same district in the state of Missouri.

Other recipients for the Alumni Merit Award include: Cynthia Boren, sports editor of The Washington Post, Dr. Julie Harper, practicing dermatologist and associate professor of dermatology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Dennis J. Kehm, a retired Circuit Judge, Dr. Randall Otto, professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Texas, Jim Piatchek, a Chartered Life underwriter, a Chartered Financial consultant and a Chartered Mutual Fund counselor and Rodney Hudson, a distinguished actor and preformer and a faculty member in the drama department at Syracuse University.

Q: What was your reaction when you found out you were a recipient of this award?

A:: Well, you know, you're kind of flabbergasted because you don't go out and look for these awards, and those things they kind of just happen. I think it just makes you very proud that whatever you've done in your career was good enough that your original university thought enough of you to call you out.

Q: Are you still heavily involved with Southeast?

A: I attend as many of their alumni meetings here in St. Louis as I can. I go back to Southeast every so often. Our school district has a partnership with Southeast in our "Grow Your Own Teacher" program where we have a foundation here in our district that helps pay for students who go to college and become a teacher. They're selected through a competitive process and then we pay for most of their education and then they can come back and teach for us for four years.

Those are hard to find areas, so Cape was one of them. I think we have five institutions that we have a relationship with, so that gives me the chance to come back and visit with the kids and take them to dinner and those kinds of things. So I do get back periodically, you know I've really had a great start to my career, and it all started in Cape.

Q: How did Southeast prepare you for your future as a superintendent?

A: Probably the biggest thing is that it taught me self-reliance. I got to obviously come down there, and I was really on my own, as any other college student would be. I saw a lot of my friends who didn't make it because they didn't have that self-control and that self-reliance, and I just learned a lot about taking care of business and became dedicated to the teaching profession, so I just think it was a wonderful place to get started and get your feet on the ground in your chosen profession.

Q: Is there a specific thing you miss most about your time here at Southeast?

A: I had a professor, Dr. Lewis Canter, who was a professor of Russian history, and Dr. Canter was a great, great lecturer. His specialty at the time was the Kennedy assassination. Of course that happened in 1963, so it was still pretty fresh in everybody's mind. I came to Cape in 1965.

Dr. Canter was a very difficult professor, but he would take the students who got A's and they would come to his house and have dinner. Usually there wasn't very many of us, and he would kind of regale us with all of his theories on the Kennedy assassination and he had photos and things like that. So that was amazing because No. 1, I got an A from the guy because he was tough and No. 2 that he was so well read and so well-schooled in the Kennedy assassination. Today it's kind of lost a little bit of its luster because it's been so long ago, but in those days for everybody it was just kind of a thrill to have somebody of his stature who would share his beliefs with you.

Q: How excited are you for homecoming 2014?

A: I will be there to ride in the parade, and I am excited about that. There's not many people left down there that I know, but I'm sure I'll see some people I know from the alumni meetings we have up here. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.