Richard M. Bargar
Terry Bargar
Christopher T. Bayley
Clifford W. Erikson
Robert C. Fazio
Enid Llort
Michael W. Stewart
Warren C. Reed
Michael H. Popernik
D. Donald Peddie
Nine alumni are to receive this year’s Hiram S. Hunn Memorial Schools and Scholarships Awards, presented by the Harvard College Office of Admissions and Financial Aid. Hunn, a member of the College class of 1921, recruited and interviewed prospective students for more than 55 years in Iowa and Vermont. The recipients will be honored at an October 15 ceremony.
Richard M. Bargar ’72 and Terry Bargar, of Andover, Massachusetts. Bargar and his wife were recruited for schools and scholarships work by Dean L. Fred Jewett ’57 to revitalize interviewing in the greater Andover area, where the number of interviewers has grown from 20 to 50. During his 20-year tenure as the local schools and scholarships committee chair, Rick has organized more than 2,200 interviews from that region, while Terry has interviewed candidates in the Cambridge admissions office for the last decade.
Christopher T. Bayley ’60, J.D. ’66, of Seattle. For 45 years, Bayley has been a stalwart presence for Harvard in the Pacific Northwest, following the tradition of his father and grandfather. In his role as interviewer and chairman of his local schools and scholarships committee, he has served four College deans of admissions and seen the local applicant pool grow to more than 300 candidates, while broadening the geographic and socioeconomic background of that group. Bayley is also a member of the University’s Board of Overseers.
Clifford W. Erickson ’58, of Minnetonka, Minnesota. Erickson has been an admissions volunteer for more than 40 years—ever since listening to the radio broadcast of the 29-29 Harvard-Yale game of 1968, courtesy of the Harvard Club of Minnesota. In 1974, he became the club’s schools and scholarships chair and went on to expand the state’s Harvard Book Prize to cover more than 70 schools and help increase outreach efforts to attract students from previously untapped areas, such as Bemidji, Hibbing, and Duluth.
Robert C. Fazio ’71, of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Fazio has traveled throughout Fairfield County interviewing candidates for 34 years, 22 of them as chair of his local club’s schools and scholarships committee. He has “struck gold” with a future Harvard lacrosse captain—now physician—and endured the frustrations of a post-interview extraction (unsuccessful) of a student’s snow-trapped car from his own driveway.
Enid Llort ’79 and Michael W. Stewart ’79, of Jacksonville, Florida. This well-traveled husband-and-wife team have served in various capacities for three decades in Montreal, Atlanta, Sacramento, and Miami. Now in Florida, the couple cover a 6,000-square-mile region and chair the schools and scholarships committee of the First Coast Harvard Club. Llort has also served as the HAA Regional Director for Eastern Florida and the Islands (2006-2009), and Stewart is president of the First Coast Harvard Club.
Warren “Gus” C. Reed ’71, of Pittsboro, North Carolina. A beloved fixture in the admissions office, Reed originally worked as an admissions officer, (1977-2003), and then continued on in “retirement” as an active force in schools and scholarships work. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he used to live, he was president of the Harvard Club of Atlantic Canada (2003-2007); he is now secretary of the Harvard Club of the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
Michael H. Popernik ’59, of New York City. A veteran of more than two decades of schools and scholarships work, starting in Rochester, New York, and then as committee chair in both Los Angeles and New York City, Popernik has been a prime mover in finding students for Harvard from many sources. Popernik himself applied to Harvard from a small Ohio steel town, an experience that has led him to recruit far and wide, especially for students from atypical backgrounds.
D. Donald Peddie ’41, of Minneapolis. A virtual schools and scholarships “Hall of Famer,” Peddie’s long-term loyalty to Harvard admissions spans more than 40 years, and the tenures of multiple deans. The energy and leadership he brought as the cochair of the local schools and scholarships committee for 30 years were once noted by President Nathan Marsh Pusey in a talk delivered to alumni in Minneapolis.
