Convocation 2009 ::Bicentennial Medalists

John F. Raynolds III
Class of 1951

Still fresh from Williams, you served in the Korean War as a diver in the Navy underwater demolition team that was the first ever to carry out an assignment having leapt from a helicopter – an operation that led to the development of the famous U.S. Navy Seals. From this time of derring-do and a lifelong devotion to mountaineering and backpacking, you developed a passion for the kinds of experiential learning afforded by the outdoors and have devoted much of your career to expanding its reach. This includes ten years as President and CEO of Outward Bound U.S.A., during which time it more than quadrupled its students per year and began its programs to urban populations and public schools. These efforts gave rise to what is now an entire industry of outdoor education, helping students of all ages to develop character, self-confidence, and a sense of service. Always one to practice what you preach, you have experienced more than forty Outward Bound trips of your own and for years have participated in the New York City Marathon with a disabled runner. While we begin to tire just hearing about it all, you continue to challenge yourself and all those brave, or is it wise, enough to answer your call.

In recognition of your distinguished achievement in experiential education, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.

Mark E. Udall
Class of 1972

Few have followed more fully the Hopkins Gate admonition to “climb high, climb far.” A Winter Study project analyzing the snow pack in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains confirmed your love of the outdoors and led to twenty years of service to Colorado Outward Bound – ten as Course Director and ten as Executive Director. At the same time you managed to climb many of the tallest mountains in the world, including the more than fifty peaks in Colorado above fourteen thousand feet. Following a personal and family commitment to public service, you won election to the Colorado General Assembly and, only a year later, to the first of five terms in the U.S. Congress. There you helped craft legislation to protect much of Colorado’s wilderness and to turn the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant into a wildlife refuge. Now you have ascended to the U.S. Senate, from where you can see even more deeply into what you call the new frontier of American energy policy, calling for a modern-day Manhattan Project to develop renewable sources as a step toward national self-sufficiency. America, you have said, is on the cusp of a green revolution, one that you are now in a position to lead from high ground.

In recognition of your distinguished achievement in the public service, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.

Gary L. Fisketjon
Class of 1976

Not many fiction editors become public figures. But then there is you. At a young age you revolutionized the publishing of fiction by creating the Vintage Contemporaries series, which combined classic writers with newcomers, including your classmate Jay McInerney, and published them first in paperback, thus launching what has become the trade book industry. The result was wide expansion in the readership of new fiction. You went on to discover, nurture, and champion many of the great writers of our time . . . including Cormac McCarthy, Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Annie Dillard, Haruki Murakami, and our favorite son Jim Shepard . . . so many, it has been said, that it is easier to name the ones that you haven’t. They universally praise your ability to read closely (at an attentive five pages per hour), comment wisely, and argue confidently while always in the end letting the author decide. You became the second-ever recipient of the Maxwell E. Perkins Award, at the presentation of which Richard Ford cited what he called your “truly profound editorial genius.” At the same time, you have managed, somewhat implausibly, to make book editing cool, appearing on so many social pages in your Western clothes and boots, as if a character yourself from a book.

In recognition of your distinguished achievement in publishing, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.

Karen M. Ashby
Class of 1979

Inspired by the family closeness of your own upbringing, you leapt at the chance, after Williams, law school, and private practice, to serve in Juvenile Court instead of waiting for what many counseled would be a more prestigious judgeship. You certainly have never looked back. As Presiding Judge of the Denver Juvenile Court you have worked creatively to improve the lives of countless children under duress. Among the many ways that you have hastened the delivery of justice has been through pioneering the system by which charges against parents for both drug and neglect violations can be heard jointly. Your reputation for intelligence, compassion, and fairness has led to appointment as a member of the Colorado Supreme Court’s Family Issues Committee, the Standing Committee for Family Issues, and the Legislative Task Force on the Mentally Ill in the Criminal Justice System. And, having made Denver’s Juvenile Court a model for the nation, you were appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and been honored with the American Association of University Women’s Trailblazer Award. All this reinforces the belief, as you have said, that “the decisions we make in Juvenile Court are the most important that judges can make because they shape the lives of young people.”

In recognition of your distinguished achievement in family law, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.

Mika Brzezinski
Class of 1989

As co-host of The New York Times’ top news program of 2008, you and Joe Scarborough have fashioned early mornings on MSNBC a format of reporting, commentary, and interviews with a wide following, especially among political leaders. Your early career included a series of programs on local teen pregnancy produced during Winter Study for Willinet. After reporting and anchoring stints in Hartford you jumped to CBS, eventually serving as anchor of “The CBS Evening News Weekend Edition” and a frequent contributor to “CBS Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes.” September 11 found you the network’s main “Ground Zero” reporter, broadcasting live as the South Tower collapsed. Now, on the program that should be called “Morning Mika” but for some reason is called “Morning Joe” you have become known for your quick intelligence and iconoclasm. You once even refused, on a day marked with developments in the Iraq War, to lead a newscast with yet another item about Paris Hilton. When your producer persisted, you tried live on the air to burn the script and later to shred it, in a triumphant blow for the self-esteem of television reporters everywhere that became one of the biggest YouTube hits that side of Susan Boyle.

In recognition of your distinguished achievement in broadcast journalism, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.