8 alumni to be honored with the Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award
Eight distinguished Cornell alumni have been selected to
receive 2002 Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni
Service Awards, which recognize their outstanding
long-term service to Cornell volunteer activities.
The 2002 recipients of the award, established in 1994 in the name of
President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes, are: Lilyan
H. Affinito '53; Alice Katz Berglas '66; John L. Kirschner '51, LLB '53; Joe R.
McAfee '63, MBA '66; Nancy Cooke McAfee '63; William R. Robertson '34; Charles
T. Stewart '40; and Patricia Carry Stewart '50. The award winners, all of whom have
been extremely active in their clubs, classes, schools and colleges since graduation,
will be honored this weekend during Homecoming festivities. The following profiles
were excerpted from the recognition program for the
Friday, Sept. 27, awards ceremony.
Lilyan H. Affinito: Co-founder in
1990 of the President's Council of Cornell Women, Affinito has served as a
Presidential Councillor since 1994 and on the University Council since 1973. She was
elected by alumni to the Cornell Board of Trustees and was twice re-appointed by the
board, serving as a trustee from 1981 to 1994. She chaired the trustees' Membership,
Buildings and Properties and Proxy Review committees. Affinito has served on the
Weill Cornell Medical College Board of Overseers and co-chaired the Class of
1953's 40th and 45th Reunion Major Gifts Campaign. She was president of the
Cornell Women's Club of New York City and the Federation of Cornell
Women's Clubs Board, president of the Cornell
Association of Class Officers (CACO) and national
chair of the Tower Club and of the Cornell Fund. She also has served on the advisory
councils for the Johnson Graduate School of Management, the School of Hotel Administration,
the Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program and the Cornell Catholic
Community.
Alice Katz Berglas: Berglas has
been president of the Class of '66 since 1996 and its reunion leader for five reunions. She
is serving her third term on the University Council. A past board member and past vice
president of CACO, she currently is a Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador;
co-founder of CACO's oral history project,
Preserving the Past; and scholarship chair of the
Cornell Club-New York. She has coordinated forums and celebrations highlighting many
of the divisions of the university. She co-chairs
the Cornell '60s and, with her brother, Bob '69, actively supports the Big Red
Band. Together, they regularly welcome the band to New
York City for its biennial Cornell/Columbia post-football game parade
and festivities down Fifth Avenue -- a parade created
by their father, Seymour M. (Sy) Katz '31, and now named for him.
John L. Kirschner: A life member
of the University Council since 1996, Kirschner served three four-year terms
beginning in 1977. For four decades, he has met with students applying to Cornell
and has enlisted, trained and supported alumni in leadership roles with the Cornell Club
of Greater Buffalo, with which he has held various positions for 36 years. He served
as co-chair of the Buffalo City Campaign Committee, vice chair of the Tower Club
and chair and co-chair of the Cornell Fund of the Greater Buffalo Area. He chaired
the Buffalo area's Major Gifts Committee from 1974 to 1976 and the area's Law Fund
for four years. He was president of the Cornell Law Association, and he remains a
dedicated Class of '51 volunteer.
Joe R. McAfee and Nancy Cooke
McAfee: Joe and Nancy McAfee are current members of the University Council. From 1992 to 1996, Joe McAfee was
a member of the Council Administrative Board and served as an ex-officio
member of the board of directors of the Cornell Research Foundation. He is a member of
the Cornell Technology Transfer Committee, which he chaired from 1992 to 1996.
He also is a member of the Tower Club Committee and has served as publicity chair
and director of the Cornell Club of Northeastern Ohio. He has been a member of the board
of the Cornell Society of Engineers since 1983, having served as secretary and
president. He has been a Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador since 1968 and has been on
the Minority Recruiting Committee since 1989.
Nancy McAfee served as the University Council's vice chair from 1997 to 1998
and as an ex-officio member of the Administrative Board and as a member of the
Student and Academic Services Committee, the Cultural Endeavors Committee and the
Campus Life Committee. She was president of the Cornell Alumni Federation from
1995 to 1997, during which time the federation's Grant Program and Cornell VISA
Card Program were inaugurated, and she has served as director of the Cornell Club
of Northeastern Ohio.
William R. Robertson: Robertson merits distinction as a charter member
of the University Council in 1951 and continues his involvement as a lifetime
member. From 1959 to 1961 he served as the
council's chair and president of its
Administrative Board. He has been a member of the
Cornell Board of Trustees since 1966, trustee
emeritus since 1981 and a Presidential Councillor since 1982. He founded the
Cornell Club of New Hampshire and served as its president, 1976-86, and as its
treasurer. During the Cornell Campaign, he served
on the Student Aid Committee and the City Campaign Committee. He is a former
national chair of the Cornell Fund and chaired the Planned Giving Committee from
1965 to 1970. Since 1966, has served as president of the Class of '34.
Charles T. Stewart and Patricia Carry
Stewart: The Stewarts are both Presidential Councillors, trustees emeriti
and former vice chairs of the board of trustees. Chuck Stewart served as a trustee
from 1963 to 1983 and chaired both the Executive Committee and the Buildings and
Properties Committee. He also served as vice chair of the Nominating Committee and
on the Investment and Development Committees. He has been a member of the
University Council since 1954. During the Cornell Campaign he served as a member of
the Major Gifts Committee and the Campaign Council. Pat Stewart is co-founder of
the President's Council of Cornell Women and has been a member of the University
Council since 1965, serving as its chair from 1972 to 1974. She served on the board of
trustees from 1967 to 1995, chairing its Committee on Academic Affairs and Campus
Life, Membership Committee and Proxy Review Committee, and she served as vice chair
of the Investment Committee and on the Development Committee. She was
national chair of the Cornell Fund from 1980 to
1983 and was president of the Class of 1950. She chaired the advisory council for the
College of Arts and Sciences. The Stewarts are
both life members of the medical college's Board of Overseers and are Cornell Benefactors.
September 26, 2002
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