1st Round, awarded at our 75th Birthday Party in June 2022:
One of the initial recipients of the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award is no longer with us, but with this award, we honor his memory and his decades long service to the Class: David Lyon Prentice. David was at the heart of our class from graduation until his untimely death in 2021. He served as Newsletter Editor for the class for about three decades, edited and produced our 25th Reunion book, and co-edited and produced our monumental 50th Reunion book. Aside from these official duties for the class, David was a constant presence at virtually every Homecoming and Reunion. As one of his several nominators put it, David was "the glue that held the Class together." We have no immediate family member here to accept the award, but I ask Paul Tuhus to accept it as one of David’s many friends in the class.
The other recipient of the initial Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award is, I am happy to say, alive and kicking, though he did give us a bit of a scare not long ago: Richard G. Willets. Rick, would you come forward please? Rick is recognized for decades of service to the class, formally as class Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, and chair or co-chair of innumerable Homecomings and Reunions. (Rick’s wife Joan is a mathematician, so I feel that I must define innumerable: not infinite, just a finite number that I could not determine.) Informally, Rick has always done what was needed without title or credit, whether it was managing the class’s storage unit, regularly erecting the class tent, or acting as master of ceremonies for Class Connections trivia nights. As one of his several nominators wrote, “He is the go-to guy for anything and everything, a true ombudsman, with a healthy block of granite in both his muscles and his brains…” Rick, I am delighted to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
2nd Round, awarded at ComingHome in October 2022:
Our first awardee has been serving the class in a variety of roles essentially continuously since we were all here as undergraduates: Norman A. Jacobs, will you please join me at the podium? Norman has served the class in an official capacity as class President, twice as our Alumni Council representative, as Chair or Co-Chair of numerous homecomings and reunions, including as Co-Chair with Dona Heller both of the Homecoming that we are currently celebrating and of our upcoming 55th Reunion. Norman and Dona also co-chaired our very successful Class Connections program with the Class of 2019. But Norman has also served the class mightily outside his official roles. As one nominator put it, “If you look around at your collection of Dartmouth memorabilia from numerous reunions and other important class events, you quickly realize that the vast majority of it was conceived, arranged for, and delivered by our class’s Prince of Swag, Norman Jacobs.” Norman, it gives me great pleasure to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our second awardee has played a pivotal role over the last several decades in moving our class from a pen, ink, and postage stamp world into the modern world of electronic communication: Dr. Peter H. Elias, will you please join me at the podium? Peter has overseen this passage as our Listserv Mom and Webmaster – or to use the term preferred by Dartmouth Alumni Relations, our Digital Content Manager. As Listserv Mom, he has overseen – and often stimulated – active discourse on difficult topics and monitored them to ensure that discourse remained civil. As Webmaster, he has built and maintained increasingly sophisticated websites for the class, eschewing the easier course of building a site under the aegis of Mother Dartmouth to create a site that is ours alone. He has also served as our class’s representative to Alumni Council and another term on Alumni Council representing the association of class webmasters, and occasionally, and more regularly during the pandemic, he has served as our volunteer medical advisor. As one of his nominators wrote, “Peter’s generous sharing of his medical expertise has been invaluable to my wife and me in trying to sort through the constantly changing Covid 19 landscape…” Peter, I am delighted to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
3rd Round, awarded at ComingHome in October 2023:
Our first awardee is Dudley Kay; Dud, would you please join me at the podium. Dud is a former class president, current vice president, and he served on the committee that originally created this award and chose the inaugural recipients. When not serving in an official capacity, he has always been there to help wherever help was needed. Importantly, he served as co-editor with David Prentice on our monumental 50th Reunion Book, both the original hard copy version and the version 2 pdf with hundreds of additional pages. Just having read all that material to edit the work, Dud almost certainly knows more about the Class of ’69 as a whole than any other living person. Dud, I am delighted to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our second awardee tonight is Paul Tuhus. Paul, would you please join me at the podium. As we all know, Paul played a critical role in conceiving the renovation of the DOC House as our 50th Reunion project, served on the fundraising committee for the project, and shepherded the project to its glorious completion. (He was separately recognized for this with a plaque in the DOC House, but I mention it here to place his other sustained service in context). Prior to his service on the DOC House project, Paul was a longtime class treasurer and co-chair (with Rick Willets) of a string of Homecomings and Reunions that spanned decades. Outside of class duties, he has also been, for those who asked, a font of travel information, especially for travel off the beaten path. Paul, I am delighted to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
