Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
George B. Walter '36 Service to Society Award
Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp M-D'18 Outstanding Service to Lawrence Award
Mary C. Dinauer '75
Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
Widely acclaimed as one of the nation's most successful researchers in pediatric
hematology/oncology, Dr. Mary C. Dinauer is a leading authority on the molecular biology
of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), a rare, often devastating, and sometimes fatal
disease of children. Currently Nora Letzer Professor of Pediatrics and Medical and
Molecular Genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, she has been described
by a colleague as "a stellar clinician...superb teacher...excellent lecturer, and a perfect
role model for clinicians and researchers."
Graduated from Lawrence in 1975 summa cum laude, Dr. Dinauer went on to earn the Ph.D. in biochemistry and the M.D. degree with honors from the University of Chicago and did her internship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco, where in 1984-85 she was chief resident in pediatrics. She also held a three-year fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at Children's Hospital in Boston
Her first academic appointment came in 1988 as an instructor at Harvard Medical School and senior assistant in medicine (hematology/oncology) at Children's Hospital. She was promoted to assistant professor at Harvard in 1990.
Joining the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1991 as associate professor of pediatrics, she has risen through the academic ranks, adding an appointment as associate professor of medical and molecular genetics in 1992 and being promoted to full professor in 1997. Appointment to the Letzer chair came in 1998.
Paralleling those academic positions were hospital appointments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Children's Hospital, and the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University.
Profound and prolific contributor to the journals of her speciality and profession, Dr. Dinauer has been an invited participant in the American Society of Hematology's "Meet the Investigator" Forum and has spoken at the prestigious Gordon Research Conferences. She holds the Excellence in Pediatric Research Award of the American Academy of Pediatrics and was chosen as a Woman of Distinction by Soroptomist International.
H. Michael Hartoonian '60
Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
Michael Hartoonian has been called "Mr. Social Studies" and characterized as "a teacher's
teacher." Simply put, he is acknowledged to be one of the most influential social studies
educators in the United States. As supervisor of social studies education in the Wisconsin
Department of Public Instruction, he wrote the Guide to Curriculum Planning in Social
Studies, which came to serve as a national model for elementary and secondary
schools.
Dr. Hartoonian has taught, lectured, and served as an education, business, and government consultant throughout the United States, Central America, Asia, and Europe. He has been a classroom teacher, university professor, state content supervisor, school administrator, and policy advisor, not to mention a Fulbright Scholar in Africa, a member of the National Humanities Faculty, president of the National Council for Social Studies, and author of over 50 articles in the most respected journals. His research interests and the topics of his books include social studies education, U.S. history, international relations, curriculum integration, teacher education, the development of thinking and reasoning in children, democratic capitalism, civic virtue, and citizenship.
Currently he is professor of education at the University of Minnesota, where the students find his courses to be "a unique combination of believable theory and attainable practice" -- a phrase that could be used to describe the whole of his long and distinguished career.
Graduated from Lawrence with a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics, he subsequently earned a master's degree in history and education and the doctorate in curriculum and instruction, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining the University of Minnesota faculty in 1997, he served as professor of education and liberal studies in the graduate school of Hamline University and as the director of graduate programs in democratic capitalism and active citizenship.
David Sackett '56
Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
Widely hailed as the originator of evidence-based medicine, Dr. David Sackett pioneered a
way of thinking about clinical practice that has evolved into an international movement. As
one of his colleagues has commented, "Some physicians discover a cure for a disease. Others
change the way that physicians think about the fundamentals of clinical practice. Dr.
Sackett is among the select few in the second category."
After graduating from Lawrence with honors, he earned B.Sc. and M.D. degrees from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health and a M.Sc. degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. In 1967 he joined the Faculty of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, where he founded the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and, by 1994, had risen through the academic ranks to become full professor and head of the Division of General Internal Medicine. In that year he moved to England to become professor of clinical epidemiology in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at Oxford University.
