Harvard Alumni Honored for Outstanding Service

Top row (from left): Stephen Baird, Mary McGrath Carty, and Sylvia Chase Gerson. Second row (from left): Carl  Martignetti, Peter Weldon, and George Yeadon

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) Awards, which recognize outstanding service to the University through alumni activities, were to be conferred on six winners during the HAA board of directors’ meeting in October.

Stephen W. Baird ’74, of Chicago, is director and vice president of the Harvard Club of Chicago, and last year received the College admissions office’s Hiram S. Hunn Memorial Award for schools and scholarships work. He has also been an HAA elected director and regional director for the Western Great Lakes.

Mary McGrath Carty ’74, of Belmont, Massachusetts, is president of the Alumnae and Friends of Radcliffe College Shared Interest Group (SIG), and was executive director of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (RCAA) from 1993 to 2000. During her tenure, the RCAA and the HAA strengthened their partnership, and in 2006 she became an HAA elected director. Since 1979, she has served on her class-reunion planning committee.

Sylvia Chase Gerson, Ph.D. ’75, of Fort Meyers, Florida, has interviewed College applicants since 1978 and chaired the local schools and scholarships committee for three decades; she received the Hunn Memorial Award in 2006. She has also been active in Florida clubs, as president of the Harvard Club of Lee County and a board member of the Harvard Club of Naples. A former HAA elected director and a regional director for Western Florida, she now sits on the HAA’s clubs and SIGs committee.

Carl J. Martignetti ’81, M.B.A. ’85, of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, has played many roles at Harvard, and was most recently named co-chair of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’s capital campaign. Also a member of the University Campaign Executive Committee, he is a former co-chair of the Harvard College Fund (he still sits on its executive committee), and has served on the Committee on University Resources since the mid 1990s. He has also helped lead and organize both his College and Business School class-reunion gifts for many years.

Peter D. Weldon ’59, of Bangkok, joined the Harvard Club of the Philippines in 1961 and has since been a member of the clubs in Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Thailand. His work led to innovations in communication and outreach, especially in Hong Kong. As HAA director of clubs and SIGs of Asia, he has visited each club and mentored their leaders. He is also a 2007 recipient of the HAA Clubs and SIGs Committee Award.

George H. Yeadon III ’75, of Pittsford, New York, has been an alumni interviewer and active in Harvard clubs since graduation. He is a former vice president and president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Rochester, and is the current secretary. He has also been HAA director of clubs and SIGs since 2011, and has been closely involved with the Association of African American Harvard Alumni (AAAHA) since its formation and merger with the Harvard Black Alumni Society (HBAS). An organizer and participant in the 2003, 2006, and 2009 Black Alumni Weekend events, Yeadon also rallied minority members of his class to return for their twenty-fifth reunion.

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