Tag: awards & honors

Martial artist garners lifetime achievement award

Last month, Grace (Xiaogao) Wu-Monnat ’91 garnered lifetime achievement accolades at the 2024 Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com competition in San Jose, California. A renowned Master, teacher and judge of professional Chinese martial arts competitions worldwide, Wu-Monnat earned the award for her career as an elite martial artist and spirited promoter of wude (martial ethics).

“Studying Chinese martial arts has brought physical health, mental strength, joy and better character to me,” she says. “Wherever I am, it is always my honor to share this treasure of Chinese culture with the world.”

The Tiger Claw Elite competition is the largest Kung Fu and Tai Chi tournament on the West Coast and one of the most important competitive arenas in the United States. Wu-Monnat has judged the competition for the past 18 years, critiquing Kung Fu, Modern Wushu, Tai Chi and other styles and disciplines. The Life Achievement Award was presented by event organizers to recognize her as an international competitor, judge and as a Master instructor in her own school, Wichita’s Grace Wu Kung Fu School, where, since 1986, she has taught all forms of Kung Fu, Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Bagua to both children and adults.

Her family lineage of martial arts prowess goes back generations and includes multiple Grandmasters. While growing up in China, she began training under her mother, Professor Wang Ju-rong, a New China’s first generation Wushu Grandmaster; her father, Dr. Wu Cheng-de, a prominent Wushu Master and orthopedic doctor; and her grandfather, Grandmaster Wang Zi-ping, at age 3. She later earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education with an emphasis on Chinese martial arts from Shanghai Teachers University. After emigrating to the United States, she set to work establishing her school in Wichita and completing a master’s degree in physical education from Wichita State, which she did in 1991. Her husband, Dan Monnat, also attended WSU.

Best known as a martial artist, Wu-Monnat also serves as office manager for the Wichita-based law firm of Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered, which her husband, a nationally known criminal defense attorney, co-founded in 1985. It was through the law firm that the couple began to share the philosophy of Chinese martial arts beyond the world of sports by incorporating the concepts of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” into the firm’s courtroom defense strategy.

The two then took the concept a step further and developed “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Kung Fu Strategies for Trial,” a continuing legal education program offered through the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other organizations. The seminar is often featured at national and regional legal conferences.

In addition to her most recent honor, Wu-Monnat was inducted into the Amateur Athletic Union’s Chinese Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2008.

Denis and Shirley Dieker honored with Fairmount Founders’ Award

Denis and Shirley Dieker were named recipients of the 2024 Fairmount Founders’ Award at the annual Fairmount Society dinner hosted by the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement. The couple are long-time supporters of Wichita State, serving the WSU community since their days as students, and are well-deserving of the award recognizing their outstanding service and generosity to the university.

Denis graduated from Wichita State University in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy and in 1980 with a master’s degree in business administration. His community in Sigma Phi Epsilon supported him as he worked full time to pay for his education. As a member of the fraternity, he was able to hone his leadership skills in the roles of several offices, including a year as president.

The Denis H. Dieker Scholarship was created to give other members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity the same opportunities; providing financial assistance for them to achieve their academic goals while enabling them to be more involved in the fraternity and campus life as a whole. Denis’s time at Wichita State helped him learn the skills that enabled him to serve as executive vice president and CFO of Midwest Drywall for more than 30 years, growing it from a small construction business to a regional contractor.

Shirley graduated in 1980 with an associate and bachelor’s degree in business education, with a minor in Spanish, and found a similar experience to Denis’s within her sorority, Alpha Phi. She established the Shirley J. Dieker Scholarship to support students within the sorority, and hopes that reducing the financial burden of pursuing an education will allow students to get involved on campus wherever they can. 

Denis and Shirley married in 1983 and have two children, Joseph and Margaret. In addition to their respective scholarships, the Diekers support Shocker Athletics, KMUW and the Barton School of Business. They remain active alumni and are eager to see the university continue to flourish.