Six distinguished Cornell alumni have been selected to receive the second annual Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award, which recognizes their outstanding service to Cornell volunteer activities.
The 1996 recipients of the award, established in 1994 in the name of President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes, are Esther Schiff Bondareff '37, Richard W. Brown '49, Fred J. Eydt '52, Margaret G. Graf,J.D. '73, Eli Manchester, Jr. '52 and Ernest L. Stern '56. The award winners, all of whom have been extremely active in their clubs, classes, schools and colleges since graduation, will be recognized at a reception and dinner on Saturday, Sept. 21, during this year's Homecoming Weekend.
Esther Bondareff is a retired partner of Bon Foods
Inc. and a past president of the Dreher Park Zoo in West
Palm Beach, Fla. Her alumni activities include being
University Council life member and the first woman president of
the Cornell Club of Washington. She is also the founder
and president of the Women's Continuing Reunion Club.
She has been a Cornell Campaign Council member and currently
is vice president of the Cornell Club of Eastern Florida.
In 1986 Bondareff received the Outstanding Alumni
Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Richard (Dick) Brown is retired as vice president
and assistant to the chairman of Banfi Vintners. He is a
consultant to Banfi Vintners, ECOLAB and Cayuga
Hospitality Advisors. A life member of the University Council and
vice president of the Class of '49, Brown received the
"Hotelie of the Year" Award from the New York City chapter of
the Cornell Society of Hotelmen. He was vice-chairman of
the Cornell Hotel School Leadership Campaign from 1984
to 1989. And he is a former president of the Cornell
Alumni Association, the Cornell Society of Hotelmen and the
Class of '49.
Fred Eydt, president and chief executive officer of
Medallion Hotels, Inc. in New York City, is an emeritus
trustee and a former Board of Trustees Fellow. He also is a
former member of the University Council and its
administrative board, and he is a member emeritus of the Athletic
Alumni Advisory Council. Eydt is chairman of the Cornell Club
of New York's board of directors and chairman of the
Reis Tennis Center Committee, and he served as co-chairman
of the Hotel School Campaign Committee. He also has
served as president of the Class of '52 and is a member of the
Class of '52 Reunion Special Gifts Committee. In 1984 he
was inducted into the Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame.
Margaret Graf is an attorney and partner in the
Los Angeles office of the McDermott, Will and Emery law firm.
She is a life member of the University Council and
has served as its chair and vice chair and as a member of
its administrative board. She is a charter member of
the President's Council of Cornell Women and is chair of
its University Relations Committee. She is active in the
Cornell Campaign and is a national phonathon chair for the
Cornell Fund. Graf has been the chair and a member of the
Human Ecology Advisory Council and is a member of the
Law School Advisory Council.
Eli Manchester is president, chief executive officer and
a director of Kewaunee Scientific Corporation in
Statesville, N.C. He is an emeritus trustee and past chair of the
board's Subcommittee on Alumni Affairs. He is a life member of
the Cornell Council, having served as its chair. He founded
and was the first chair of the Council's Committee on
Admissions. He is a director emeritus and former president of
the Cornell Society of Engineers. In the early '80s, he served
on
a major task force that resulted in a new direction for
the Graduate School of Business Administration and,
more recently, on another task force that studied the
overall direction and organization of Cornell's various alumni
organizations. He was the Class of '52's 40th Reunion
Campaign chair and serves in a similar capacity for the class's
upcoming 45th reunion. He currently is a member of the
advisory councils of the Johnson Graduate School of
Management and the Cornell Men's Glee Club.
Ernest (Ernie) Stern is chairman and chief
executive officer of Thomson Components and Tubes Corporation,
a subsidiary of Thomson-CSF, the large French
electronics group, in Totowa, N.J. Stern is a former member of
the University Council and of its administrative board. He is
a non-trustee member of the Board of Trustees' Committee
on Alumni Affairs and Development, and he has served as
chair of the New York City Campaign Committee. He is Class
of '56 president and has served as 35th Reunion
Campaign chair and/or co-chair for its 25th, 30th, 35th and
40th reunions. The Class of '56 has honored him by endowing
the Ernest L. Stern '56 Library Curatorship for Asia Collections.
He was instrumental in the development of the
Cornell Association of Class Officers and was a long-time
director and member of its board. He is a co-founder and
advisory board member of Cornell's Adult University.
If you would like to attend the dinner for this year's honorees, call (607) 255-2390.