On April 20, 2010, John K. Binswanger ’54 was honored at the Fairmount Park Conservancy Centennial Celebration as one of the “most dedicated champions of the park.” Featuring remarks by city Mayor Michael A. Nutter and NBC’s Chris Matthews, the celebration raised significant funds for the conservancy, which is dedicated to improving the environment as well as preserving historic treasures. “Great cities have at their heart great public parks and Philadelphia has a park system like no other,” said Katrina L. Wilhelm, executive director of the conservancy.
Vivian Chau Best ’03 was named one of the “Forty Under 40” young Hawaii business leaders by Pacific Business News for her work on her “Give It Fresh Today” program, which enables customers at farmers markets to donate fresh produce to homeless shelters. People normally give canned food to a shelter, but a donation table at a farmers market in Chicago challenged Best to think about “what it would feel like to eat something that was fresh, in season, and locally grown.” Best started the produce donation program with handmade signs, a basket for food, and a jar for monetary donations. In a local TED talk, Best said that they were receiving more than a thousand pounds of donated produce each month. Best graduated from Wesleyan with a bachelor’s degree in art history.
David Nixon ’53, senior partner of the Manchester, N.H., law firm of Nixon, Vogelman, Barry, Slawsky & Simoneau, P.A., received the Chief Justice Frank Rowe Kenison Award from the New Hampshire Bar Foundation. Nixon was chosen for his “substantial contributions to the betterment of New Hampshire citizens through the administration of justice, the legal profession, and the advancement of legal thought.” Nixon, an economics major at Wesleyan, earned his law degree with honors from the University of Michigan Law School. Nixon has served as president of the New England and N.H. Bar Associations. He has received the N.H. Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award, the Distinguished Attorney Award by the N.H. Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence for his service representing abused women and children, and the Public Service Award by the Hillsborough County Law Enforcement Association for his 40 years as chair of its scholarship committee.
Walter J. Pories ’52, MD, professor in the department of surgery at Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, was selected as a 2012–13 recipient of the annual East Carolina University Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award. He joined ECU in 1977 as chair of the department of surgery at the medical school. While at ECU, he modified a type of weight-loss surgery into the “Greenville Gastric Bypass” and showed conclusively that not only does it result in durable weight loss but it also causes a long-term remission of type-2 diabetes. A biology/chemistry major at Wesleyan with a strong humanities background, he earned his MD at the University of Rochester. Among other honors, Pories is the 2001 recipient of O. Max Gardner Award, the highest honor given by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. Pories retired from operating at age 70 but still follows up with former patients and has continued with research related to his Greenville Gastric Bypass and diabetes.
Kimon S. Zachos ’52, a shareholder in the law firm of Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green, was honored by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) with the David C. Knapp Award for Trusteeship. NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas said, “Kimon Zachos’s outstanding record of leadership as a trustee at Southern New Hampshire University was recognized by the Board as being truly exceptional.” He added, “Kimon embodies the combination of political, business and civic experience that has made the New England Board of Higher Education such an effective connector over the decades.” A government major at Wesleyan, Zachos also holds an LL.B. degree from New York University and an LL.M. degree from Boston University. Additionally he received honorary degrees from Southern New Hampshire University and St. Anselm’s College.
Noted author John F. Ross ’81 received the first annual Fort Ticonderoga Prize for Contributions to American History on March 4, 2011. After a national search and in a unanimous vote, the trustees selected Ross for his broad contributions to 18th-century military scholarship with his book War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America’s First Frontier (Random House, 2009), which explores the exploits of the famed and often misunderstood partisan leader Major Robert Rogers. In addition, Ross was also cited for making America’s history accessible through his work as the executive editor of American Heritage Magazine. “John F. Ross is a scholar who understands the importance of bringing history, observation, and experience together when seeking to understand the past,” said Peter Paine, president of the Fort Ticonderoga Board of Directors. At Wesleyan, Ross majored in history. He is also the author of The Polar Bear Strategy: Reflections on Risk in Modern Life (Basic Books, 1999).
Nominated by President Obama in January 2011, and confirmed in March, Eric Postel ’77 joins the leadership team at the U.S. Agency for International Development as assistant administrator for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade. Postel, an experienced economic development expert and financier with a background in emerging markets investments, has worked in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East as an adviser and financial officer. In 2006, he served as Commissioner on the bi-partisan Senate Helping to Enhance the Livelihood of People Around the Globe (HELP) Commission. A mathematics/economics major at Wesleyan, he is also a four-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and a graduate of Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
The law firm of Miller Canfield has elected Megan P. Norris ’83 to serve a two-year term as a managing director, effective January 1, 2011. She is part of a five-person management administration that works with the CEO to oversee the firm’s offices in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Poland and China. A principal in the Detroit, Michigan, office, Norris is leader of the firm’s Employment + Labor Law group practice. She counsels clients on employment matters that include discipline and discharge, discrimination, harassment, and tort claims. She is a nationally recognized expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Cited as a “2011 Leader in the Law” by Michigan Lawyers Weekly, she also has been recognized for her work in The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA and Michigan Super Lawyers. A government and music major at Wesleyan, she earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. Norris is a member of the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees.
Beth Rose ’84, P’14, of Sills Cummis & Gross P.C., was recognized as one of the 10 Most Admired Product Liability attorneys by Law 360: Newswire for Business Lawyers. Rose, whose specialty is defending pharmaceutical and medical device companies facing product liability and mass tort litigation, has “earned a reputation as a quick thinker and a team player,” according to fellow litigators who nominated her for the title. A history major at Wesleyan, she received her JD from Georgetown University Law Center and then joined Sills Cummis.
Sarah Wildman ’96 won the $10,000 Peter R. Weitz Prize from the German Marshall Fund for excellence and originality in reporting on Europe and the transatlantic relationship. Her five-part series, “Paper Love: Inside the Holocaust Archives,” was published in Slate in January 2009. Entwining personal family history with the larger struggle to categorize, analyze, and understand Nazi records and survivor accounts, Wildman examined the International Tracing System (ITS), the world’s largest Holocaust archive, located in Bad Arolsen, Germany. “The story of Bad Arolsen has been told, but not like this…with such detail, dogged pursuit, passion, and deeply felt, first-person storytelling,” said one judge. While her search was ultimately inconclusive, the series illustrated the difficulties facing the field and the shadow the Holocaust continues to cast over Europe. Wildman writes about foreign policy and culture wars for Politics Daily, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times and the Guardian.
