Williams College to Award Annual Bicentennial Medals
WILLIAMSTOWN - Williams College President Morton Owen Schapiro will present six of the college's Bicentennial Medals during the college’s annual Convocation ceremony Saturday, Sept. 6, at 11 a.m. in Chapin Hall. The event is free and open to the public.Established in 1993 on the occasion of the college's 200th anniversary, Bicentennial Medals honor members of the Williams community for distinguished achievement in any field of endeavor. The college awarded 23 Bicentennial Medals in 1993 and has added five to seven in each year since.
This year’s recipients are:
· Dean Cycon, founder of the fair trade coffee company Dean's Beans
· Dickinson R. Debevoise, senior judge for the U.S. District Court of New Jersey
· Mayda A. Del Valle, slam poetry writer and performer
· Michael J. Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
· Eugene C. Latham, president of the world's largest organization of orphanages
· Susan C. Schwab, U.S. trade representative.
Cycon
Fifteen years ago, Dean Cycon formed the company Dean's Beans as a model of how a commodity could be grown, processed, and sold in ways that are environmentally sensitive, economically fair, and return a profit. He buys organically grown beans from farmer cooperatives throughout the world and roasts them in the company's facility in Orange, Mass. Profits are shared with the farmers and company employees and are invested in community development projects in the farmer's regions. He also pressures coffee chains to increase the percentage of their offerings that have been produced in ways that are environmentally and socially responsible. The company has received Best Practices Recognition from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and a Sustainability Award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America. "He was for fair trade before fair trade was cool," said Bill Harris, president of Cooperative Coffees. A 1975 graduate of Williams, Cycon is the author of the book "Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee."
Debevoise
One of the nation's most highly respected jurists, Dick Debevoise joined the U.S. District Court for New Jersey in 1979 and attained senior status in 1994. He also serves with the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, which works to "turn thoughtful and sustained attention to some of the greatest public policy and legal challenges facing our cities in a manner that identifies the root causes of social ills and develops realistic and lasting solutions." He has served as president of the Newark Legal Services Project and chairman of the New Jersey Legal Services Advisory Council. The award that recognizes outstanding pro bono work by New Jersey lawyers is named in his honor. While in private practice in the 1960s, he volunteered with the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee, representing Civil Rights workers, including those involved with the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. A member of the Williams Class of 1946, he earned his law degree at Columbia University in 1951.
Del Valle
Mayda Del Valle turned an independent study on spoken word and performance during her final semester at Williams in 2000 into a career as one of the country's most renowned slam poets. Self-performances of her poetry on issues of identity and culture at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City resulted in competition successes that led in 2001 to her becoming the youngest person and first Latina to win the National Slam Poetry title. She subsequently appeared in four seasons of the HBO series "Def Comedy Jam" and the Tony-winning production of "Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway," including its national tour. She also traveled the country with the "Declare Yourself Spoken Word" tour. Her one-woman performance at New York City's Downtown Urban Theater Festival won an Audience Favorite Award. The New York Times described "Def Poetry Jam on Broadway" as "the sound of youth expressing itself, at its most intense and anxious and self-conscious and self-delighted." Del Valle will give the main Convocation Address, titled "Life is Usually Untitled."
Govan
An art major in the Williams Class of 1985, Michael Govan was drawn immediately into museum administration by Tom Krens, then director of the Williams College Museum of Art, with whom he worked on the conception of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. When Krens then became director of the Guggenheim Museum, Govan soon joined him as deputy director. He later headed the Dia Foundation, which supports artists in a variety of mediums. While there he led the conversion of a former Nabisco factory into the mammoth and acclaimed museum of contemporary art known as Dia:Beacon. Since becoming director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2006, he has overseen construction of a new entrance plaza and the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and has introduced more vibrancy to LACMA's exhibitions. He has been described by Getty Trust President James Wood as "one of the most dynamic professionals in the art world today."
Latham
After graduating from Williams in 1955 and serving as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, Gene Latham moved to Mexico on business, fell in love with the country, and stayed. For more than 40 years he has presided over the growth of "Our Little Brothers and Sisters," a charitable organization that serves orphaned and abandoned children in Latin America and the Caribbean. Sometimes called the largest family in the world, the group provides shelter, food, clothing, healthcare, and education in an environment of unconditional love, security, sharing, work, and responsibility. Children are not offered for adoption. More than 4,000 are currently being served; more than 15,000 have graduated to college or work. Many of the group's own workers are former members, thereby extending care between generations. In recent years it has expanded operations to provide funding for a children's hospital in Haiti, where 90 percent of the patients suffer from malnutrition or AIDS; a home and hospice for older people in Honduras; and a series of clinics in several countries for crippled and brain-damaged children who have been abandoned by their parents.
Schwab
Susan Schwab was appointed in 2006 to the Cabinet-level position of U.S. trade representative, serving as the presidents' principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues. She earlier served as deputy U.S. trade representative, overseeing trade relations with Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East, and the Americas. Before that she served as president of the University System of Maryland Foundation and earlier as dean of the university's School of Public Policy. Her previous government service included work as assistant secretary of commerce and director general of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, as legislative director for Senator John Danforth, as trade policy officer in the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and as an agricultural trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. After graduating from Williams in 1976, she earned a master's in development policy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in public administration and international business from The George Washington University.
