At the Annual Gathering of the Alumni Association on June 10 during Reunion, three alumni were honored for their contributions to the college, including Ed O’Neil ’82, who has literally written the book on sustainable and efficient solutions to the problems of global health inequity.

O’Neil received the Benjamin E. Mays Medal, the Alumni Association’s highest award, honoring an alumna or alumnus who has “performed distinguished service to the worldwide community and been deemed a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College graduate of outstanding accomplishment.”

Named for the 1920 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alumnus, the Mays Medal has been awarded only 16 times since its 1982 establishment.

Edward J. O’Neil Jr. ’82: Benjamin E. Mays Medal

The citation for O’Neil’s award read, in part:

While treating patients in all manner of medical conditions and crises in Nairobi’s Nazareth Hospital, the gears began to turn as Ed conceptualized a guide for other doctors seeking global health opportunities. Awakening Hippocrates and A Practical Guide to Global Health Service are the culmination of more than a decade of Ed’s research and experiences.

Along the way, : an organization putting theory into practice as Ed and his colleagues seek solutions to insufficiencies and crises in health and health education across the world.

Ed O’Neill ’82 poses with President Clayton Spencer (left) and Alumni Association President Lisa Romeo ’88 at the Annual Gathering of the Alumni Association during Reunion on June 10. (Rene Roy for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Judith A. Marden ’66: Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 Distinguished Alumni Service Award

The citation for Marden’s award read, in part:

She saved her favorite position at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for last — director of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€“Morse Mountain Conservation Area, which comprises 600 acres of woods, salt marsh, and Maine’s last undeveloped barrier beach. Largely thanks to Judy’s early planning for what has become an iconic example of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ environmental work, it remains one of the most beautiful, unspoiled parts of Maine.

Judy Marden ’66 (center) poses with President Clayton Spencer (left) and Alumni Association President Lisa Romeo ’88 at the Annual Gathering of the Alumni Association during Reunion on June 10. (Rene Roy for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Robert E. Cramer ’79, P’13, P’14: Bruce Stangle Award for Distinguished Service to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Community

The citation for Cramer’s award read, in part:

As an executive with RBC Wealth Management and now with Oppenheimer, you have for many years provided ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ graduates who are interested in the world of finance with invaluable advice. Beyond offering wise counsel that has set many young alumni on the path to career success and lives of meaningful work, you have also, in a number of cases, played a direct role in placing ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ graduates at your firms.

Robert Cramer ’79 poses with President Clayton Spencer (left) and Alumni Association President Lisa Romeo ’88 at the Annual Gathering of the Alumni Association during Reunion on June 10. (Rene Roy for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Director of Muskie Archives and Special Collection Library Kat Stefko; ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½' Muskie Oral History Project recently won the Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award, from the Oral History Association, for excellence in an oral history project. The Muskie project comprises some 400 interviews.

Asked to describe her job as an archivist, Katherine Stefko’s stock reply is, “I’m paid to read other people’s mail.” The joke is revealing. Director of archives and special collections at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Stefko oversees the delicate work of gathering documentary materials that reveal the details — sometimes very personal — of history.

The houses nationally significant holdings relating to the late Ed Muskie ’36. You’ve called him the hero of the 1968 presidential campaign, running with Hubert Humphrey.

It was the first time a presidential candidate advertised himself as having chosen a VP who could step up and be president. There was this fabulous political ad that Humphrey put out with the image and sound of an electrocardiogram and the line, “Who is your choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?”

We have film showing Muskie inviting a heckler to the stage. Muskie basically said to him, “I’ll give you 10 minutes to tell people your ideas, but in exchange your group has to be quiet and listen to my ideas.” He was extraordinarily genuine in wanting to understand everyone’s opinions before formulating a policy.

By extending that respect, he really gained a lot of ground with the antiwar protesters. Many political observers speculate that had the election been even a week or two later, Humphrey and Muskie would have come from behind to win.

You recently had vice-presidential scholar Joel Goldstein at the archives researching a book.

By necessity, archivists have to be generalists, so having somebody there with dedicated time to read through and make connections within the Muskie Papers has been incredible.

He has become a huge fan of Muskie, and wrote a lot of op-eds during this election year drawing parallels between the ’68 and 2008 campaigns. Goldstein has been particularly impressed by Muskie’s ability to inspire and sustain civil discourse.

