Two ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alumni and two members of the faculty received awards during Reunion Weekend, including James Owens ’87, who received the Benjamin E. Mays Medal for his contributions to literacy around the world.

The Mays Medal, the Alumni Association’s highest award, honors an alumnus or alumna who has “performed distinguished service to the worldwide community and been deemed a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College graduate of outstanding accomplishment.â€�

James Owens ’87: Benjamin E. Mays Medal

°Õ³ó±ðÌýcitation for Owens‘ award reads, in part:

Published in 2017, The World Is Just a Book Away weaves together the unique stories of 60 contributors — from Nobel laureates to actors, humanitarians, and many more — who at first glance have little in common. But as James skillfully demonstrates, these prominent people all share something important: Their lives have been influenced by a love of books and reading.

It was during this passion project that James was inspired to not only write about the power of literacy, but also to physically deliver it to those who need it most…. In the nine years since its inception, The World Is Just a Book Away has built 90 libraries, three of which are mobile. At one site in Indonesia, books are delivered by horseback to 10 remote schools atop a volcano. This revolutionary approach is effecting meaningful change within some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

James Owens ’87, recipient of the Benjamin E. Mays Medal, poses with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College President Clayton Spencer. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Dr. Louis Weinstein ’68: Sesquicentennial Award

The Sesquicentennial Award honors an alumnus or alumni for “a single academic, artistic, or scientific achievement.�

The citation for Weinstein’s award reads, in part:

Louis’ remarkable work resulting in the discovery of a severe form of preeclampsia has been cited as one of the 10 most important publications in the field of obstetrics in the 20th century. He was a young doctor serving his fellowship in 1979 when Louis experienced his first pre-natal maternal death of a patient — an experience that would alter the course of his career….

Guided by the methods of scientific inquiry he learned at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Louis sought to explore this often missed or misdiagnosed ailment. He spent the next two years studying similar cases and providing medical care to women exhibiting related symptoms.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College President Clayton Spencer shakes the hand of Dr. Louis Weinstein ’68, recipient of the Sesquicentennial Award. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Georgia Nigro and Rob Farnsworth: Distinguished Service Awards

Presented by the College Key, the Distinguished Service Award recognizes â€�the dedication and excellence offered to the college by truly distinguished members of the faculty and staff.â€� The citation for Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro’s award reads, in part:

As an alumna noted, “She is an amazing teacher and role model.” Georgia is a developmental psychologist by training whose work inspires students to think about what they can bring to relationships with community partners, not just what they can get out of the relationship. She holds students to a high standard and engages them at the highest intellectual level.

Senior Lecturer in English Rob Farnsworth and Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro, who are married, receive Distinguished Service Awards from the College Key. (Andree Kehn for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The citation for Senior Lecturer in English Rob Farnsworth, who retired  from the faculty in 2018 after 26 years, reads, in part:

Students describe him as “a titan of the abstract and the concreteâ€� and as a “wise sage.â€� “How stupid of me not to take more of his classes!â€� one exclaims. They speak of his brilliance and humility; his “faith in poetry and people;â€� his generosity as a reader of their work. “Professor Farnsworth…opened a door of joyful sound and allowed us all to walk freely through it,â€� as one remembers it.

When I ask about the weather, my smartphone chirps back an answer: “It doesn’t look so nice tomorrow.�

That’s doubly unsurprising. One, it’s February in Maine during a historic stretch of snowy weather. Two, a phone is supposed to answer questions.

But here’s a surprise. We tend to think that new ideas are the fuel for today’s technology. Yet voice recognition is one of the “many things that people have tried before that now work,� says Susan Dumais ’75, a Distinguished Scientist with Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, Dumais visited campus in February as the College Key’s Distinguished Alumna in Residence, meeting with students and giving a talk on Feb. 1.