4th Round, awarded at our 55th Reunion, June 2024:
Our first awardee is Dona Heller; Dona, would you please join me at the podium. While Dona shared classes with many of us during our undergraduate years, she was officially adopted into the class only about fifteen years ago, but what a difference she has made as an official classmate. Partnering with Norman Jacobs, who received this award a couple of years ago, Dona co-chaired a series of Homecomings, our joint 75th Birthday Party, and this Reunion. She helped conceive and execute the most comprehensive Class Connections program that any Dartmouth class has put on, beginning with welcoming the 2019’s at the College Grant during their freshman trips, giving them 1969/2019 mugs at matriculation, organizing trivia nights, inviting them to our tailgating tent at Homecomings, and finally celebrating their graduation at our 50th Reunion. And she did all of this traveling frequently between her home in California and Hanover. We are all grateful to Dona for partnering with Norman in organizing our in-person celebrations and in doing so, successfully dealing with a challenging College administrative system to make the on-campus arrangements for so many successful events. Dona, I am delighted to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our second awardee tonight is Arthur Fergenson. In the Baker Tower Room during Homecoming 2015, Arthur reprised his role as John Slow Diction and matriculated all classmates present into the four-year runup to our 50th Reunion. He organized a very successful in-person mini-reunion in Hudson Valley for which he was “rewarded” by being appointed Mini-Reunion Chair. When the pandemic prevented us from having in-person mini-reunions, Arthur created virtual mini-reunions in the forms of Casual Conversations, play readings, and movie nights that have drawn more than 200 classmates, many of them to multiple sessions. Arthur has not stopped with organizing and moderating these programs, but he has also done substantial homework to prepare for them, reading the books and articles of Casual Conversation presenters and leading the discussions with thoughtful and sometimes entertaining questions, not to mention “calling on” participants to engage them and elicit their comments. As one of his several nominators wrote, “It took the pandemic lemon to give the Class of 1969 an identity and a meaningful role in my life, and Arthur has been the primary contributor to creating the lemonade.” Arthur, I am delighted to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
5th Round, awarded at ComingHome in October 2024:
Our first awardee today is Dick Glovsky. Dick, would you please join Rick and me at the podium? Dick has served the class in many roles including Class President, Alumni Councilor (twice), Class Secretary, Head Agent, Chair of the committee that crafted this Outstanding Service Award and of the resulting Award Committee, and he currently serves as Vice President. In addition to those many formal roles, Dick has been the go-to person for many ad hoc roles for the Class, such as serving as a one-man phone bank for any of our class projects and reunions. Dick, it gives me great pleasure to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our next awardee is John Myers. Though not here with us physically, John is always with us in spirit. Fundraising is a tough job. I know this from my experience in academia. John is a fundraiser extraordinaire. He has been our DCF Head Agent or co-Head Agent since our 40th Reunion in 2009, and he has also served as Planned Giving Chair for much of that time. One classmate wrote that he nominated John “for browbeating me to make my contributions, but in a gentlemanly, often humorous way. He kept the $$ rolling.” Because you are on-screen, I need Mary to help present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award, and it gives me great pleasure to do so.
Our third awardee is Allen Denison. Allen could not join us in-person for this ComingHome weekend, but he has dragged himself out of bed, perhaps with a little help from Martha, for this Class Meeting that began at 6:30 AM Pacific Time. Allen has been our Newsletter Editor for more than two decades, since our 35th Reunion in 2004. Allen’s creative and engaging newsletters have been the glue that has bonded us as a class for these two decades, keeping classmates who are not on the discussion listserv current with class news, and contributing to our strong participation in our last three reunions. With Martha’s assistance, I am pleased to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our final awardee is Jim Staros. Not long after our 50th Reunion and the quiet transition to new leadership, COVID drove the entire country into. Jim Staros initiated, coordinated, and supported numerous virtual Class connections and engagements, effectively broadening classmate participation and interaction. Those included:
- Monthly virtual Zoom meetings of the Executive Committee.
- A virtual monthly Social Hour, open to all classmates
- Supporting Arthur Fergenson’s “Mini Reunion” leadership role managing Casual Conversations.
- Updating the Class Constitution to the 21st century.
- Establishing the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award
Additionally, Jim is superb at managing the small details, essential to herding the notoriously unherdable ‘69s, as well as interacting with the College.
What better recognition of Jim’s leadership and vision could there be than a second term by unanimous acclimation? The Class Outstanding Service Award is just the correct and proper, very well-deserved and overdue recognition of, and appreciation for, Jim’s cohesive leadership from his grateful Classmates.
