Three alumni, each "represent[ing] the best of our broad community" according to the Board of Overseers and the HAA's Alumni Awards Committee, received the Harvard Medal during Commencement week in recognition of their outstanding service to the University.
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President Summers presented the first medal on Monday, June 7, at the fiftieth-reunion dinner, to class member Minoru "Ben" Makihara '54, AMP '77, senior corporate adviser and former chairman and president of Mitsubishi Corporation, a John Harvard Fellow who is active in University and alumni affairs in Japan and the United States. The honorary citation read by the president noted: Global businessman and son of Harvard, you have built bridges of international understanding by your example, serving as governor of the Harvard Club of Japan, chair of the Harvard Campaign in Japan, and advisor to the Harvard Asia Center, your valued commitment to this University firmly rooted in principle and in practice.
The president conferred the other medals, as usual, during the HAA's annual meeting on June 10.
Of William J. Cleary Jr. '56, who holds or shares seven University hockey records, played on the gold-medal 1960 U.S. Olympic hockey team, and is the only Harvard athlete whose number has been retired, he proclaimed: Harvard's all-American Olympian, you have for more than 50 years put your many skills into play for Harvard as a student athlete, coach of the Harvard men's ice-hockey team, and director of athletics, leading the Crimson to an NCAA championship while inspiring in us a love of healthy competition.
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To Joan Morthland Hutchins '61, president and CEO of Compotite Corporation of Los Angeles and president of MBH Farms Incorporated in Elizaville, New York, who has held many alumni leadership positions, the president declared: Volunteer par excellence, as president of the Board of Overseers, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Long Island, and director of the Harvard Alumni Association, you have served Harvard and Radcliffe from coast to coast, your energetic leadership marked by extraordinary commitment and competence.
The HAA Awards Committee invites nominations for candidates for Harvard Medals (which honor extraordinary contributions in teaching, administration, leadership, fundraising, and other areas) and HAA Alumni Awards. Send a letter with the nominee's résumé and other supporting materials to Andy Hoffrichter, Office of Alumni Relations and Research, Harvard Alumni Association, 124 Mount Auburn Street, sixth floor, Cambridge 02138, or go to www.haa.harvard.edu (click "About the HAA," then "Boards").