College Key Distinguished Alumna in Residence Susan Dumais ’75 gives a talk on Feb. 1 in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall in front of an image showing a bygone way to retrieve information: the card catalog. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Back in the 1980s, when Dumais was at Bell Labs, one ongoing project was to get a computer to recognize correctly whether “yes� or “no� was answered to the question, “Will you accept this collect call?�

“Years and years and years of work went into that,� Dumais says. The project did succeed in the 1990s (though collect calls are going the way of the typewriter).

So, what makes today’s “new� technology possible? She points to better computational models, more computational horsepower, and access to much richer data.

In the case of voice recognition, it means access to vast amounts of spoken language with corresponding transcriptions, which makes it “easier to map various acoustic features to the resulting words,� she says.

“So when you search for ‘Who is the best teacher?’ the results include pages that use the word ‘professor’ even if they don’t use the word ‘teacher.'”

Another old idea whose time has come belongs to Dumais herself. In 1990 — way before Google or Bing — she and fellow researchers developed an information retrieval process known as “latent semantic indexing.â€� In recent years, LSI-related ideas have “been a big splash,â€� she says.

That’s because LSI enables search engines to retrieve the information that we’re actually looking for. “So when you search for ‘Who is the best teacher?’ the results include pages that use the word ‘professor’ even if they don’t use the word ‘teacher,’ ” Dumais explains.

Susan Dumais ’75 laughs with Professor Emeritus of Psychology John Kelsey before her talk on Feb. 1. Dumais first met Kelsey in the 1970s when she was a doctoral student at the University of Indiana, where he was starting his faculty career. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Simply put, LSI helps a search engine respond to queries by “discovering words that are semantically the same even though they aren’t literally the same,� she says.

The idea existed 25 years ago but “the time wasn’t right,� she says. Today, computers can swiftly learn these more nuanced word relationships thanks to the availability of much larger collections of text and more powerful computational resources.

Though advances in computing power are turning yesterday’s ideas into today’s tools, the demands of today’s tools are also keeping those ideas viable.

“How we use this technology — such as everyone carrying a smartphone — makes these ideas even more necessary now,â€� Dumais says.

Students do pre-computer information retrieval, circa 1974, using the library’s card catalog. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

Brian McGrory ’84, editor of The Boston Globe, visited ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ as the College Key Distinguished Alumnus in Residence on Jan. 27. Here, he visits students in a course on public opinion taught by Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Brian McGrory ’84 and The Boston Globe began their love affair more than 40 years ago in Weymouth, Mass.: He as a paperboy, and the Globe as his paper.

“The only thing I ever wanted to do was write for a newspaper, and the only paper I ever wanted to write for was The Boston Globe,â€� he told a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ audience last week.

While McGrory’s passion for the Globe has long since been requited — he’s been a Globe reporter, columnist, metro editor, and, since 2012, editor — the paper’s relationship with its readers is at an “incredibly awkward� moment, he said.

On the one hand, print subscribers pay a premium to have their newspaper arrive as regularly as the rising sun.

While the print circulation has plummeted, The Boston Globe has more readers than it’s ever had. But it’s not making much money from its large online readership.

“We have to nurture what we can get from print,� said McGrory, who was on campus as the College Key Distinguished Alumnus in Residence.

“Our print readers are paying top dollar. They are our most hardcore readers, our most faithful readers.�

But here comes the other hand: “We also have to understand that the future of our industry — undoubtedly — is digital.�

“I could come to a place like ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and focus my life toward journalism.â€�

Early in his remarks in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, McGrory noted how ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ helped him along the route from paperboy to editor.

“I wanted the liberal arts,â€� he explained. “I wanted to expand my horizons. I wanted to learn about politics and literature and expression. Journalism is really about life, and I thought I could come to a place like ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and focus my life toward journalism.â€�

Back in the mid-1990s, about the time McGrory was the Globe’s roving national reporter, New England had recovered from a recession, and the paper was again feeling good, generating more than $100 million in circulation revenue and $300 million in advertising revenue annually.

