William Celis of Inglewood, Calif., has been named Howard Payne University’s Homecoming 2019 Distinguished Alumnus. He is among nine who will be honored during this year’s festivities, to be held November 1-2.

Celis and other honorees will be recognized during the Alumni and Sports Hall of Fame Banquet at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, November 1, in the Mabee University Center’s Beadel Dining Hall. The honorees will also be featured in the Homecoming Parade on Saturday, November 2, beginning at 10 a.m. Ticket information for the banquet and a full schedule of the weekend’s events are available online at www.hputx.edu/homecoming.

He graduated from HPU in 1978 with a degree in journalism and a minor in English. While at the university, Celis participated in The Yellow Jacket student newspaper, serving as editor of the publication for three years. He also served as a student senator and a freshman class officer. He was also a member of Alpha Phi Omega. He went on to study at the Columbia Journalism School, where he received his master’s degree in 1982.

Celis reporting career began at the Brownwood Bulletin, which led to The Wall Street Journal, where he was a domestic correspondent and columnist. Later, he served as a national correspondent for The New York Times.