• Deep Green: Nine Receive 2006-2007 Alumni Awards for Service

    Thursday, November 16, 2006
    News Type

One is a professional race car driver. One, a collector of Asian art. Another, a Sunday school teacher. Others are skiers, Red Cross volunteers, theater patrons, football fans. They are presidents, directors, vice presidents, partners, and chairs. They have children and, in some cases, grandchildren. Collectively, they've done volunteer work for a staggering seventy or so organizations in a decent chunk of the country.

And at the top of their to-do lists is Dartmouth.

They are the eight recipients of the 2006–2007 Dartmouth Alumni Award and the recipient of the 2006–2007 Dartmouth Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award:  Barry MacLean '60, '61Th, Jon Cohen '60, '61Tu, Bill King '63, Hector Motroni '66, '68Th, Charles Nearburg '72, '74Th, Kelley Fead '78, Peggy Epstein Tanner '79, Otho Kerr '79, and Veree Hawkins Brown '93, respectively.

Part of the famously active Dartmouth community, which practically invented the concept of alumni devotion to the alma mater, these individuals nevertheless have managed to build stand-out service records. Year in, year out, they've participated in the life of the College as trustees; reunion chairs; class, club, and group officers; campaign fundraisers; members and leaders of the Alumni Council and the Association of Alumni; and more. As Lynne Gaudet '81, associate director of Alumni Leadership, puts it, “They're the ones who, when you call and ask, they say 'yes.'”

Each year, honorees are selected from among many close contenders by Alumni Council committees made up of past award recipients. For the Dartmouth Alumni Award, which was established in 1954, the qualifications are long-standing and meritorious service to the College, career achievement, and other community service. For the Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award, established in 1990, the criteria are breadth, depth, and length of volunteer involvement. Alumni are eligible for the former after their 25th class reunion and for the latter during the first fifteen years after graduation.

Named this fall, the 2006–2007 honorees will accept their awards at various College-related functions throughout the academic year. Here's a quick look at their exceptional service to Dartmouth and beyond.

Dartmouth Alumni Award

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Barry MacLean '60, '61Th, Libertyville, Illinois – President and CEO, MacLean-Fogg Company. In addition to the Board of Trustees, the Thayer School Board of Overseers, and other Dartmouth organizations, MacLean has played roles in 20 other charitable, civic, and community organizations. He's also been mayor of the village his family lives in. In September, he cut the ribbon on the new MacLean Engineering Sciences Center in Thayer. He'll accept his award at the 194th Alumni Council in Hanover on May 18, 2007.
 

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Jon Cohen '60, '61Tu, New York City – Advisory director, Goldman Sachs. Cohen has served on the Alumni Council, the President's Leadership Council, and the Boards of Overseers for Tuck and the Hopkins Center/Hood Museum, among many other roles. He has been honored with the Tuck Distinguished Alumni Award and the Tuck Overseers Medal. “One of the most important skills in leadership is the ability to listen,” says Cohen. He accepted his award at the President's Leadership Council dinner in Hanover on November 9.

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Bill King '63, Crozier, Virginia – Partner and vice chair, McGuire Woods LLP. Former chair of the Board of Trustees, King headed the search committee that recommended historian James Wright '64a as the College's 16th president. He also served on the Alumni Council. Captain of the football and men's lacrosse teams as a student, King is a member of Wearers of the Green. He'll accept his award at the 194th Alumni Council in Hanover on  May 18, 2007.

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Hector Motroni '66, '68Th, Westport, Connecticut – Senior vice president, chief ethics officer, and chief staff officer, Xerox Corporation. Past president of the Dartmouth Society of Engineers and member of the Thayer Corporate Advisory Board, Motroni has also served on the boards of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, the Wharton School's Center for Advanced Studies in Management, and Outward Bound Inc. Hispanic Trends named him one of the Top 25 Hispanic Executives last year. He'll accept his award at a reception for President James Wright '64a hosted by the Dartmouth Club of Fairfield County (Connecticut) on December 9.

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Charles Nearburg '72, '74Th, Dallas – President and owner, Nearburg Producing Company. A professional race car driver, Nearburg is vice chair of the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience and served on the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth Society of Engineers. This he did “to fulfill an unwritten and unspoken obligation to reinvest in Thayer School some small part of what it invested in me.” He funded an international symposium on Ewing's sarcoma at Dartmouth in 2002; his son, Rett, died after a long fight with this form of cancer. Nearburg will accept his award during the 35th Reunion of the Class of 1972 in Hanover next June.

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Kelley Fead '78, Winnetka, Illinois – Partner, vice president, and creative director, Slack Barshinger and Partners. You can't enter governance debate without the courage of your convictions, and Fead has shown that hers run deep: She served on both the Joint Committee on Alumni Governance and Trustee Elections and the Alumni Governance Task Force, working with others for five years to draft a proposed new alumni constitution. She's also served as president of the Alumni Council, Alumni Association, and the Dartmouth Club of Chicago, and in many other roles. She'll accept her award at the 193rd Alumni Council in Hanover on December 1.

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Peggy Epstein Tanner '79, Harrison, New York – When Peggy was 10 years old, she accompanied her father to his class reunion and asked President John Sloan Dickey to make Dartmouth co-ed. She has since served on the Alumni Council, the Tucker Foundation Board of Visitors, and the President's Leadership Council, as well as in several key fundraising positions and innumerable other roles for the College. She was the first alum to receive a Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award, in 1990. Now her winning ways have earned her another. She'll receive her award at a reception for President James Wright hosted by the Dartmouth Club of New York City on May 15, 2007.

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Otho Kerr '79, New York City – Executive director, Oppenheimer and Company. Kerr has served as president of the Alumni Council, chair of the Tucker Foundation Board of Visitors, and chair of the Participation Task Group for the Dartmouth College Fund Committee. He co-founded and serves on the board of directors of the One to One Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship in Harlem and is very involved with Tabasumu, an organization that provides free dental care for communities in Kitale, Kenya. He'll accept his award at the 193rd Alumni Council meeting in Hanover on December 1.

Dartmouth Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award

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Veree Hawkins Brown '93, Dallas – Managing director, Airline Relations, Travelocity.com LP. As well as serving as alumni councilor, president of the Dartmouth Alumni Club of Dallas, and in other roles, Brown washes windows, lays brick, and serves as counselor at Camp John Marc for children with medical conditions. “I'm one of the worker bees out there,” she says joyfully. She'll accept her award during Club and Affiliated Group Officers Weekend in Hanover on February 9, 2007.