In addition to his contributions to clinical epidemiology, Dr. Sackett is esteemed as an educator, one who is credited with influencing the education of more clinical epidemiologists than any other individual, both directly in his own teaching and through the development and stimulation of clinical epidemiology programs around the world.
He also has been involved in major clinical trials; helped codify the evaluation of clinical evidence, which resulted in a classic textbook; and recently has been associated with a series of articles about the accuracy of differnet parts of the patient history and physical examination.
Henry Spille '54
Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award
As long-time vice-president of the American Council on Education and director of its Center
for Adult Learning and Educational Credentials, Henry Spille's name is closely identified
with the General Education Diploma (GED) program, especially for his untiring efforts to
standardize the GED test and the awarding of diplomas and degrees in all states and in the
military. For the latter effort he received the Tilton Davis, Jr., Military Educator of the
Year Award and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
He also has been honored with the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education's President's Award for Exceptional and Innovative Leadership and with selection as a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in the United Kingdom.
A native of Jacksonport, Wisconsin, after graduating from Lawrence he earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then served for eight years in the Sturgeon Bay High School as English teacher, coach, and counselor. He joined the UW Fox Valley Center in 1966 as director of student services and moved to UW-Green Bay three years later as assistant dean of the colleges and director of the Academic Assistance Program. He joined the ACE staff in 1974.
A frequent speaker at commencements, national and regional education conferences, and state and federal legislative hearings, he also is co-author of Diploma Mills: Degrees of Fraud(1988) and External Degrees in the Information Age: Legitimate Choices (1997).
A. Jack Hafner '50
George B. Walter '36 Service to Society Award
At age 55, Jack Hafner left an established career as a clinical psychologist and university
professor to serve as director of a mental health clinic in the Chippewa Health Center at
Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin
Under his direction, the renamed Family Resource Center added programs and staff, moving into such areas as educational services and training, crisis intervention, diagnosis and screening services, counseling, aftercare, consultation, and primary prevention. During a seven-year tenure at Lac du Flambeau, Dr. Hafner developed programs for people of all ages and wrote grant proposals eventually totaling some $4 million. He was principal author of the Family Circles Program that received a major five-year grant from the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, and his support was crucial to the development of the Nii-Jii Alternative Recreation Center, an adult drop-in program providing sober activities, including an annual sobriety pow-wow that continues to this day.
Beyond the care and leadership he provided, Jack is remembered for his commitment to the hiring of Native Americans and his firm belief in the importance of incorporating native culture within the programs of the Family Resource Center. Over time, the staff increased from five people to 35, of whom 32 were Native Americans. He mentored high school students, supervised field placements for college students, and encouraged his staff to pursue higher education, to the extent that one is the current director of the FRC and another is a faculty member in the University of Wisconsin system.
Cum laude graduate of Lawrence University in psychology, he received master's and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology at Indiana University. In addition to a distinguished career on the faculty of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, he was a consultant to at least 30 mental health anc alcohol and drug abuse programs; published widely; served on more than 25 boards and committees; and earned the lasting respect of his colleagues and his college.
Jeanette Schmidt Hess M-D'60
George B. Walter '36 Service to Society Award
Jan Hess' contributions to her hometown of Dubuque, Iowa, and the roles she has played in
service to its people and its institutions are many and mighty.
As chairperson of the board of Mercy Health Center, she sparked the creation of the Special Initiative for the Poor and as management chairperson of the Dubuque Area Labor Management Council, helped reform the Tri-State Health Care Coalition. The People in Need Foundation owes its existence to her leadership as board member of Dubuque Area Christians United; as president of that same ecumenical group she led the reorganization of the Dubuque Community Food Pantry.
She also has chaired Project Concern, a community agency providing services that include a paratransit program for people with disabilities, a foster grandparent program, a newsletter for the elderly, a volunteer opportunity center, and a crisis line and referral program, and she has served as a trustee of the Association of Iowa Hospitals and Health Systems and and a member of the Substance Abuse Services Board.
In her "day job," she has been administrator and personnel director for the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors since 1974.
