Congratulations

The Harvard Alumni Association awards were established in 1990 to recognize outstanding service to Harvard University through alumni activities. This year’s recipients were to be honored on October 27 during the HAA Board of Directors’ fall meeting in Cambridge. Some of their many contributions over the years are highlighted below.

Donald R. Beebe

Donald R. Beebe ’72, of Norwich, Connecticut, was cochair of the HAA clubs committee from 1999 to 2002 and served as regional director for the Connecticut Valley for six years. Also a director for the Harvard Club of Southern Connecticut, Beebe is area chairman of the schools and scholarship committee, and has been an alumni interviewer since 1986.

Charles L. Brock

Charles L. Brock, J.D. ’67, AMP ’79, of New York City, has served as president of both the HAA and the Harvard Law School Association. In addition, he founded and chairs the law school’s Summer Reception, now in its twenty-fifth year, and the Harvard Business School Club of New York City’s Harvard Community Partners, which provides pro bono consulting to nonprofit organizations. Brock has also received an award from the law school for mentoring women and minorities.

Ledger D. Free

Ledger D. Free ’48, of Menlo Park, California, has served as HAA regional director for Northern California, HAA appointed director, and as director and president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco. He is currently a reunion-gift and non-reunion class-associates program chair for his class, and is on the reunion-gift steering committee. Since 1993, Free has also been a member of the visiting and development committees for the Davis Center for Russian Studies.

J. Louis Newell

J. Louis Newell ’57, of Dedham, Massachusetts, is president and chair of the Harvard Varsity Club, cochairs his class’s committee for the fiftieth reunion, and is vice chair of the HAA Happy Observance of Commencement Committee. In addition, Newell is a former vice president and director of the Harvard Club of Boston, and has been involved in the Harvard College Fund for 40 years, the last 20 as fund participation chair.

Betsey Bradley Urschel

Betsey Bradley Urschel, Ed.M. ’63, of Dallas, is a director and former vice president of the HAA. She is also a former president of the Harvard Club of Dallas and is a member of its schools and programs committees. In 1993, she chaired “Harvard Comes to Dallas,” a commemoration of the club’s eightieth anniversary. She is on both the Women’s Leadership Board and the Women and Public Policy Program Advisory Board at the Kennedy School.

Joanne Woods

Joanne Woods, of Ashland, Massachusetts, began working for the University her first year out of college and retired from the HAA 43 years later. Her career included a decade as a staff assistant to William Bentinck-Smith, President Nathan Pusey’s longtime assistant, and work at the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development. From 1984 to 2002 she was the assistant director for HAA board services and served as staff liaison for the HAA executive committee and the Happy Observance of Commencement Committee.