Alumni Association Award Recipients
2011 Alumni Association Award Recipients
2011 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
The highest honor the NMH Alumni Association can bestow, this award is presented to an alumna/us in recognition of outstanding achievement in her/his career and for the recipient’s demonstrated service to humanity.
Throughout her medical career, MYCHELLE YVETTE FARMER ’71 has combined her clinical practice with advocacy for health care policies that support adolescents and young adults. After graduating from Yale College and Cornell University Medical School, she was a resident and a fellow in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins hospital. In 1984, Mychelle became the clinical coordinator of the Baltimore Youth Health Project, a collaboration of the Baltimore city health department and the University of Maryland hospital, where she taught in the Division of Adolescent Medicine.
She remained with the Baltimore health department for the next 20 years, specializing in sexually transmitted diseases, family planning, and AIDS. Concurrently, she taught at Johns Hopkins, worked with the Maryland health department on statewide issues, and raised four children. She was appointed a Ford Foundation consultant on U.S. AIDS policies in 1987, and in 1988, she traveled to Kenya, Turkey, Morocco, Mali, and Côte d’Ivoire as an educator in gynecology and obstetrics for Johns Hopkins.
In 2004, Mychelle joined the staff of Catholic Relief Services, where she focuses on the organization’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children program in Africa. Recently, she helped organize an international summit for HIV-positive youth from the U.S. and Africa to help young people become leaders in the fight against HIV.
The groundwork for Mychelle’s achievements was laid in 1974, when, as a Yale undergraduate, she was awarded a grant to conduct research in rural Haiti. As a medical student, she received the CIBA award for community service. She has long been active in the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and is the academy’s liaison to its Committee on Federal Government Affairs. She is also a trustee of the Baltimore Community Foundation, and with her husband established an endowment to support the foundation’s human service programs.
Mychelle credits Northfield Mount Hermon with teaching her how to work hard and think critically, skills that have enabled her to assess health care challenges in communities with limited resources and to develop creative solutions. In recognition of Mychelle’s outstanding career achievements and for her service to humanity, we are pleased to present her with the Distinguished Service Award.
2011 LAMPLIGHTER AWARD
The highest honor the NMH Alumni Association can bestow for service to the school, this award goes to an alumna/us whose work on behalf of the school shines before the entire NMH community and makes a difference for current and future students.
BARBARA TWEEDLE FREEDMAN ’66 arrived at Northfield in 1963, already well-versed in the school’s history and traditions, knowing well its reputation for challenging students to perform their best. The third generation of her family to attend the school, she benefited from the experience of her mother, a devoted alumna from the class of 1937, and her step-grandmother, a member of the class of 1925.
At Northfield, Barbara learned to strive for excellence and to relate to people of all abilities and personalities; she also developed a passion for music. Inspired by her mother’s service to the class of 1937, Barbara became a volunteer for Northfield promptly after she graduated. She strengthened that connection over time and maintained it throughout the structural changes that produced today’s single-campus NMH.
Barbara served her Northfield class and the school in many capacities: class chair, reunion chair, class agent, alumni association officer, and area association and phonathon volunteer. In 1986, she received an Alumni Citation in recognition of her outstanding volunteer record. Her accumulated knowledge and her dedication to NMH made her a key participant in the school’s strategic planning process and associated events such as “dialogue dinners.”
In 2001, Barbara was elected to the board of trustees, where she joined the working group that evaluated every aspect of NMH’s operations—a project that enabled the Board to discuss, thoughtfully and productively, the best future course for the school. As chair of the board’s committee on trustees for almost six years, Barbara spearheaded initiatives that established best practices for board governance and that ensured that board membership reflected more closely the gender balance in the school’s constituency. As a result of her efforts, the board expanded from 18 to 27 members and, within four years, the number of women on the board nearly quadrupled.
Barbara’s volunteer experience in supporting the arts and her professional experience in human resources and business management proved invaluable as the board launched major fundraising and building projects, particularly the Rhodes Arts Center. In 2009, she guided the school in communicating to the NMH community news of the sale of the Northfield campus. As the recent chair of the board’s diversity and equity committee, she again explored significant issues at every level within NMH. We present Barbara with the Lamplighter Award to honor her profound understanding of NMH’s educational mission and her unstinting dedication to ensuring that its values endure.
2011 COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Recognizes alumni/ae who have been of service to a particular community in either a volunteer or a professional role, thus acknowledging the value an NMH education places on service to others throughout one’s life.
For MARSHALL L. HORWITZ ’71 D.D.S., Mount Hermon’s lessons about meeting challenges, managing time, taking pride in one’s work, and consistently living up to one’s highest potential were at least as significant as its academic instruction. The latter enabled him to earn a bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in three years and to proceed smoothly through dental school at Northwestern University. The former lessons inspired him to travel to remote areas of Asia and the South Pacific to utilize his professional skills to help people with no access to dental care.