At Ryan House, a Dubuque County historical site, Jan and her husband, John, by dint of labor and plant materials from their own garden, helped turn a jungle back into a garden. Similarly, in 1996 she organized a volunteer landscaping effort for the county courthouse that led one observer to say, "The gray concrete of the courthouse has come alive with color."
She has been honored with the Historical Society's Volunteer of the Year Award, three Labor-Management Partnership Awards, a First Citizen Award from the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, and the YMCA-YWCA Youth in Government Program Award.
Andrea Stephenson Bletzinger '40
Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp M-D'18 Outstanding Service Award
A seasoned veteran in a wide range of volunteer roles, Andrea Stephenson Bletzinger has
faithfully and effectively served her alma mater over the past 60 years. After
graduating from Lawrence cum laude with a major in English, her writing talents
were utilized as she pursued a successful career in journalism, working at NBC radio and
later as a reporter for the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. Those writing skills were
also put to good use as a volunteer for the college, in developing and editing a newsletter
for the local alumni club of the Fox Valley as the club's public relation's coordinator.
From 1988-91, Andrea expanded her volunteer service to the college as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, where she served on the nominations and awards committee, researching prospective candidates for -- among other things -- the award that she receives. Her talents for effective and persuasive communication were also utilized in her seven years of service as a member of Lawrence's Business and Industry Committee (now the Corporate Partnership Program), which canvassed area businesses for philanthropic support. Andrea also sought to promote philanthropy from the alumni constituency as a pioneer volunteer in the college's phonathon program.
At other times, as an admissions volunteer and career consultant, she relished the opportunities to interact with students, both prospective and current, and freely shared her experience, knowledge, and insights in the linkages between liberal education and the world of work.
The Class of 1940 celebrates its 60th-anniversary reunion, and Andrea has been a fixture of her class's many reunions through her enthusiastic work on numerous reunion steering committees. Her good and faithful service to the college is much appreciated, and through her past service on the nominations and awards committee, Andrea assuredly understands that this honor is not easily obtained nor lightly given.
Helen Buscher Franke, '60
Gertrude Breithaupt Jupp, M-D'18, Outstanding Service Award
On numerous occasions over the past 40 years, Lawrence has asked Helen Franke to take on a
wide array of volunteer assignments and projects. In each instance, she has been quick to
give an affirmative response. More importantly, no matter how daunting or time-consuming
the task, Helen has invariably gotten the job done with her characteristic efficiency,
enhusiasm, and style. The breadth and depth of her commitment to and involvement with the
college has set a standard for effective volunteerism at Lawrence, and her devotion to the
college earns her our respect, admiration, and gratitude.
Helen was the catalyst who developed and nurtured Lawrence's alumni club in Los Angeles, and all alumni continue to recognize her unparalled leadership as Lawrence's unofficial, but beloved, ambassador of alumni relations in southern California. Her dedication to bolstering alumni involvement with her alma mater blossomed in her seven years of service on the Lawrence University Alumni Association Board of Directors, and every reunion of the Class of 1960 has benefited from her exceptional work on steering and gift committees. This year's 40th reunion of her class is no exception, and Helen has doggedly encouraged her classmates to attend, and in tandem with a classmate and friend, issued a challenge for reunion giving that has cemented the success of the Class of 1960's gift.
A seasoned and passionate fund-raiser, Helen not only understands the relationship between alumni giving and the college's ability to conduct its mission of teaching and learning, she is a passionate and persistent advocate for philanthropy. She has consistently encouraged and cajoled her fellow alumni to bolster their support of the college through The Lawrencce Fund and The Founders Club, whether in or outside of a reunion year. Her conscientious work as class agent has resulted in stellar participation rates for the Class of 1960. Indeed, it is a rare individual who can resist her persuasive charms.
Helen's promotion of the institution extends to prospective students, and she has long served effectively as an admissions volunteer and provided career counseling and a listening ear to students and young alumni. She and her late husband, Karl, also a member of the Class of 1960, were an unbeatable Lawrence team and tireless cheerleaders for the college.