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Hilltop and Community Service Award Recipients NamedKenneth M. Nelson and Maine state senator Mary E. Small â76 have been named the 2002 recipients of the Alumni Associationâs top honors. Nelson is the recipient the University of Southern Maine Hilltop Award, which recognizes those who have shown outstanding loyalty and commitment to the University by giving of their time and energy to work for the betterment of the institution. Small is the recipient of the University of Southern Maine Community Service Award, which recognizes those who have brought honor to USM through distinguished service. Nelson, president and CEO of Nelson and Small, Inc., has been an advocate for USM and the University of Maine System for many years. He is currently the president of the USM Foundation Board of Directors and a member of the USM Board of Visitors. ãKenny Nelson was one of the first business and community leaders to realize that USMâs quality is critical to the regionâs economic and cultural well-being,ä said USM President Richard L. Pattenaude. ãHis tireless advocacy has led to public recognition of USM as an invaluable Maine resource worthy of significant public and private support.ä Nelson has demonstrated his own passion for USM and the System through countless hours dedicated to various efforts. He was a leader of efforts to establish USMâs electrical engineering program. His company established the Nelson and Small Prize in Electrical Engineering, a grant to USM to provide faculty stipends for special efforts in electrical engineering, and he helped establish the Maine Foundation for Technology Education. Since 1987 the Foundation has raised $1.5 million to support technology education in the University of Maine System. Nelson and his wife, Mary, co-chaired the Osher Map Library capital campaign, helping to raise $1.5 million for the new map library. Mary Small â76, the recipient of the USM Community Service Award, is another long-time supporter of USM, as well as a long-time advocate of higher education. ãMaryâs 23-year tenure in the Legislature affirms the well-deserved respect and genuine affection of her constituents,ä said President Pattenaude. ãAll of us owe her a debt of gratitude for her leadership and the significant personal commitment she has made to improving the quality of education for all Maine people.ä Small is the longest serving legislator in the state. She served eight terms in the Maine House as a District 75 representative in Bath before being elected to the state Senate in 1994, where she now serves as Senate Floor leader. She has served as a senior member of the Joint Standing Committee on Education, a committee she has served on for two decades. She also has served through the years on numerous boards and groups focusing on educational issues ranging from student aspirations and teacher training to school funding. She is a former member of the Governorâs Commission for Excellence in Education. USM Plans 125th Anniversary CelebrationThe University has a rich history that spans 125 years from the founding of Gorham Normal School to the present. Are you a graduate of USM or one of its predecessor institutions? If so, you are an important part of the institutionâs history and we would like to hear from you. Send us your memories, your successes, your stories, your memorabilia. Weâll be planning special events and activities to celebrate and would like to compile information from all our schools. If you have a story to share, an artifact to donate, or maybe would like to serve on a committee to help coordinate the celebration, contact the Alumni Office at (207) 780-4110 or e-mail: alum@usm.maine.edu. Chapter NewsCEHD Launches Alumni ChapterIf you are a graduate of USMâs College of Education and Human Development itâs time to get reacquainted! The college this spring launched an alumni chapter within the USM Alumni Association. Some of the benefits of joining the alumni chapter include: receipt of a newsletter, InTouch, which comes out twice a year; access to a CEHD alumni Web page at: www.usm.maine.edu/cehd/alumni, where you can update your contact information or send in your news; the chance to participate in special events including lectures from visiting scholars, an academic symposium, and recognition ceremony; and opportunities to make a difference by volunteering at events and helping identify projects important to you. If you would like to receive InTouch, participate in an event, or volunteer to help shape this new chapter, call (207) 780-5902 or e-mail: cehdalumni@usm.maine.edu. Florida Chapter Reunion RecapThe USM Florida Chapter met in Lakeland in mid-February for its annual business and luncheon meeting. President Don Richards â61 introduced the special guests from USM÷President Richard Pattenaude, Vice President for University Advancement Elizabeth Shorr â74, and Alumni Director Betty Huntley â97, all of whom addressed the 40 alumni and guests. Ted Johnson â64 was elected vice president of the Florida Chapter, Irma Richards â61, treasurer; Priscilla Hickey â61, secretary; and Don Richards â61 will continue as president. The chapter will continue to offer an annual scholarship of $600. The chapter also completed their pledge of $400 to the Alumni Reception Room on the USM Gorham campus. Don Richards