The Duke Alumni Association announced 28 individuals and groups as winners of its 2014 awards. The awards, presented each fall, honor outstanding achievement and commitment to Duke and its alumni around the world. Winners are honored during Homecoming, except for the Distinguished Alumni Award winner, who is recognized as part of Duke's annual Founders' Day convocation.
The awards this year include a new category, the Beyond Duke awards, which recognize alumni who have made extraordinary contributions to their communities and to society at large.
Gerald Bard Tjoflat is the longest-serving federal appeals-court judge on the bench — a man who is respected throughout the legal community for his strong moral compass and deep knowledge of the law. After serving as an editor on the Duke Law Journal and as a private practice attorney in Florida, Tjoflat was appointed to his first judicial role in 1968. He was appointed to the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 1975 and reassigned to the 11th Circuit when it was established in 1981. He served as chief justice from 1989 to 1996.
Tjoflat is a founding member of the Duke Law School Board of Visitors, and his vision was instrumental in shaping the school’s guiding principles. He played a significant role in establishing the school’s Master’s of Judicial Studies Program, in which judges learn specialized analytical skills and research approaches.
Tjoflat’s most significant contribution, however, may be to the educations and career horizons of Duke law students.He has hired and placed 96 Duke students and alumni in his chambers and has helped countless others find judicial clerkships. As one former student described in a letter to former Dean Katharine Bartlett:“Even if I received no other benefit from my Duke education, my relationship with Judge Tjoflat would have made it all worthwhile.”
Charles A. Dukes Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Services
W. Barker French A.B. ’63 Durham, North Carolina
As W. Barker French’s 50th reunion approached in 2013, the former DAA president and Duke trustee realized he had yet another opportunity to contribute his leadership and demonstrate his loyalty to Duke. French, a retired investment banker, put his lifelong strategic thinking and planning skills to work for Duke in his role as co-chair of the Class of 1963 reunion. “He balanced wishes and ideas of classmates with realities,” says nominator Matthew Cloues, “whether it was staffing or funding.” His efforts led to the quadrupling of volunteers and a class gift increase of 50 percent since the class’s 45th reunion. Beyond reunions, French has mobilized alumni to become more involved with the Durham community. He is a founder and Chair of the East Durham Children’s Initiative (EDCI), a program begun in 2009 that focuses on creating a pipeline of services for children from birth to college or career. EDCI serves a 120-block section of East Durham.
William W. B.S.C.E. ’62 and Irene Lilly McCutchen A.B. ’62 Westport, Connecticut
Over the past several decades, William and Irene Lilly McCutchen have been active leaders for the Duke Divinity School, generously giving their time, expertise and philanthropic support. The couple served consecutive terms on the Divinity School Board of Visitors from 2000 to 2012. William is co-chair of the school’s Campaign Committee, and Irene served on the Board of Advisors for the school’s Center for Reconciliation Board of Visitors from 2006 to 2014. Most recently, the couple made a gift endowing a professorship at Divinity. The McCutchens’ positive influence can be seen beyond the Divinity School as well. The couple has worked on behalf of the Annual Fund, Duke Libraries and the Pratt School of Engineering, where the two served on the Board of Visitors. In the words of Divinity Dean Richard Hays, the McCutchens are “wise advisers, eager participants and fierce advocates” for Duke.
Hardy Vieux A.B. ’93 Alexandria, Virginia
Hardy Vieux follows this guiding principle: Be comfortable with the uncomfortable. That mantra has guided Vieux throughout his Duke career and beyond. It’s what motivated him, as a Haitian-American student from Queens, to run for Duke class president and what has led him to focus his legal career on giving a voice to the voiceless. A former defense counsel in the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, Vieux has served as a human rights observer to proceedings of the 9/11 Military Commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and recently spent six months in Jordan providing humanitarian aid to Syrian refugee families as a policy fellow with Save the Children. He was honored as the District of Columbia Bar Association’s 2010 Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year for his work with refugees. Vieux has brought the same unflinching integrity to his many volunteer roles with Duke. A former president of the Duke Alumni Association, Vieux has led Duke’s D.C. regional network, co-chaired Duke DC’s Partners-in-Education, served on the Board of Visitors for the Sanford School of Public Policy and served as a member of Duke’s Board of Trustees.
Karl G. Wellner and Deborah A. Norville New York, New York
Although neither Wellner nor Norville attended Duke themselves, their involvement as parents of two Duke students — Karl N. Wellner ’13 and Kyle M. Wellner ’17 — rivals the truest of Blue Devils. As co-chairs of the Duke Parents Committee, which helps the university support its goals for financial aid, faculty retention and service learning, Wellner and Norville have coordinated the involvement of non-alumni parents in programs such as the Duke Forward campaign. Their enthusiasm for Duke is “contagious for other non-alumni parents,” says nominator Heather Bennett. “They have truly redefined what it means to be parent leaders for Duke.” In addition to their work with the Duke Parent Committee, Wellner and Norville have served as co-chairs for Duke Forward in New York. Additionally, Norville has spoken at Duke Libraries during Parents Weekend and moderated a panel for new parents for the Admissions Office. When not volunteering, Norville is an Emmy Award-winning television anchor and journalist. Wellner is Chairman and CEO of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management.
Myles Wittenstein A.B. ’59 New York, New York
Myles Wittenstein, a veteran of the financial services industry in New York, has made his mark at Duke as a long-standing supporter of the Duke Cancer Institute. Wittenstein, senior partner and senior vice president of investments in the Wittenstein Adelman Lewis Group at UBS Financial Services, has been a member of the DCI’s Board of Overseers since 1995, serving as chair from 2005 to 2010. He has served on the Duke Medicine Board of Visitors since 2007 and was awarded the Shingleton Society Award in 2011 for “outstanding service and generosity” of individuals who are committed to the war against cancer. A conference room in the Duke Cancer Building is named in his late mother’s honor.