Help-wanted ads in the Sunday Globe alone could bring in $180 million each year, McGrory recalled. “Classified ads were the dirty secret of American journalism.�

All that revenue once funded an “enormous staff� of 540 Globe journalists (now 280), a 13-person Washington, D.C., bureau (now half that), and foreign bureaus (now none).

Nationally, U.S. newspaper print advertising revenues from 2005 to 2011 dropped from $50 billion to less than half that, and have been slipping 8 to 10 percent per year since then. Digital advertising is also falling, McGrory said.

All those declines obscure an ironic fact The Boston Globe has “more readers than we’ve ever had in the history of the paper.�

“You can’t compete with free,� McGrory added, mentioning Craigslist and similar free or cheap online sites to where the region’s Realtors, auto dealerships, and employee-seeking firms have fled.

Circulation declined as newspapers, at the dawn of the Web, “decided to give away the journalism for free,� a decision that McGrory compares to the owner of Macy’s deciding to open a new store where everything is free, “and then is shocked that people aren’t going into the old store to pay for stuff.�

The print paper’s Sunday circulation has shrunk from around 800,000 in the mid 1990s to 250,000 today, and weekday circulation from 500,000 to 150,000.

All those declines obscure an ironic fact. The Boston Globe has “more readers than we’ve ever had in the history of the paper,� McGrory says.

Of the Globe stories he’s been involved with, McGrory says he’s most proud of the paper’s coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. Seen here is the front page of the paper on April 16, 2013.

The day before his visit, the Globe had 560,000 unique visitors to BostonGlobe.com and another 580,000 visits to the paper’s regional site, Boston.com. Digital subscriptions now top 70,000, the best among any regional newspaper.

Problem is, “we’re having a really difficult time making money from them,� he said.

McGrory doesn’t know how newspapers will move beyond this awkward time. “I have no idea, and anybody who says they do, they’re either lying to themselves or to you or probably both.�

Like any relationship fix, it will take a little of this, a little of that.

“You can’t give up on print too quickly and you can’t embrace digital too quickly. You need to make a nuanced and sophisticated transition.�

He told the Olin audience about two papers that lacked those two qualities.

The Orange County Register thought the answer was to be “committed to the print product,� McGrory said. “The paper tripled its reporting staff, but by 2014 the paper’s publisher had to slash its staff and change its management team.�

The CEO of Digital First Media, once the country’s second-largest newspaper chain, “mocked print� and put great emphasis on his newspapers’ websites, only to find that the revenue “just wasn’t there.� His papers have “gone to the auction block with very few takers.�

“The very foundation of a strong democracy depends on this issue getting fixed.�

If McGrory were the head of the Association for the Support of Drive-In Theaters, his lament might bring a shrug and a nod. Times change.

But, says McGrory, more is at stake.

“I don’t think it’s an overstatement to argue that the very foundation of a strong democracy depends on this issue getting fixed.� He added:

Newspapers in general, and, in my experience, the Globe in particular, form a bond with the community in a way that no other provider can possibly do. We live in a crazy, polarized society where presidential candidates hurl themselves at each other rather than talking about policy proposals. We live in a divided country where cable news analysts are racing to be the most bombastic possible. It’s noisy. Washington is at a standstill. The tone, not only in Washington but the state capitols, is deteriorating.

We, as the newspaper industry, are in the best position to make sense of all this. We alone can package all this information carefully, can be as fair as humanly possible, and add the context and respect that’s needed. In a crowded, jam-packed and violent world, we end up being an arbiter of what’s fair, what’s true, and what’s not.

Brian McGrory ’84, editor of The Boston Globe, greets Julia Mongeau ’16 of Melrose, Mass., editor of The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Student, during an audience Q&A after he spoke at the Olin Arts Center during his visit to campus as the College Key Distinguished Alumnus in Residence. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

After his prepared remarks, McGrory, a political science major at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ who was a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Student reporter, news editor, and features editor, sat for a Q&A with his counterpart on the Student, editor Julia Mongeau ’16 of Melrose, Mass.