acknowledged the former faculty who were in attendance. They were Director Emeritus of Intercollegiate Athletics Richard Costello, Professor Emerita of Education Melissa Costello â52, and Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Maurice Whitten. ÷Priscilla Hickey Fraternity Alumni ChapterThe Sigma Nu Fraternity alumni chapter was voted in as an official chapter of the USM Alumni Association at the March meeting of the Alumni Association board of directors. Michael Pridham â98 is the president of the alumni chapter. For more information, call 780-4666 or e-mail: iotanu@hotmail.com. Online Community ProposedThe Alumni Relations Office is researching the possibility of providing a password-protected online community for alumni that would offer services such as an online directory, e-mail forwarding, message boards and chat rooms, among other features. One of the most popular components of the online community would be the permanent University e-mail address, which would forward e-mail messages to any existing e-mail account. Alumni will be able to maintain contact with each other throughout the years while eliminating the time and effort of trying to keep up with changing e-mail addresses as your friends and classmates move, change jobs, or change service providers. Only alumni who register for access and receive a unique security code identifier from USM would have access to the information. A prelude to the online community would be the printing of an Alumni Directory, the first alumni director in nearly a decade. We hope to have printed directories in time to celebrate the institutionâs 125th anniversary in 2003. Alumni will be contacted by the publisher to get up-to-date information for the directory and given the opportunity to opt out should they choose. If you have any questions or comments about the directory or the online community, contact the Alumni Office. Alumni Records Policy ChangesAlumni names and address are no longer confidential unless an alum specifically requests in writing that their directory information be held in confidence due to a change in the USM Confidentiality of Students Records Policy. Enrolled students who are also alumni will fall under the Students Records Policy, which prohibits the release of student information, including name and address, unless students give permission in writing to maintain their alumni status for mailing purposes. Contact the Alumni Office for more information. Grads in the NewsA 1982 graduate of USM has established a new scholarship to recognize sorority members for their academic achievements and community service work. Audrey Reed Jankucic donated funds to establish the Phi Mu Leadership Award. The scholarship, in the amount of at least $600, will be presented annually to a member of the Phi Mu sorority who has made exceptional contributions to USM Greek life, community service, and who maintains a minimum grade point average of 2.5. The first Phi Mu Leadership Award will be presented in the 2002-03 academic year. Jankucic, a native of Gorham and a 1978 graduate of Gorham High School, also earned a masterâs degree in education at the University of New Hampshire and attended Princeton Theological Seminary. She and her husband, Nick, live in Bound Brook, N.J. Mary Finnegan â72 was featured in the Maine Sunday Telegram at the end of Womenâs History Month as a woman pioneer in the area business community. She started her own highly successful managerial consulting business in the mid-1980s, helped found a womenâs business group before service clubs such as Rotary would let women in, and was named Women Business Owner of the Year in 1993 by the Womenâs Business Development Corporation. Due to health problems, Finnegan has since sold her business to an associate. She maintains three or four clients and continues to serve as a director on a couple of local boards. William Duffy (aka Dufris), who attended USM as a theatre major in the late 70s into the mid-80s, is the voice of the nationally syndicated childrenâs television show, ãBob the Builder,ä which airs on Nickelodeon Jr. Twice a year he flies to London to tape each series, which consists of 13 episodes. He does other work for Bob the Builder toys and games from his studio in his Cumberland Center home. Duffy got his big break while in London, where he lived for 13 years and worked as an actor on stage, television, and the BBC radio. He worked with an animation company, Cosgrove Hall, that produced a show, ãRocky and the Dodos,ä in which Duffy did the voice of Elvis, a flatulent penguin. The producers later started their own company, Hot Animation, and produced a pilot for a new show called, ãBob the Builder.ä Duffy did the voice of Bob the Builder in the pilot and was later chosen as the voice of the character when Nickelodeon Jr. picked up the show. In addition to being the voice of Bob the Builder, Duffy is the director of the 3D Radio Theatre. The radio theatre's first production, ãNightmares on Congress Street,ä played to live audiences in October, and aired on Maine Public Radio. His latest production, ãThe Shoot,ä a fictional story about a town in Maine dealing with a growing deer population, aired on MPR in early April. The play was written by USMâs William Steele, an associate professor of theatre.
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