A marine biologist, explorer, author and lecturer, Sylvia Mead Earle literally has gone to great depths in her quest to study oceans and the communities that live in them. The founder of Mission Blue, a global group dedicated to ocean research and conservation, Earle has led more than 100 undersea expeditions and logged more than 7,000 hours conducting research and exploration in the deepest parts of the oceans, leading The New York Times to give her the nickname “Her Deepness.” Earle served as the first female chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the early 1990s before founding her own oceanic research organization, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, in 1992. She has been a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence since 1998. Through her research and exploration, Earle has expanded knowledge of marine ecosystems and awakened consciousness to the environmental conditions that threaten these invaluable resources. She has won dozens of national and international awards and was named Time magazine’s first “Hero for the Planet” in 1998.
Ronald O. Sally A.B. ’84 (Local Community) Denver, Colorado
Ronald O. Sally founded Project Geer Street with his wife, Yvette Sally A.B. ’83, in 2009. Project Greer Street is an innovative and transformational academic enrichment program for African-American male students at Denver’s inner-city East High School. Named after the street on which Sally grew up in north St. Louis, the program utilizes a bold new approach and framework to promote high achievement and the creation of options for life success for the students. While playing quarterback for the Blue Devils from 1981 to 1984, Sally was a team captain, member of the Dean’s List and All-ACC Academic Honor Roll, and candidate for the Rhodes Scholarship. Sally is a senior vice president of ICON Venue Group, a Denver-based firm specializing in the development of stadiums, arenas, and large-scale civic and cultural projects internationally.
Andrew Cunningham A.B. ’08 (Young Alumni) Oxford, England
After traveling with a group of fellow undergraduates to the small Kenyan fishing village of Muhuru Bay, Andrew Cunningham worked with Duke professor Sherryl Broverman and Kenyan professor Rose Odhiambo to found the Women’s Institute of Secondary Education and Research (WISER), the first all-girls secondary boarding school in Muhuru Bay. In 2008, he moved into a mud hut in the village to serve as WISER’s inaugural executive director, where he helped open the school and launch programs to improve health, education and economic outcomes for girls in the village, particularly those orphaned by AIDS. Earlier this year, the first class of girls graduated from WISER, and all of them passed required entrance examinations for college, an achievement Cunningham describes as a “dream moment.” A Robertson Scholar at Duke, Cunningham has served as an education consultant with groups including UNICEF and the World Bank. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in comparative international education as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University.
Forever Duke Awards
Timothy C. Blank A.B. ’80 Waban, Massachusetts
Kate Golby Carp A.B. ’80 Penn Valley, Pennsylvania
Jonathan H. Chou M.B.A. ’99 Singapore
Paul C.G. Dewey Jr. A.B. ’84 Concord, Massachusetts
David W. Erdman B.S.E. ’71 Charlotte, North Carolina
Alexander H. Gorham B.S.E. ’09 Santa Mesa, California
Aruna N. Inalsingh M.B.A. ’95 New York, New York
William Jr. and Cordelia Reardon Laverack A.B. ’80 New Canaan, Connecticut
Tanya Shoenfelt Nizialek B.S.E. ’91 Chantilly, Virginia
Brian O’Dwyer M.B.A. ’05 Singapore
Anna Gunnarsson Pfeiffer A.B. ’77 Potomac, Maryland
Christopher R. Plaut A.B. ’84 Larchmont, New York
Stephen N. A.B. ’79 and Anne Suker Potter A.B. ’79 Kenilworth, Illinois
Brian D. Schwartz A.B. ’75 Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Donald C. Stanners A.B. ’79 Lafayette, California
Linda Hoffman Sterling A.B. ’82, M.B.A. ’83 Montclair, New Jersey
Class of 1983 Reunion Co-Chairs
Brent O.E. Clinkscale ’83, J.D. ’86; Daniel McKenzie Dickinson B.S.E. ’83; Isaac Hughes Green ’83; Roseann V. Hassey ’83; Molly Eden Hendrick ’83; Barbara Eleanor Janulis ’83; Steven Craig Rosner B.S.E. ’83; Eric James Schiffer B.S.E. ’83; Mark Edward Stephanz ’83; Rita McCloy Stephanz ’83; David Lawrence Trautman ’83; Joan Young Trautman ’83; Jeffrey W. Ubben ’83; Sterly Lebey Wilder ’83; Harold Lionel Yoh III B.S.E. ’83; Sharon Crutcher Yoh ’83; Elisa Wholey Zachary ’83; and Audrey Zambetti Zinman ’83
Zaid Abdul-Aleem ’94, A.M. ’96; Jamaal Keith Adams ’97; Sanders Larsen Adu ’94; Valerie J. Barnwell ’79; D. Michael Bennett ’77; Kareem Abdul Cook ’94, M.B.A. ’00; Nia Margaret Fripp ’98; Winston Elliot Henderson B.S.E. ’90, J.D. ’96; Reginald Otto Lyon ’84; Naakoshie Georgette Nartey ’02; Angelene Y. Reid ’76; David Roland Smith B.S.E. ’84; Daniel B. Taylor III ’77; Maurice Orlando Wallace Ph.D. ’95; Melvia Lynn Wallace ’85; and Donald Gary Wine II ’04
