Weston L. Bonney ’50, a distinguished banker, longtime college Trustee and a volunteer who has worked tirelessly in Maine and abroad to advance education, arts and commerce, received the Benjamin Elijah Mays Medal, the College’s highest alumni award, at the 136th Reunion Alumni Awards Ceremony on June 12.

The Mays Medal is awarded only on occasions when the College wishes to honor an alumnus or alumna who has made extraordinary contributions in the United States and the world at large. The award was established during the lifetime of Benjamin Mays ’20, a civil rights leader, mentor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and former president of Morehouse College.

Weston Bonney entered ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ as a married student in 1946 after serving in the U. S. Navy. He graduated cum laude with a degree in economics and soon thereafter embarked on a four-decades banking career that lasted until his retirement in 1991 as chairman and director of People’s Heritage Bank.

An active member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community, Bonney is president of his class. He sponsored Career Discovery Interns, recruited students and served as president of the Alumni Council. A member of Reunion committees, a regional vice chair for the college’s third Capital Campaign and a member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Fund Committee, Bonney  served as a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Trustee from 1971 until 1996. (His son Michael Bonney ’80 is currently a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Trustee.)

Bonney’s service extends far beyond ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. A tireless promoter of economic development and small businesses in Maine, he has equal passion for the arts, especially music. He has championed improved health care and environmental causes locally and internationally, serving as a banking adviser in Eastern Europe after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. In recent years, he has turned his energies toward improving the education of Maine’s children. A current member of the Maine State Board of Education, he has been the principal architect of the Essential Programs and Services formula that ensures Maine students receive the necessary funding to achieve the Maine Learning Results.

Roger C. Schmutz ’54 joined Bonney as a Reunion honoree when he received the Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award. Presented to a graduate for extraordinary service to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, the award honors the deep love for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ displayed by Dr. Papaioanou during her decades of service to the College and to the Board of Trustees from 1965-99.

Schmutz enjoyed a distinguished career in journalism, retiring in 1981 as group vice president for financial publishing at Standard & Poor’s Corporation. He served on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Board of Trustees for 31 years, including a stint as secretary of the corporation, and has worked on every ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ capital campaign, advising three presidents along the way and mentoring several generations of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ trustees. His service to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ included club leadership, student recruitment and Reunion leadership.

This year’s recipient has served as a lifelong minister of the Congregational Church in Connecticut. Arthur Higgins has been a pioneer in establishing two new kinds of ministry and church work, both of which have been broadly emulated in other churches throughout America. Higgins was the founder and president of the New Samaritan Corporation, a wing of the Congregational Church that oversees the building of suitable and affordable housing for elderly and low-income people in Connecticut. It is a national model for the involvement of the church in low-income and elderly housing.Higgins was also the first Connecticut Conference Minister of the Department of Church and Society, an innovative example of church organizations at the state and national level becoming involved in broad issues of social justice and fairness.

Higgins was instrumental in introducing philanthropist Charles Dana, a member of his congregation, to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College. The results of the relationship between Dana and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ include Dana Chemistry Hall, the Dana Professorships and the Dana Scholarship program.

The Distinguished Young Alumni Award recognizes recent graduates who are outstanding in their careers or their service to the college. Colahan is a member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Boston Council and a former member of the Alumni Council. She is a Partner of the President and a President’s Circle member. She has been a gift committee and a social committee member for Reunion, and has served on the Alumni Fund Committee, the Alumni Steering Committee, and as class agent, a Boston ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Club leader, an alumni class officer, an OCS career advisor and phone-a-thon volunteer.

The Alumni Community Service Award was created by the Alumni Council in 1999 and is given annually to an alumnus or alumna who has demonstrated distinguished leadership and commitment to serving the community in which they live or work. The award is designed to recognize the values of service and civic responsibility that are fundamental to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ education.

Brackett received this award for his service to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, to his community in the Portland area and to Maine. For ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, he has served on the Maine ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Council and as a class agent. He funded the Norman E. Brackett Scholarship, which is given annually with preference for Maine students. He has served as class president and as co-chair of two reunion gift committees.

Brackett has served on the boards of the Portland Stage Company, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Cancer Community Center, and is a corporator of Maine Medical Center. He has participated in many fund-raising efforts for non-profit organizations in Greater Portland. He has been especially active with the United Way of Greater Portland during the past 25 years, chairing its board of directors, the United Way Foundation Board of Trustees and the 1987 Annual Campaign. In 1999, he received the Mary Rines Thompson Award as Volunteer of the Year.

Brackett was a Westbrook College trustee for several years and chaired the board of trustees when Westbrook College merged with the University of New England in 1996. He is now a trustee emeritus of UNE.

Each year the Alumni Association recognizes an outstanding graduate or graduates for their performance of truly unparalleled service to the College. Until Reunion 1999, the association recognized that service with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award. At that time, it was renamed the Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award to honor the deep love for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ displayed by Helen Papaioanou ’49, M.D., D.Sc. ’97, in her service to the College and the board of trustees from 1965 to 1999.

This year’s winners, David and Carol Huntington Boone, have been heavily involved in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ activities for 40 years, spanning two ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ presidencies with a third about to start. Dave is the retired chairman of Boone Young Associates, and Carol has been a Realtor for most of her career. Their daughter Karin graduated from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1987.

David and Carol funded a scholarship given annually to a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student. David serves on the board of trustees and, in a time commitment equivalent to a part-time job, served on the recent Presidential Search Committee. He has also been president of the College Key honorary society. David and Carol were instrumental on the Pettengill Hall building project and have been involved for decades in the College’s recruitment efforts. David began bringing multicultural students up from New Jersey and New York to see ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ during the 1960s, an activity that evolved into the College’s October Weekend program for multicultural students. Carol has been an Alumni in Admissions volunteer since the program was founded in the 1970s. Both Carol and David served on their Reunion Gift Committees.