The Young Alumni Distinguished Service Awards

In 1990 the Alumni Council inaugurated an award to recognize young alumni who have packed their short careers full of exemplary achievement and service to College and community. In May the Council honored the three alumnas whose citations are adapted below.

Patricia Elizabeth Berry '81

Ohe once worked for Mickey Mouse O Magazine, but there's nothing Mickey Mouse about her career—before, during, or after Dartmouth. She's been a stand-out since she could stand up. In he short eleven years since graduation, she has all but orbited in the writing and publishing world, from good old Mickey to her present position as assistant managing editor of Sports Illustrated for Kids Magazine. (Along the way were important stints at a couple of other kids' magazines and a children's TV workshop.) It should be noted, too, that Pat brought this children's business pretty close to home on February Mitch Heisler, produced their own first child, Margaret Victoria.

Pat says that she is where she is today because of Dartmouth. In truth, there's fair evidence of that. She came from a Dartmouth family (father Bob Berry '54, two uncles, and two cousins), and she still speaks glowingly of the many Hanover professors whose teaching became her verbal plowshares: Don Pease, Bill Cook, lom Vargish, Greg Prince, etc. She worked on The Dartmouth, held an internship at the Alumni Magazine, and was appointed as an alumna to the Magazine's editorial board.

But Pat has more than repaid Dartmouth for the experience. She has served her class on its executive committee, on reunion and mini-reunion committees, and as chair of both her fifth and tenth reunions. She has been a class agent, is currendy class president, and served on the Alumni Council from 1986 to 1989.

Youth will be served? Youth can also be the server, and few can match what Pat Berry has done for Dartmouth. She is the epitome Cloud Nine of what this place is all about. And we'll go one better: we're on Cloud Ten in presenting her this Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award given with admiration, gratitude, and pleasure.

Nancy Kepej Jeton '76

Tancy wasted no time getting involved in College affairs. She was a dormitory chairman and inter-dormitory council vice president, a member of the College Committee on Standing and Conduct, a member of a sorority and the marching band, and an under-graduate representative on the Alumni Council. She graduated magna cum laude, with distinction, in geography.

Her strong feeling for neighborhood and community led Nancy on to a master's degree in regional planning and a career in that field. She has served as a city planner in Salem, Massachusetts, regional planning consultant in Lagos, Nigeria, and planning director in her current hometown, Andover, Massachusetts, where she is on the board of the historical society. Along the way, she traveled extensively throughout Africa with husband Peter '76, crossed the Sahara in a van, lived in Australia and Japan, trekked the high tour around Mont Blanc in France; and this summer, just to give the lazy-boy recliners a break, she Peter hiked England coast-to-coast.

With all her globetrotting, Nancy has never left Dartmouth far behind. She has served on her class executive committee, as a class agent, class newsletter editor, and enrollment worker. She has also been on the College Committee on the Quality of Student Life, a club officer, and a member of the Alumni Council. She has served with an energetic and innovative spirit. Nancy spearheaded the creation of a new award recognizing the efforts of young alumni volunteers. How appropriate that she is now the recipient of this award!

Now Nancy has a new base line: nurturing. As she put it, she is "chief of logistics officer" for children Eric and Hannah, as well as the nurturer of her plants and garden and a number of local volunteer committees. Hers have been exemplary years, and we are honored to present Nancy with this Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award.

Elizabeth Phillips RoberL'79

A quick look at Libby's relatively short but sparkling career shows that she's been a whirlwind since the day she breezed out of kindergarten. An honor student out of Crawfordsville, Indiana, she swept into Hanover in 1974 and helped move the place from a bastion of masculinity to a bouillabaisse of modernity. A religion major, she played freshman lacrosse and was senior class vice president, a class marshal at graduation, and a charter member of the first female senior society. She also was active with the Aegis and the DOC, and participated in two foreign study programs.

Of course, she had pretty heady preparations for Dartmouth: four older brothers, two of them Big Greeners, a '73 and a '75, plus a '72 cousin.

Libby embarked on a career in fundraising, and she has successively brought joy and jingle to Milton Academy, the Dartmouth Alumni Fund, the Harvard Law School Fund, and, for the past year, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Though she left Hanover, Libby hasn't been away from the College for a single day. She has served as class and regional agent, enrollment and alumni continuing education officer, telethon chairwoman, club secretary, alumni association vice president, and she's been class newsletter editor since 1990.

When, we wonder, has she had time for her abiding hobbies, cooking and hiking? She has attended cooking schools at home and abroad, and she has backpacked the Haute Route in Switzerland, trekked in the Himalayas, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. What's next, a Cajun banquet atop Mt. Everest?

Dartmouth and the friends made there have been major influences in Libby's life. Well, it works both ways. In recognition of her enormous talents, her endless enthusiasm, and all she's been to her alma mater, we're returning the favor by presenting her the Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award.