Fifteen years after opening a private dental practice in Worcester, Massachusetts, Marshall responded to a notice in the Journal of the American Dental Association and volunteered for a dentistry mission to China. He encountered dismal working conditions. His first thought was to never return, but then he decided to learn Chinese. He has since made three more trips to China, and has expanded his travel to include trips to Mongolia and Vanuatu, an island nation in the mid-Pacific also known as Melanesia.
Marshall has been described as a man whose hobby is volunteering. His commitment to sharing his life’s work with others reflects the values learned decades ago at Mount Hermon. Marshall’s affection for NMH, and its presence in his thoughts when he travels, is apparent: He recently donated an extraordinary Mongolian folk fiddle to the Rhodes Arts Center. NMH recognizes Marshall for his selfless dedication and service to others around the world.
2011 WILLIAM H. MORROW AWARD
Named in honor of former faculty member Bill Morrow, this award goes to non-alumni/ae who have had a significant impact on the life and spirit of Northfield Mount Hermon.
RICHARD (DICK) J. PELLER joined the Northfield Mount Hermon faculty in 1973 as a math teacher and soccer coach. Since then, he has demonstrated his commitment again and again, not just as a brilliant teacher and a winning coach, but also as a role model, encouraging each of his students to achieve a balance of academics, athletics, and participation in the school community.
Chair of the mathematics department since 1994, Dick’s success as a teacher has been recognized through numerous awards, including the Perry Faculty Fellowship, a GTE Math/Science Fellowship, the Academic Dean’s Teaching Award, and an appointment in 2007 as the Herbert P. Blake Master. Dick has served on numerous faculty committees, as director of academic computing, as a dorm head in the cottages, and, with his late wife, Mary Ellen, class “parent” for NMH ’96.
Dick has coached boys varsity soccer, wrestling, tennis, and baseball, and has served as an assistant coach for girls varsity soccer. His boys soccer team won three New England championships and four Dunbar Cups during his 25-year coaching tenure. Dick adopted the alumni soccer program as his own in 1977, and has been instrumental in keeping generations of NMH soccer players connected with the program long after they leave school. A baseball fanatic, Dick coached baseball for 18 years and now organizes a mid-winter Hot Stove League on campus.
Dick is cherished by his former students, who maintain a seemingly constant stream of communication with him and who welcome him at their events. Dick’s values, as well as the high esteem in which he is held by the NMH community, are reflected in the recent dedication of the Peller Family Field. We are pleased to present Dick with the William H. Morrow Award for exceptional service to NMH.
2011 ALUMNI CITATIONS
Recognizes outstanding volunteers at NMH and in the Alumni Association
SHIRLEY VANDERPOOL ROMOSER ’51 has said that her experience at Northfield of living with classmates of different races and religions instilled in her the capability to appreciate and understand the people with whom she worked, as both a professional and a volunteer. The class of 1951 is fortunate that Shirley has served as their class gift chair. She has embraced this responsibility with devotion and equanimity, keeping classmates connected with one another and with the school. The class of 1951 has regularly met or exceeded their Annual Fund goals, in great part due to Shirley’s efforts. She has made countless phone calls and written numerous notes and emails. Solicitation appeals were always followed by appreciative thank-you notes.
Shirley’s compassion and leadership ability are reflected in other parts of her life: She worked as a teacher of English, home economics, kindergarteners through fourth graders, and reading. She has been a volunteer ESL and GED tutor, a piano teacher, a hospice volunteer, a church organist, a tour guide for a local museum, and a volunteer in nursing homes and a senior center. She belonged to the American Association of University Women and is currently involved with her college’s (University of Vermont) women’s club. She was recognized for her work with a YMCA after-school program by being named its 1999 Woman of the Year.
JOHN S. MCCLINTOCK ’56 began his volunteering activities as a floor officer at Mount Hermon. He credits his “insatiable appetite for number-crunching” to his senior-year math and physics teachers, Sam Greene and Donald “Doc” Westin. Inspired by them, he went on to major in mathematics at Tufts University. He put his mathematical talent to use soon after graduation, when he began a 38-year career with Travelers Insurance Company in Hartford, where he became second vice president.
During that time John was gift chair for his class and a phonathon volunteer; he also served as president and area governor for his local Toastmasters International group. After retiring in 2001, he continued to serve as gift chair and phonathon volunteer but also took on additional roles for the class of ’56: reunion chair, 50th reunion co-chair, co-chair of the Annual Fund committee; he also helped produce the reunion yearbook. He currently serves on the Alumni Council’s reunion advisory committee and the Annual Fund committee. He volunteers in his community as an Excel spreadsheet consultant and drives senior citizens to medical appointments. He somehow finds time to play tennis.