6th Round, awarded at ComingHome in October 2025:
Our first awardee is John Mathias: John has served as Alumni Council representative of the Class and as Class President. During his service as Class President, John, with much creative input from his wife Julie, led the transformation of Paul Tuhus’ idea of renovating the DOC House into a concrete project that was and is a great success. John led us to a fabulously successful 50th reunion, he encouraged, supported, and contributed much to the 50th Reunion Book, and he continues to serve as Immediate Past President and member of the Executive Committee and to engage in class events. John, it is a great pleasure to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our second awardee is Steve Larson: For fifteen years from our 35th to our 50th Reunion, Steve served as Class Secretary. That’s 90 columns in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine over the course of three class presidencies, not to mention many obituaries and minutes of innumerable meetings. This extended service over a decade and a half was a crucial support of class cohesion during a period that carried most of us from the hearts of our careers to retirement or the threshold thereof. He culminated his long tenure as Class Secretary by contributing research, proofreading, and copy editing for our 50th Reunion Book, and he continues to serve as an active member of the Executive Committee. Steve, it is a great pleasure to present you – with Jo’s assistance – the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our third awardee is Dr. John “Tex” Talmadge: Tex has contributed lengthy service to the class over many years. He was an early Class President and since our 50th Reunion six years ago has served as our Class Secretary, producing the bimonthly columns for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, and through his meticulous minutes of Executive Committee and Class Meetings, creating a detailed archive of Class Business. On top of all that, he Co-Chairs with Peter Schaeffer weekly 12-step meetings on Zoom, is an active contributor to the Class Compassion Network, is an important contributor to Arthur’s Casual Conversations and has made himself available as a counselor for a number of individual classmates. Speaking personally, Tex’s willingness to continue as Class Secretary beyond our 55th Reunion was an important consideration in my willingness to stand for a second term as Class President. Tex, it is a great pleasure to present you with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
7th Round, awarded at ComingHome in October 2026:
Our first awardee is Dimitri Gerakaris. One the three “Founding Fathers” of the Class of 1969 Philanthropic Special Projects, Dimitri chaired the Special Projects Committee from 2009, when it identified the clean water initiative in Haiti for our first student organization grant, he continued to lead the search for worthy student organizations for our consideration for the next decade, and he still serves as a member of the Special Projects Committee. He has served as our local “boots on the ground” in other ways, as well, including sending out the alarm during the infamous disappearing furniture episode here at the DOC House shortly after we had completed the renovation. And, of course, we must not forget that Dimitri has held the prestigious Class officer position of Class Blacksmith without challenge for decades. Dimitri has also made many important contributions to Dartmouth beyond his class service, including his metal sculptures on campus, his Dartmouth ski patrol service, his Beta fraternity revival, and his award-winning presidency of the Dartmouth Club of the Upper Valley. It gives me great pleasure to present Dimitri with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our second awardee is P. Andrews McLane. Andy has served as a class vice president continuously since our 40th Reunion, but it is his role within the Holy Trinity of The Dartmouth Outing Club House renovation project that drew most of the ink in his nomination for this award. For the DOC House project to succeed, the original idea and vision of Paul Tuhus and leadership and coordination of John Mathias required a 3rd essential component: Selling the idea to the College administration and leading fundraising of approximately $3 million, primarily, but not exclusively from Class of 1969 donors. Andy took on these challenges and surpassed expectations on both, convincing President Hanlon not just to accept but to embrace our project as part of the ongoing capital campaign and raising funds to not only renovate, expand, and modernize the building but to furnish and decorate it, too. Andy’s personal contributions to the College are legendary, but it is his service selling the concept of and leading the fundraising for the DOC House renovation project, what the College development office has described as the greatest ever 50th Reunion gift to the College, that drives this “Outstanding Service” recognition. It gives me great pleasure to present Andy with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.
Our third awardee is Peter L. Schaeffer. Lying outside of the usual criteria of “Class Service,” we recognize other qualifying factors, summed up well by one nominator:
Peter has been a consistent presence and contributor to the Class for as long as I can remember. He can be counted on to not just be present, but to offer his well-considered, generally positive, and always unique perspective during our online gatherings. He does not let his major health challenges keep him from being physically present for Homecomings and Reunions. He has shared and demonstrated his philosophy and approach to living with us in too many ways to count, from Reunion panel members, through contributions to serious online discussions, through Executive Committee decision-making, to his wonderful, humorous asides in online threads. We would not be us without him.
His initiative invoking remembrances and incidents of our fathers in World War II brought responses from many Classmates, especially a welcome number who lie outside of the Class participation mainstream. And quietly, behind the scenes, he co-chairs with Tex Talmadge weekly 12-step meetings on Zoom, a continuing service to many classmates. Peter inspires all Classmates to live Life to the fullest, stay engaged, and push forward no matter what fate deals out. For all of these reasons, it gives me great pleasure to present Peter with the Class of 1969 Outstanding Service Award.