News from the HAA

Election Winners

Members of the Board of Overseers have elected higher-education specialist Sharon Elliott Gagnon, Ph.D. ’72, their new president. A resident of Anchorage, Alaska, Gagnon holds a doctorate in French literature and has long been active in Harvard alumni affairs. She succeeds Joan Morth­land Hutchins ’61.

This year, 34,858 alumni, representing 17.9 percent of the eligible voters, cast ballots in the annual selection of Overseers and elected directors of the Harvard Alumni Association. The results were announced at the HAA’s annual meeting on June 8.

Elected to the Board of Overseers for six-year terms were:

Aida Alvarez ’71. Washington, D.C. Small Business Administration.

Franklin W. Hobbs ’69, M.B.A. ’72. New York City. Former chairman, War­burg Dillon Read.

M. Lee Pelton, Ph.D. ’84; A.B. ’74 Wichita State University. Salem, Ore. President, Willamette University.

Patti B. Saris ’73, J.D. ’76. Boston. U.S. district court judge.

Steven A. Schroeder, M.D. ’64; A.B. ’60 Stanford University. Princeton, N.J. President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Overseer Mildred Dresselhaus, A.M. ’53, has withdrawn from the board after three years, pending her appointment as director of the O?ce of Science at the U.S. De­partment of Energy. The candidate elect­ed to complete her term is

Barbara Schultz Robinson, HRPBA ’52; A.B. ’51 Wellesley College. Cleveland, Ohio. Chair, Ohio Arts Council.

The newest HAA Directors, elected for three-year terms, were:

Scott C. Collins ’87, J.D. ’90. Boston. Principal, Summit Partners.

F. Barton Harvey ’71, M.B.A. ’74. Baltimore. Chair and CEO, The Enterprise Foundation.

Walter H. Morris Jr. ’73, M.B.A. ’75. Washington, D.C. Partner, Ernst & Young.

Susan M. Williams ’77, J.D. ’81. Albuquerque, N.M. Partner, Williams, Janov & Cooney, PC.

Barbara J. Wu, Ph.D. ’81; A.B. ’75 Smith College. Chicago. Homemaker.

John C. Yoo ’89; J.D. ’92 Yale Law School. Berkeley, Cal. Professor, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley.

 

Medalists

Three key supporters of the University, the winners of this year’s Harvard Medals, were publicly thanked for their contributions at the annual meeting of the HAA on June 8. The following citations in their honor were read aloud by HAA president T’ing Pei ’65.

For Charlotte P. Armstrong ’49, LL.B. ’53—With keen intelligence and quiet strength, you have served Harvard as President of the Board of Overseers and Elected Director of the Harvard Alumni Association, bringing to every issue a fine lawyer’s mind and a love of the English language, punctuated by a wry and winsome wit.

For John G. Caulfield ’50 —A principal of the Cambridge Public Schools, keeper of the gate at Dillon Field House, and member of the Harvard Baseball Hall of Fame, you are a true son of Cambridge and Harvard, whose loyal participation in town and gown has enriched the educational life of both communities.

And for Louis I. Kane ’53—Respected Boston businessman and entrepreneur, magnanimous alumni leader and beloved friend, you have always answered Harvard’s call to service with great warmth and distinction, inspiring the continued commitment of countless others to the University you have loved so well.

Armstrong and Caulfield were present on June 8 to receive their medals, but Kane, due to serious illness, received his at a private ceremony on May 11. He died on June 9, the day after Commencement. (An obituary will appear in the September-October issue of this magazine.)

 

Recordbreakers

Surpassing their own reunion slogan, “50 for ’50,” the Harvard class of 1950 went into the University record books with the largest (by almost $20 million) gift ever made by any reunion class in Harvard history—$50,119,037—and the highest participation rate of any fiftieth-reunion class, to boot. The Corporation’s Senior Fellow, Robert G. Stone Jr., saluted the class and their class-gift chairmen—Fred Glimp, Richard Kimball, Rodger Nordblom, George O’Neill, Dean Phypers, and William Thompson—on the afternoon of Commencement day in his annual re-port on Uni-versity resourc-es.

Other re-union records fell before the class of 1975, who raised $27 million, and the class of 1965, whose donation totaled $17,350,000. The Parents Fund, Stone noted, gave $2.3 million and the class of 2000, $50,000. Looking ahead, Stone tactfully reminded his audience, “Harvard is more than anything else a community—and giving is a wonderful way to contribute to it.”

 

Cambridge East

The Harvard-Cambridge Scholarships awarded each year recall the many historic ties between Cambridge University, where John Harvard attended Emmanuel College, and Harvard College. The class of 2000’s winners were chosen from a pool of 134, a record number of applicants.

Ilana Kurshan, of Kirkland House and Huntington, N.Y., a history and science concentrator, is the new Lionel de Jersey Har­vard Scholar at Emmanuel College. Geoffrey Fowler, of Eliot House and Columbia, S.C., an anthropology and Afro-American studies concentrator, will be the Lt. Charles Henry Fiske III Scholar at Trinity College. Physics concentrator Joshua Goodman, of Pforzheimer House and Scarsdale, N.Y., becomes the John Eliot Scholar at Jesus College. Elizabeth Nathan, of Eliot House and New York City, who concentrated in physics and astronomy and astrophysics, is the Har­vard-American Friends of Cambridge University Scholar at Pembroke College.