CRAIG D. WALLEY ’61 says that at Mount Hermon, he learned to read and write intelligently, to love classical music, and to appreciate the values demonstrated by staff and faculty “who taught in the classroom and by example.”
Among them was Judson Stent, an enthusiastic teacher who “was not afraid to tell me when I was heading in the wrong direction,” Craig says. David Burnham was a good mentor and a demanding yet patient English teacher. Thomas Lyons helped spark Craig’s interest in history.
Craig graduated from Columbia University Law School and moved into the corporate world. When he retired, his diverse interests took precedence: He became an ESL Tutor with the Ohio Literacy Council; a volunteer guide at The German Village Society in Columbus, Ohio; president of Fore Hope (an organization that helps handicapped people enjoy golf); a trustee of Opera Columbus; and president of the Columbus Bach Ensemble.
Almost immediately after graduation, Craig became secretary for his class. He practically lived in the NMH archives for months while he researched NMH history and wrote Murder at Mount Hermon: TheUnsolved Killing of Headmaster Elliott Speer (Northeastern University Press, 2004). Most recently, Craig served NMH as editor of the 50th reunion yearbook for the class of 1961, and as a dedicated member of the 50th reunion gift committee.
JOSEPH A. MCVEIGH ’76 was born when his parents worked at NMH. He grew up on campus, and the school, he says, “has always been in my blood.” As a child and a student, Joe was influenced by the arts at NMH, especially choral music and musical theater, and the school’s spiritual orientation instilled in him a desire to serve others. His greatest inspiration at NMH came from choral directors Al Raymond and Raymond Harvey and English teacher Thomas Donovan, who helped develop Joe’s lifelong interest in music and his professional calling as an educator.
Since graduating from Brown University, Joe has worked as a teacher of English as a second language, a teacher trainer, and a curriculum and course developer for colleges and universities in China, California, Hungary, Vermont, and Alaska. He has co-authored four books on education, served as a development editor for ESL textbooks, and has delivered professional and conference presentations on numerous topics in education.
Joe began volunteering for NMH immediately following his graduation, by signing on as class secretary, a post he has held for all but a handful of years since 1976. Joe also has served on the NMH Alumni Council and as vice chair of the strategic planning committee, dedicated phonathon volunteer, and reunion volunteer and web liaison for his class.
TRACY WEIL KORMAN ’81 found NMH “a community where I could shake off the pressures to conform; where I could make repeated tries at establishing my own values, preferences and priorities; where I could take risks, be foolish, fail, and succeed; where I was expectedly and unexpectedly challenged; where I could get lost in the discussion, engaged in the task, and find myself in the moment.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree with honors from Swarthmore, Tracy and his wife served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador for two years. He earned an MBA with honors from Harvard and went on to co-found Longitude Health, a company that provides health care services and technologies.
Tracy has served NMH as a volunteer for most of the last decade. He has volunteered on and off campus for phonathons, hosted events, and represented NMH to prospective students. Recently he has served on NMH’s Strategic Planning Committee and on the Parents Fund Committee; he currently is a member of the Parents Council (his children are Milo ’11 and Sylvia ’14).
Tracy says NMH allowed his independence and entrepreneurial spirit to flourish while providing him with critical strengths and values. He cites as positive influences Bill Batty, Richard Odman, Richard Unsworth, Kathleen Barber, and Audrey Sheets, and says that he hears their voices “every time I read, consider, question, and ultimately choose a course of action.”
Since graduating from NMH, DAIRO E. MORENO ’91 has worked in the music industry, as a sales manager for a nonprofit radio station at Harvard University, and at a music publishing company where he was involved in royalty investigations. He is currently proprietor of Media & Royalty Investigations, Inc., a company that safeguards the rights and interests of recording artists, producers, and songwriters.
NMH’s mission of education for the head, heart, and hand has echoed in Dairo’s head since the day he walked off Thorndike Field, he says. “As alums, we are scattered throughout the world. We don’t return to campus often or keep our memories of NMH in the forefront of our minds, but the meaning of that phrase permeates our psyches in ways we do not often realize. It appears as we fight for various causes, big and small, with a consistency I have observed not just in my classmates but in alumni of all class years.”
Dairo has been an active NMH volunteer for a decade. He has served as an area association officer in New York City, on the alumni council’s strategic planning committee, and as an admission ambassador. He has worked as class secretary since 2006 and is a phonathon volunteer. He helped organize—and currently heads—the Southern California Area Association in Los Angeles, one of NMH’s most active alumni groups.
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