Buffalo Sabres owner and benevolent Penn State donor Terry Pegula was named a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni award, the highest honor the University can bestow on a graduate. The Board of Trustees announced the list of the eight recipients at this weekend’s meeting. Pegula, the namesake of the hockey team’s new arena, graduated from Penn State in 1973 and has been a huge advocate of the school and its hockey program ever since.

Pegula was the driving force behind Penn State hockey’s move to Division I, donating $102 million to jump start the construction of the ice arena that was later given his name. He also indirectly started Big Ten hockey, as Penn State was the sixth Big Ten team to make the move to Division I, giving the conference enough teams to officially form.

Pegula became one of the wealthiest people in the world after selling East Resources, his oil and gas company, for $4.7 billion in May 2010. Forbes pegs his current net worth at $3.1 billion.

Here are the list and bios of the other seven recipients, courtesy of Penn State.

• Steven H. Brose, of Rockville, Md., is a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Steptoe & Johnson LLP. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science (1969) from the College of the Liberal Arts.
• Louis J. Grabowsky is the chief operating officer of Grant Thornton LLP, in Chicago. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting (1962) from The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business, and resides in Dallas.
• Karen L. Hughes-Quintos resides in Austin, Texas, where she is the senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Dell Inc. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business logistics (1985) from The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business.
• Charles I. “Chip” Kidd is the associate art director for Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, a Division of Random House LLC, in New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree in graphic design (1986) from the College of Arts and Architecture.
• Michael W. Laphen, of Great Falls, Va., is the retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of Computer Sciences Corp. in Falls Church, Va. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting (1972) from The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business.
• Stephen L. Mayo resides in Pasadena, Calif., where he is the Bowes Foundation division chair, Division of Biology, and the Bren professor of biology and chemistry for the California Institute of Technology. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry (1983) from the Eberly College of Science.
• Nicholas Pelick, of Bellefonte, Pa., is the founder, and retired president and chief executive officer of Supelco, a member of the SIGMA-ALDRICH Group. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agriculture (1960) from the College of Agricultural Sciences, and his master’s degree in biochemistry (1964) from the Eberly College of Science.