Awards

Bicentennial Medal - 2020

Chancellor and Provost Medallion - 2004

IU Southeast Chancellor's Medallion

New Albany, Indiana

Presenter: Sandra R. Patterson-Randles

About Dale Orem

Dale Orem is a former athletic coach, referee, and mayor of Jeffersonville, IN. Orem attended the University of Louisville in the 1950s, where he played baseball and quarterback for the Cardinals football team. During his college years, he was part of the 1957 undefeated baseball team and led Louisville to victory over Drake in the 1958 Sun Bowl. After college, sports remained a large part of his life; his family has operated the Locker Room Sporting Goods store in Jeffersonville since the early 1960s. Orem also was the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals baseball team from 1969 to 1973. Finally, he has served as an NFL official from 1980-1998, officiating as a line judge in Super Bowl XXX.

Along with sports, civic service has been a passion for Orem. His first foray into public office began with a four-year term on the Jeffersonville City Council in 1968-1972. He became mayor of the town in 1984, where he served two terms until 1991. When he was elected, he was the first Republican mayor of Jeffersonville in over forty years. After he retired from political office, Orem served as the chairman of Heritage Bank of Southern Indiana and was the founding executive director of Community Foundation of Southern Indiana in 1991. Orem has also been involved in numerous civic organizations such as the Jeffersonville Jaycees, Jeffersonville Optimist Club, KIDPA, Red Cross, and Jeff Main Street. He was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and received the 2003 Chancellor's Medallion from Indiana University Southeast for his service to the local community.