Asked about the Globe stories he’s most proud of, McGrory talked about the paper’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing:

We made a commitment that night that we were going to be the paper that stuck with the Marathon story and told the victims’ story for a long time. We were not the national media who would come and go. We were going to be the arbiters of what was true and what was right and we would not rush to judgment. That has been a very proud moment that really stands out.

Mongeau’s questions also gave the elder editor a chance to offer bon mots for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. About the current ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ campus, McGrory said:

I haven’t been here in 20 years. I’m floored by the sheer beauty of the campus, the way the college was able to integrate new buildings with old buildings, and turn old buildings into really useful buildings. [Roger Williams] used to be the dorm you wanted to live in for all the wrong reasons, and I always thought it was one April rain away from collapsing. It is now a stunning building.

About ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ reputation in the Boston area:

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is just a hot school right now. Everywhere I go I always hear about ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. My friend’s kid is just desperate to get here. It’s a really desirable place for kids to get to right now.

“Change is upon us,� Winfield Brown ’89 told an audience of students, faculty and community members in Pettengill Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Winfield Brown ’89, the College Key’s Distinguished Alumnus in Residence, meets with students to discuss careers in healthcare during a campus visit on Nov. 12. (Sarah Crosby/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Brown, CEO and president of Heywood and Athol hospitals in north central Massachusetts, made his declaration during a talk on current trends in healthcare and patient services, part of his two-day campus visit as the College Key’s Distinguished Alumnus in Residence.

Well-timed against the failed launch of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchange website, Brown’s talk put a fine point on the economic forces influencing hospitals, physicians and even students graduating from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

Incentivizing the “wrong behavior.�

The U.S. model of healthcare incentivizes the “wrong behavior� on the part of healthcare providers, Brown argued.

The model tends to encourage providers to schedule additional, costly and often unnecessary visits and procedures. Instead, Brown believes insurance companies should create monetary incentives for prevention and other cost-saving initiatives.

“We need to keep people healthier,� he said, “and to do that, we have to reward physicians and hospitals for performance.�

The reason healthcare is at a tipping point is because patients are “paying too much for what we get.�

The “changing culture of care.�

Brown noted that more and more ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students are considering careers as nurse practitioners and physician assistants instead of medical school.

“That’s something you would not have seen 10 years ago,� he said, and it’s all part of what he calls the “changing culture of care.�

Much of the phenomenon is simple economics. In today’s healthcare systems, nurse practitioners and physician assistants draw higher salaries than in years past, workmore manageable hours and incur less student debt than physicians.

It is an attractive option for students who want a work-life balance, he said.

Brown, who took time during his residency to meet with students who are interested in medical-related careers, got his own start in the field in 1996 with a nudge from the late Dean of the College James Carignan ’61.

A long-time family friend and mentor, Carignan was on the board of directors at St. Mary’s Health System in Lewiston when he wrote Brown, who was establishing a career in nonprofit fundraising, a note that read, “St. Mary’s needs you.�

Brown went on to accept a position as executive director and vice president of the St. Mary’s Foundation. He still has Carignan’s note.

Brown held leadership positions at Lowell General Hospital and Northern Berkshire Healthcare in Massachusetts before taking the helm at Heywood in 2011. He graduated from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with a degree in economics and obtained master’s degrees in business and healthcare administration from Husson University and the University of Minnesota, respectively.

The Distinguished Alumni in Residence program was established in 2003 by the College Key, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ organization that promotes extraordinary achievement among current and past ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students.

Dr. Dave Lounsbury ’72, retired Army colonel and co-editor of War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq, visited the campus in March as the College Key’s Distinguished Alumnus in Residence. He spoke with students and delivered an informal talk in Chase Hall. He also took time for this portrait by Phyllis Graber Jensen.

