Three Bluffton University alumni and a retired Bluffton professor will be honored by the university during its annual alumni awards banquet on Homecoming weekend. The Commons in Marbeck Center will be the site of the event at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8.

Robert Smucker '52 is this year's recipient of the Lifetime Service Award, presented to alumni who have dedicated their lives to heartfelt service to people, community or church.

The Professional Achievement Award will go to Dr. Paul Ropp '66 for continued pursuit of intellectual growth and exploration of creative ventures in a chosen field-history, in his case-while Chad Stearns '00 will receive the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, given to a graduate from the past 10 years who is distinguished either through service or professional achievement.

The Faculty/Staff Service Award honoree is Dr. Stephen Jacoby, professor emeritus of music, for fostering a spirit of community through personal relationships with others and for mentoring students.

Tickets for the banquet are $15; reservations must be made by Oct. 1. An online registration form, for the banquet and other Homecoming-related events, is available at www.bluffton.edu/blufftonalumni/homecoming/registration.pdf.

Smucker has worked with nonprofit organizations since 1957 and has been a lobbyist for charities at the local, state and national levels for more than 40 years.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in business administration from Bluffton, the Orrville, Ohio, native went into alternative service and served in several mental health facilities. From 1957-71, he worked with state and local mental health associations in Pennsylvania. He was then director of public policy for the National Mental Health Association from 1971-79.

From 1980-98, Smucker was vice president for government relations at Washington, D.C.-based Independent Sector and, in 1996, he initiated the Center for Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest. He is the author of The Nonprofit Lobbying Guide, as well as Promise, Progress, and Pain: A Case Study of America's Community Mental Health Movement from 1960-1980.

Ropp is the Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein Distinguished Professor of History at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., where he teaches Asian history and researches Chinese social and cultural history in the 17th and 18th centuries. Currently, he is researching traditions of political dissent in Chinese history and writing a one-volume history of the country.

Ropp is also affiliated with the women's studies and Asian studies programs at Clark, where he has been a faculty member since 1984. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Bluffton and earned master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan in 1968 and 1974, respectively.

Since 2006, Stearns has been keyboardist and associate conductor for the U.S./Canadian tour-with additional stops in China and Japan-of the Broadway show "Hairspray." Before that, he filled the same positions for U.S. tours of "Oliver!" and "Oklahoma!"

After receiving his Bluffton degree in music education, with a concentration in piano and organ, Stearns became instrumental music director for Waynesfield-Goshen Local Schools in Waynesfield, Ohio. After two and a half years there, he moved to New York City and embarked on his current Broadway career.

Jacoby, an Ohio State University alumnus, taught at Bluffton for 40 years, from 1966-2006. He chaired the music department from 1980-96, coordinating two successful accreditation reviews by the National Association of Schools of Music and serving as a member of the leadership team for the design and construction of Yoder Recital Hall. In addition, he led Bluffton's touring choir for 12 seasons and, in 1984, established Camerata Singers, a select chamber choir.

Jacoby, now of Powell, Ohio, directed more than 25 musical theatre productions, at Ohio State and Lima's Encore Theatre as well as at Bluffton, where he also taught a range of courses outside the music department.

The Alumni Association Board of Directors chooses the award recipients from nominations submitted by alumni, faculty and friends of the university.