You have a broad collecting mandate, between representing Muskie and other ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ people, and then officially documenting the College’s history.

We collect externally and internally — that’s important to realize. External to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, that’s usually me. I spend quite a bit of time working with alumni, their families, and other donors.

It’s always better if you talk to a person about their papers, because nobody can tell a story like the person who lived it. Also, giving one’s papers to an archives is not necessarily an easy thing to do — “Here’s my mail, make it publicly available.”

I talk to people about the historical importance of their materials. And I try to foster confidence so they understand that as an archivist, I’m ethically motivated to do the right thing, balancing the privacy needs of our donors with the research interest of our patrons.

What’s the on-campus process?

Internally, Pat Webber, the College archivist, works with people on campus to make sure that their records of historical value are preserved in the archives. We are authorized to collect from College offices, but there are other records being created at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with permanent value. So he goes to student-organization meetings in the evening to talk about the importance of their records.

The Outing Club, for instance, is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2010, so they and their adviser, Judy Marden, have been thoughtful, with Pat’s encouragement, about their records. Last summer we received all their historic records.

How else do you interact with alums?

We get quite a few casual visits during Reunion and Homecoming Weekend. We’ve offered a historic film festival where we’ve shown old films from the collection, and those have been quite popular.

Whenever possible we try to instill in alumni that we really want material that tells the personal side, the unofficial version of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ history — scrapbooks, letters home to Mom and Dad expressing what it was like to adjust to college in Lewiston. These are the types of materials that support cultural and social history, and they can make the past seem real to today’s students.

Who laid the groundwork for the collections of College records?

Harry Rowe ’12, who worked at the College for about half a century, was the unofficial College historian. Bursar Norm Ross ’22 was a diligent record keeper. And he passed the baton to Bernie Carpenter as treasurer. They did a great deal to make sure that early records survived. We’re extraordinarily lucky to have as extensive a historical record as we do.

How is technology changing what you do?

The speed of obsolescence creates monetary challenges. Where a piece of paper, even a black and white photograph, can live happily on a shelf for 500 years, an 8-inch floppy drive is already obsolete.

We’re constantly thinking about getting things into a stable format — by today’s standards — and then developing a strategy to deal with it when that format becomes obsolete.

And something I’ve been thinking about is that kids don’t keep diaries anymore — they keep blogs. How can we thoughtfully collect and preserve blogs? I don’t have an answer yet, but I know it’s something that we need to do.

Interview by Doug Hubley, photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Part of a three-season series of events marking the 25th anniversary of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College stewardship of the BMMCA, the outing is open to the public at no charge. Please call Marden at 207-786-6078 for additional details and to register.

The conservation area’s 600 acres of land include woods, upland, salt marsh and Maine’s last undeveloped barrier beach. Serving as a nursery for juvenile fish, a haven for rare plants and birds, and a peaceful sanctuary for all, the conservation area is visited by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and faculty, naturalists from all over and the public.

In 1978, the St. John family deeded this land to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-Morse Mountain Conservation Area Corporation, with conservation easements held by The Nature Conservancy requiring that it be preserved in its natural condition for all time. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ holds a 50-year lease on the land in exchange for providing stewardship.

The college is committed to preserving, protecting and gently using the area as a source of learning and inspiration. People from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ use the land as a living laboratory for research, a sort of secondary classroom for science courses and student projects. With European settlement of the land dating back to the mid-17th century, BMMCA custodians also work to reverse some impacts of the human presence and return parts of the land, notably the salt marshes, to their pre-Colonial state.

After the hike, the next event in the BMMCA anniversary series is the annual spring work-day on Saturday, April 24 (times to be announced), with volunteers from The Nature Conservancy, Maine Audubon and other friends of Morse Mountain. This day is dedicated to special projects that include putting up protective fences that help protect endangered piping plovers during their nesting season.

The BMMCA anniversary series is co-sponsored by the Philip J. Otis Fund at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Established by Margaret V.B. and C. Angus Wurtele, the fund commemorates their son, Philip, of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ class of 1995, who died attempting to rescue a climber on Mount Rainier in 1995. Otis was concerned about nurturing a sense of responsibility for the natural environment, and the annual lectureship focuses on environmental issues and the spiritual and moral dimensions of ecology.