LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY HONORS ALLIGATOR PRESIDENT BRUCE IGLAUER WITH DOCTOR OF MUSIC DEGREE

Iglauer, who graduated from Lawrence in 1969 with a degree in Theater (and never took a music course), formed Alligator Records at age 23, when he recorded and produced his favorite blues band, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, and ran the company from a one-room Chicago apartment. Today, Alligator Records is the largest contemporary blues label in the world. Thirty-two albums in the catalog have been nominated for Grammy Awards, and eighteen have received Indie Awards from the Association for Independent Music. Alligator and its artists have earned sixty-four W.C. Handy Blues Awards, the blues community’s highest honor.

Lawrence University is not the first institution to recognize Iglauer for his many accomplishments. The Montreaux Jazz Festival honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award, the Blues Hall of Fame inducted Iglauer in 1997, and Chicago Magazine named him a “Chicagoan of the Year” in 2002.