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Doctor and retired U.S. Army Col. Dave Lounsbury ’72 speaks with pre-med students during a lunch planned for his College Key Distinguished Alumni-In-Residence visit. An expert in military medicine and ethics, he is co-editor of the nationally discussed volume “War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of Cases, 2003-2007.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College presents a talk by Benjamin E. Robinson III, a member of the college’s class of 1986 and the chief privacy executive for Bank of America Corporation, at 7 p.m. Monday, May 3, in the Muskie Room of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Avenue.

Presented by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ Distinguished Alumni in Residence program, the talk is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please call 207-786-6232.

As a senior vice president and privacy executive for Bank of America, Robinson is responsible for developing, implementing and communicating policies regarding the protection and use of customer information for that financial institution. Robinson was formerly senior vice president and strategy management executive at Bank of America, in charge of public policy issues, national alliances and national programs.

Before going to Bank of America, he was chief privacy officer for MasterCard International and president and CEO of MasterCard Cardholder Solutions. Robinson was recently appointed to the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank and serves on the faculty of the Hagan School of Business at Iona College.

Active in community affairs, Robinson received one of six National Red Cross Star Player awards and was named one of America’s Future Leaders by Ebony magazine. He is listed in Who’s Who Among U.S. Executives, Who’s Who Among International Executives, and Who’s Who Among Black Americans.

At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Robinson was a rhetoric major, a debater, vice president of the student government and a three-sport athlete. He holds a doctoral degree in banking and finance from the Union Graduate School, and is the author of Financial Privacy and Electronic Commerce: Who’s in My Business (Writers Club Press, 2000).

Robinson and his family reside in Charlotte, N.C.

The Distinguished Alumni in Residence program at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is funded by the College Key.

Chantal Berry Dalton ’69, a career diplomat with the U.S. State Department, is the inaugural speaker in the new Distinguished Alumni in Residence program at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Dalton, who administers public affairs in southern Africa for the State Department, gives a public presentation on U.S. policies in Africa at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 17, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Avenue.

Dalton’s talk is open to the public at no charge. Her residency at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is sponsored by the College Key, an organization of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alumni.

During her stay at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Dalton will also make classroom visits and, through the college’s Office of Career Services, talk to students about her work.

“I’ll be talking about what my experience has been and the culture of the Department of State,” says Dalton, who is pleased to have the opportunity to encourage students from her alma mater to follow in her career footsteps.

Dalton’s public presentation will cover six points of U.S. policy in Africa, including the continent’s economy, environment, its role in the war against global terror, democratic government, AIDS and the need for large-scale efforts at conflict resolution.

“One of the main things, along with AIDS, that impedes development in Africa is this continual context of conflict,” she says, pointing to the recent upheaval in Liberia and the ongoing border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea. “This becomes a really big challenge for the department.”

Based in Washington, D.C., Dalton is the country officer for Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and four other countries in southern Africa. She has represented U.S. foreign policy overseas since 1981, when she joined the U.S. Information Agency, and has held a variety of foreign postings including Pakistan, Costa Rica and Brazil.

She works in the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the State Department’s African affairs bureau. She and her colleagues in public diplomacy and affairs, she explains, “deal with the public image of American foreign policy and the public image of the embassy itself,” in the case of those serving abroad.

Dalton earned her bachelor’s degree in English at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and a master’s in American literature at Northwestern University as a Ford Foundation Fellow. She taught at the University College of Rutgers, and hosted a public affairs program for New Jersey public television.

Dalton also speaks Portuguese, Spanish and French. She sings in her church choir at Foundry United Methodist in Washington, and is married to the Brazilian artist Jorge Luis Garcez Rocha, whom she met during her posting in Rio de Janeiro.

Based in Washington since 2001, Dalton’s work nowadays includes dealing with foreign media covering the United States. “For example, we have several groups of people coming to the two political nominating conventions this summer,” she says.

“That’s a big part of the job in an election year. It’s always interesting to see another journalist’s perception of how we run political campaigns in the United States — very interesting. We learn a lot and they learn a lot.”