The Alumni Council has chosen 11 alumni to receive 2011–12 Dartmouth Alumni Awards and Young Alumni Distinguished Service Awards for their surpassing volunteer service to Dartmouth, broader civic involvement, and career accomplishment.
Roger S. Aaron '64, '65Tu, Albert T. T. Cook Jr. '62, Ann Peters Duffy '77, David Mason Eichman '82, Susan M. Finegan '85, Leigh Miller Garry '84, John H. Mathias Jr. '69, and Curtis R. Welling '71, '77Tu will receive the Dartmouth Alumni Award. Aaron was chosen last year but is receiving his award this year as a result of a scheduling conflict.
Jeffrey B. Fine '99, Amy R. Henry '97, and Susanne M. Kandel '00 will receive the Dartmouth Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award.
Collectively, these alumni have contributed thousands of hours of service to the College in over thirty roles, from affiliated group treasurer to club Webmaster to Association of Alumni president. They've helped fuel important volunteer work by their alumni classes, clubs, and affiliated groups; the alumni leadership organizations; the Dartmouth College Fund; professional school boards; and more Dartmouth organizations.
"I give back to Dartmouth, in large part, so that others can continue to have the same opportunities that I did," says Finegan. "No one from my high school had gone to Dartmouth, nor had anyone from my family. I so appreciated the opportunity to attend Dartmouth, and tried to make the most of my experience while there."
Kandel's volunteering grew out of her participation in the campus GLBTQA community as a student. "I was a leader of the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance, so it was natural for me as an alum to get involved with DGALA [the Dartmouth Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Alumni/ae Association]," she says. "The relationships I've since developed have inspired me to become even further involved. I'm also motivated to help make Dartmouth a better place than it was when I was a student, and encouraged to see how much it's changed in a relatively short period of time."
Eichman agrees. "Dartmouth has become a campus that values diversity in all forms, and provides resources for all students, to ensure that every student feels supported and valued." His main motivation for volunteering, he says, is to "help make Dartmouth a welcoming place for all students."
Welling recalls his undergraduate experience, in the late 1960s, as "marked by paroxysms of change, the questioning of institutions." He adds, "Dartmouth was a formative place to be. I was working at WDCR radio, so I got to see this time in history as a participant and an observer. This experience was important for me in forming an attachment to the College.”
As varied as their student experiences of Dartmouth were, these alumni work as one for Dartmouth's future.
“There’s some combination of place, history and culture that inoculates many Dartmouth graduates,” Welling says. “Once inoculated, you carry that affinity for the rest your life.”
The volunteer resumes of the award recipients are extensive. Here are just a few highlights:
Recipients of the 2011–12 Dartmouth Alumni Award
Roger S. Aaron ’64, ’65Tu has filled nearly a dozen leadership roles for his class, starting while he was still in law school. He's also served on the President’s Leadership Council and the Rockefeller Board of Visitors as well as on the boards of the Yale Law School Fund and Burke Rehabilitation Hospital. Aaron is senior partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom. He and his wife, Virginia, live in Scarsdale, NY. Their two sons attended Dartmouth.
Albert T. T. Cook Jr. '62 has served on the Alumni Council, volunteered for the Dartmouth College Fund, and been highly active regionally, filling four roles for the Dartmouth Association of the Rocky Mountains: president, secretary, job development/career adviser, and Webmaster. He's also served as president of the Willows Water District and Lions Club local chapter. Cook is president of the Albert T. T. Cook Company, a financial services firm. He lives with his wife, Mary, in Centennial, CO. They have three children.
Susan M. Finegan '85 is on the Rockefeller Center Board of Visitors and has served her class as president. She's a longtime member of the Dartmouth Club of Greater Boston, which she's led as community service chair, vice president, and president. Other volunteer commitments include the Women's Bar Foundation, New York City Coalition for Homeless, and National Student Campaign against Hunger. Finegan is a partner at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. She lives with her husband, Mark Vasu, in Newton, MA. They have two children.
David Mason Eichman ’82 has served in DGALA for more than 10 years in leadership capacities, including president. His Dartmouth volunteer career also encompasses class, club, Alumni Council, and Dartmouth College Fund service. Eichman is a real estate and business attorney with his own practice. He lives in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles with husband Richard Mehlman and their "son" Bruno, a black flat-coated retriever.
John H. Mathias '69 is on the Dartmouth Lawyers Association board of directors. He was a member of the Alumni Council and led the Association of Alumni as president from 2008 to June 2011. In addition, he's served the Dartmouth Club of Chicago as scholarship fund chair for more than 10 years. Mathias is a partner at Jenner and Block, LLP. He lives with his wife, Julie, in Chicago. They have five children, all of whom attended Dartmouth.
Leigh Miller Garry '84 has dedicated much effort to bringing classmates together around the reunion experience, chairing her class's reunion comittee and mini-reunion program and cochairing the class reunion giving committee. In addition, she's held numerous leadership roles with the Windward School. She lives with her husband, Robert Garry '80, in Mamaroneck, NY. They have three children.
Ann Peters Duffy '77 counts among her volunteer service many Alumni Council roles: executive, communications, and athletics committees as well as the council's College Relations Group. She's served as her class newsletter editor and chairperson of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine editorial board, fittingly for a communications professional whose career includes management positions at Sports Illustrated, Time, and Conde Nast, Inc. Duffy is a longtime coach of youth field hockey. She lives with her husband, Nicholas Hanna, in Wilton, CT. They have three children.
Curtis R. Welling '71, '77Tu has led the Alumni Council as president and his class reunion committee as chair. He's a longtime volunteer with the Dartmouth College Fund and on the Rockefeller Center Board of Visitors. Other volunteer work is dedicated to family services organizations, including the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children. Welling is president and CEO of the AmeriCares Foundation. He and his wife, Katharine Hutchins Welling '71, live in Wilton, CT. They have two children.
Recipients of the 2011–12 Dartmouth Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award
Jeffrey B. Fine '99 has served his class in pretty much every role possible: as class president, as 10th Reunion chair and 5th Reunion co-chair, and as mini-reunion chair, Webmaster, and Dartmouth College Fund agent. In addition, he logged seven years as class treasurer and led the Class Treasurers Association. He is an associate director of media analytics at Ogilvy in Chicago, where he makes his home with his dog, Wrigley.
Amy R. Henry '97 is on her class executive committee and has served on the Alumni Council, including working on its young alumni and student affairs committees. She's been very active with the Dartmouth Club of Chicago, serving as vice president and young alumni chair. Henry is a doctoral student and researcher at Rutgers University and a vice president at C&R Research. She lives with her husband, Jeffrey Minors, and sons in Haddonfield, NJ.
Susanne M. Kandel '00 has, in short order, taken on leadership roles as president of her class and DGALA. In addition, she served on the Alumni Council. Susi is an associate in the real estate department at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. She lives with her partner, Michelle Riley, and their minor menagerie (two dogs, three cats) in Jersey City, NJ.
Related: Past alumni award recipients Dave Orsman is a freelance writer living in South Hadley, MA.