Alumni Accomplishments
The
New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) has named Michele
Amidon ’94 Women's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year, based
on a poll conducted among her peers. Amidon, head women’s coach
at Bowdoin College, led the Polar Bears to a best-ever 23-5-1 record,
placing fourth in the nation and winning the NESCAC Championship. Under
her guidance, Bowdoin has turned into a national power at the Division
III level, recording an 80-36-7 mark in five seasons, making her the
winningest coach in the program's history. Amidon, center, displays
her Coach of the Year plaque with her college friends Erin LaBombard
Frisbie ’95, left, and Sherry Fayerweather ’95, who happened
to be on hand when she was given her award after her team’s final
game of the season, at Middlebury.
Alumni
Council Executive Committee member and Class Reporter Lucy Tower
Funke '56, of New Berlin, N.Y., left, received the M. Jacquie
Lodico Distinguished Service Award for advancing community cultural
development from the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations on
November 27, 2001, at a "Celebrate the Arts in New York State"
ceremony held at the Russian Tea Room in New York City. The award was
presented by Kitty Carlisle Hart, right, who received an honorary degree
from St. Lawrence in 1992. The Alliance stated, "Lucy Tower Funke
is a most familiar name within the entire State of New York as a tireless
advocate for the arts. She began her tenure as executive director with
the Chenango County Council of the Arts in 1981, and by the time of
her retirement in 1999 had become a venerable and distinguished member
of the Alliance, along with many other statewide efforts.” She
has been an arts panelist and fund-raiser, but perhaps “The most
permanent record of her legacy is the restoration and renovation of
a 500-seat arts theater in Norwich,” N.Y.
Lee
Hecht Harrison, the Boston-based career and outplacement arm of Adecco
SA, has announced that Ian M. Grant ’84, executive
vice president of its ExecuPlanet subsidiary, has been named one of
Boston’s “Top 40 Professionals Under 40” by the Boston
Business Journal. The award is based on professional success, influence,
and civic contributions. ExecuPlanet provides colleges and universities
with tools they can use to keep graduates coming back for advice as
they move up the corporate ladder and confront issues of financial security
and retirement. As an outgrowth of his semester in Kenya, Grant is working
with the Masai Education Foundation and is working to link Masai schools
with elementary schools in Boston.
Michigan
State University’s new athletic director is longtime MSU head
men’s hockey coach Ron Mason ’64. Mason
was appointed to his new post in February, according to a university
statement. Mason, a former Saints player, has been a college head coach
for 36 years, 23 of them at Michigan State, and he has a 916-376-81
lifetime record. He won the NCAA Division I national championship in
1986, as well as an NAIA title with Lake Superior State in 1972. Last
October, he coached his team to a 3-3 tie with the University of Michigan
before the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game, 74,554 at Spartan
Stadium.
Allen
P. Splete ’60, left, president emeritus of the Council
of Independent Colleges (CIC), has received the 16th Annual Henry Paley
Memorial Award from the National Association of Independent Colleges
and Universities (NAICU). He accepted the award from NAICU President
David L. Warren at the NAICU Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., in
February.
The award recognizes an individual who embodies the spirit
of unfailing service toward the students and faculty of independent
higher education. CIC helps private institutions improve leadership
expertise, educational programs, administrative and financial performance,
and institutional visibility. Splete served as CIC’s president
from 1986 to 2000, the longest tenure of any CIC president. He joined
the organization as executive vice president in 1985. Splete developed
and implemented major projects on the academic workplace, international
business, and technology and the liberal arts, and created a highly
successful ongoing project to enhance leadership at historically black
colleges. From 1982 until he joined CIC, Splete was president of Westminster
College, New Wilmington, Pa. He served for 12 years as vice president
for academic planning and special projects at St. Lawrence, and earlier
held a number of administrative positions at Syracuse University.
Trustee
Ronald B. Stafford '57 has received the 2001 J. Walter
Juckett Community Service Award, presented by the Adirondack Regional
Chambers of Commerce. Stafford, a New York State Senator for 37 years,
has been a strong supporter of higher education, and serves on the boards
of several educational institutions in addition to St. Lawrence. Among
other accomplishments, he wrote and sponsored the law the created the
Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), which provides grants to college students
from across the state. A Republican from Plattsburgh, he represents
the eastern half of Northern New York in the Senate.
Our
student Heather Fitts ’03 was not the only Laurentian to carry
the Olympic torch last winter. Peggy Horwitz Stock ’57
also had the honor, carrying the torch along the campus of Westminster
College, in the Olympic host city, Salt Lake City, on February 7, 2002.
Stock, who has been president of Utah’s only private non-denominational
liberal arts college for seven years, plans to step down from that post
in June after leading the college through a sustained period of growth
in reputation, increases in fund-raising and physical improvements to
the campus. Previously, she was president of Colby-Sawyer College in
New Hampshire.
Varick
Chittenden ’63 left, and Jill Breit ’86, right, receive
the Canton (N.Y.) Chamber of Commerce Member of the Year award from
Chamber President Kathy Flanagan, at the Chamber’s annual banquet
in February. The award was given to Traditional Arts of Upstate New
York (TAUNY), of which Chittenden is founder and executive director
and Breit is assistant director. The occasion marked the first time
the Chamber selected an organization rather than an individual for this
award. The two were honored for bringing national recognition to TAUNY,
most recently through their award-winning Good Food, Served Right cookbook
by erstwhile University Archivist Lynn Ekfelt. TAUNY was also selected
in 2001 for the prestigious New York State Governor’s Arts Award,
the first folk arts organization and one of the very few North Country
arts organizations to be so honored.
Kim
Williams ’90, assistant professor of education at SUNY
Cortland, has been awarded $570,000 over the next three years to evaluate
the effectiveness of the Syracuse City School District's "Safe
Schools, Healthy Students" initiative. Her funding is being subcontracted
through the school district's three-year, $.47 million federal grant.
Williams told the Cortland Standard newspaper that one thing she will
be doing is “security checklist observations -- the hot spots
in the school where violence happens and whether there is a safe entry
into the building.” Prior to joining the SUNY Cortland faculty
in 1999, Williams ran the Syracuse University Violence Prevention Project.
She earned a master's degree in higher education administration and
a Ph.D. in foundations of education from Syracuse University.
