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Milne
Alumni April Newsletter Dear Milne Alumni and Supporters, In this issue: * Digitization Project Update * Good News from Anita Harris, '66, and Frank Ward, '56 * Sad News DIGITIZATION PROJECT UPDATE Let's keep this simple: Our new total, thanks to a second donation from Elaine Wieczorek, '72, is $15,265! Click here for links to the first group of Milne documents to be digitized, the donation form, and an updated list of donations. We need under $10,000 more, so if you haven't yet donated or wish to make an additional contribution, please consider doing so now. GOOD NEWS! Anita Harris, '66, is celebrating the publication of Ithaca Diaries, her memoir/social history of college at Cornell University in the 1960s. The book picks up in the Fall of '66, just after Anita graduated from Milne. It tells the story of a smart, sassy, funny, scared, sophisticated yet naïve college student who can laugh at herself while she and the world around her are having a nervous breakdown. Based on her journals, letters, interviews and on other accounts of the day, Ithaca Diaries portrays the everyday travails of growing up amidst protests, politics, and violence that increasingly engulf the young Harris, her campus, and her nation. Intensely serious yet also often laugh-out-loud funny, Ithaca Diaries provides meaningful insight into personal and social issues with which we, as individuals and as a society, continue to grapple today. It mentions a number of Anita's Milne friends and classmates, including Karyl (Kermani) Bisson, Paul Schrodt, Ira Certner, and Marc Kessler, among others. Ithaca Diaries was profiled in Cornell's Ezra Update. It's available in paperback and ebook formats on Amazon and Kindle, and you can find more information at http://ithacadiaries.com. Frank Ward, a member of the Milne Class of '56, was notified in January that he has been awarded the Diversity and Inclusion Champion Award by Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Carolyn Colvin. The award was first made in 2013 to three persons out of the over 65,000 Social Security workforce and is to be presented in February to as many as four others. In the notification of the award, the Acting Commissioner stated "…It is my pleasure to inform you of your selection to receive our agency’s Diversity and Inclusion Award. You earned this prestigious award because of your commitment to enhancing our workforce diversity and sustaining an inclusive work environment that values individual differences. You are a role model for all of us." Frank considers this a lifetime achievement award. When asked what he has done in his life that resulted in his nomination, he provided some information. After graduating from Milne, Frank graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Industrial Management (1960) and from the College of Law, University of Illinois, with a Juris Doctor degree (1963). After serving in the N.Y. National Guard, he accepted a position with a bank in Galesburg, IL, where he became Vice President and Trust Officer in charge of the trust department. He left the bank after ten years, became a member of the bank board of directors, and opened a solo law practice. Due to economic downturns in Galesburg, he left that community in 1993 and moved back to Albany, where he lived with his aged sister and sought work. From 1993 to 1995, he served as an advisor of the chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, the national service fraternity, at UAlbany. In 1995, he became an employee of the Social Security Administration in the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, where he continues to serve in a quasi-judicial position as a Senior Attorney, paying cases and writing decisions for Administrative Law Judges. He has no plans to retire. Along the way, Frank helped found two legal aid societies in Illinois, a gay and lesbian bar association in Maryland, a historical society in Galesburg, and served as a board member of the Illinois State Historical Society. He helped found a genealogical society, became a lecturer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation on community organization, and was active in numerous organizations including Central Congregational Church, the United Way, the Red Cross, American Cancer Society, and most notably, the Boy Scouts. Frank served on the Executive Board of Prairie Council, B.S.A., was a Scoutmaster of a jamboree troop, and advisor to the Order of the Arrow. He has devoted his life to serving others and has received many awards, including the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, the Silver Beaver, the SAR Silver Citizenship Award, and the Thomas B. Herring Community Service Award presented by the Chamber of Commerce in Galesburg, IL. Frank married and had two children, Laura Douglas and David Andrew Ward. He divorced in Illinois and married James Anthony Ward of Syracuse, NY, in Provincetown, MA, a few weeks after gay marriage was legalized in that state. He and Jim have been active in the marriage equality movement for years and have lived together since November of 1995. In recent years, Frank has served on the SSA Diversity and Inclusion Council as designated representative of his union, chapter 224, NTEU. In that position he has served since 2013 and still serves on its Training Subcommittee and is co-lead of its Employee Engagement Subcommittee. He has taken the lead in developing programs within the Social Security Administration designed to help people understand the importance and value of diversity and the worth of inclusion instead of exclusion in enhancing workforce productivity and bettering workplace atmospheres. SSA has advisory councils that represent special interest communities in the workforce and Frank has held many positions in several of them. He was a founder of and became the first and present Chair of the ODAR LGBT advisory council, served as Chair of the SSA NLGBT AC national leadership committee, and recently was elected Chair of the ODAR American Indian and Native Alaskan Advisory Council. Frank gives credit to his parents for his approach toward others and the problems caused by prejudice. They set an example of community service. He also cites the example of Tracey Boyer, his youth pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Albany, who marched in several of the civil rights marches in the south when he was a youth, and of his teachers in college, all of whom helped him see prejudice and taught him to fight it. He also notes guidance from his teachers at Milne, thanking them for leadership in the 1950s, when such leadership was scarce. Congratulations, Frank! SAD NEWS Please note that I rely upon the Albany Times Union and input from other alumni for this information, so if you become aware of someone who has passed away, please let me know. If a name is underlined, it represents a link to the obituary. Many obituaries are available free for a limited time only. Janet PAXTON Cummings, '46, passed away on October 21, 2014. She was the sister of Laura Lee PAXTON Nixon, '49. Robert L. Collins, M.D., husband of Elli SCHMIDT Collins, '69, and brother-in-law of Klara SCHMIDT Weis, '59, and Peg SCHMIDT, '71, passed away on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. Kenneth Abele, father of Warren Abele, '60, and Rod Abele, '61, and husband of the late Thelma MILLER Abele, '34, passed away on March 19, 2015. Katherine Cohen, wife of James Allan COHEN, '57, passed away on Monday, March 23, 2015. Thanks to all of you for your interest in Milne Alumni activities. Judy (Koblintz) Madnick, '61 For contact information, see the Milne Alumni homepage: www.albany.edu/~milne/ |