College Declares Campaign Victory; Honors Snyderman and Kerr
At Convocation
This was not your typical Washington’s Birthday Convocation.
 A
celebratory mood enhanced an unseasonably warm day in February
as the College community gathered to mark the end of the College’s
most successful campaign in history. The College closed its
five-year Campaign for Washington’s College on December
31, 2003, with a grand total of $103.4 million.
Friends and supporters gathered in Johnson Lifetime Fitness
Center to salute the work of the Campaign leadership and to
celebrate the achievements brought about by the Campaign. Speaking
on behalf of the Board of Visitors and Governors, John Moag
expressed his gratitude to President John Toll, who is concluding
his presidency this academic year.
“John Toll has done more for this institution than anyone
could imagine,” Moag said. “He’s a tough act
to follow.”
The Board would elect his successor, Baird Tipson, the following
day.
As a token of gratitude for the man who enhanced the quality
and value of the education the College offers its students while
elevating the school’s national reputation, Darrin Brozene
’05, president of the Student Government Association,
presented Toll with the first Washington College class ring.
A second ring was given to  Sheryl
V. Kerr, who led the Board’s development committee throughout
the Campaign.
Kerr is president and life trustee of the Grayce B. Kerr Fund,
one of 17 of the highest-level donors to the Campaign. She also
serves as executive vice president of the Brookside Company
in Easton, MD. An emerita member of the College’s Board
of Visitors and Governors, she served from 1997 until 2003.
In awarding Kerr the honorary degree of public service, President
Toll called her “a woman of purpose whose philanthropic
aim is to elevate the human spirit and to shape a world in which
that spirit can flourish. As evidenced by the Grayce B. Kerr
Fund’s support in the areas of education, health care
and the arts —here on the Shore and across the country—Shery
Kerr understands what makes our nation great. With the extraordinary
commitment that she and her husband, Breene, have made to this
institution, she has helped us to recognize how great we might
become. Her faith in the power of education, her affection for
our students, and her business acumen have brought us to this
moment.”
“It’s been a real honor to have served with the
best president, the best president’s wife, and the best
board I’ll ever see,” Kerr remarked upon accepting
her honorary degree. “This is a place that does something
special. The education these students get is a rare experience.”
Ralph Snyderman ’61, chancellor for health affairs at
Duke University School of Medicine and president and CEO of
the Duke University Health Systems, received the honorary doctor
of science degree.
“As the medical community and patients alike bemoan the
nation’s ponderous health care system, Ralph Snyderman
is providing the visionary leadership that promises to revolutionize
the very practice of medicine,” Toll remarked.
Snyderman is a proponent of a new approach to medicine that
emphasizes risk assessment, personal health planning, prevention
and early intervention. This approach promises to improve outcomes
while controlling health care costs. Under Snyderman’s
initiative, Duke has developed pilot programs to foster prospective
health care, and is developing models to use genomic medicine
to improve personalized health planning.
“It is our fervent hope that these are but the first steps
in a national movement toward wholesale health care reform and
a healthier citizenry,” Toll said.
In addition to his responsibilities at Duke, Snyderman has been
instrumental in garnering financial support for the new Science
Center from various foundations as well as alumni in the medical
field. He has served on the Board of Visitors and Governors
since 2000.
“I recall a day some 40 years ago, when on a Friday afternoon
much like this, my friends and I were preparing for a fraternity
party hosted by Phi Sigma Kappa when these ‘suits’
walked by,” Snyderman told the audience. “I remember
thinking, ‘I’m so happy I’m me and not one
of them.’ Well, today, I am ‘one of them,’
and I’m thrilled to have had my life formed by this college.”
Snyderman, a first-generation American from Brooklyn, NY, said
he came upon Washington College by chance, and immediately fell
in love with the place. “I was a city kid,” he recalls.
“I had never been in the country before. Pretty soon I
knew everybody in my class, and the faculty really cared about
me. When I applied to medical school the director of admissions
said he was familiar with Washington College, but had never
had an application. I think they took me as an oddity.”
The next morning, Snyderman demonstrated that “odd”
liberal arts background by making a guest appearance before
an English class studying the plays and short stories of Anton
Chekhov, a Russian writer and physician. Snyderman noted that
Chekhov’s year of birth coincided with the development
of the microscope, and that he brought a medical sensibility
to his writings. “Objectivity became critical to the practice
of medicine,” Snyderman noted. “Chekhov writes about
things objectively, but his characters tell a powerful story.
And the doctor is always a prominent figure.” |
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