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Alumni

Thomas K. Boone '72C and Cordelia Flowers Boone '74C
David Bray '01C '04PH
Judith London Evans '69C
Paul '63C-'66L and Ruth McLarty
J. Davidson "Dusty" Porter '85C
Wendy Rosenberg-Nadel '82C
Judson C. "Jake" Ward Jr. '33C '36G


Thomas K. Boone '72C and Cordelia Flowers Boone '74C

Thomas K. Boone '72C and Cordelia Flowers Boone '74C and familyThomas K. Boone '72C and Cordelia Flowers Boone '74C have been very active and supportive alumni with the Dallas, Texas, chapter of the Association of Emory Alumni. They have hosted numerous "Let's Go Emory" send-off parties that welcome local students who have chosen to attend Emory. In addition, they have provided generous support to the Emory College Fund for Excellence and the Athletics Track Fund.

Their family has longstanding ties to the Emory community: Cordelia's father, Dr. Paul C. Flowers, was a 1939 School of Medicine graduate, and three of her siblings also graduated from Emory. Tom and Cordelia's daughter, Dorothy '05C, was the captain of the cross country team in her senior year.

After receiving his degree in history, Tom attended the University of Texas Law School and then joined his family law firm Boone, Boone & Phillips, founded by his grandfather, in Dallas.

At Emory, Cordelia was involved with Kappa Alpha Theta and was actually one of the first students to live in the sorority's new lodges. She earned a degree in psychology and, after moving to Dallas, worked for a social service agency and taught preschool for a few years before becoming more involved with community activities and raising five children (Delia, Dorothy, Mary Florence, Elizabeth and Robert).

Both Tom and Cordelia are active members of their church and participate in numerous volunteer and charitable organizations. She is a member of the board of trustees for the Children's Medical Center of Dallas, and he has served as president for La Fiesta de las Seis Banderas, which raises funds for charity. Along with their children, they enjoy spending time on their 500-acre cattle ranch in East Texas where they take pleasure in swimming, fishing, hunting, riding horses, and sitting on the porch.


David Bray '01C '04PH

David Bray '01C '04PHDavid Bray '01C '04PH  has rung up an impressive list of accomplishments since graduating six years ago. Within months of receiving his diploma, he found himself thrust into a leadership role at the CDC because of the events of September 11th. As information technology chief for CDC's Bioterrorism Preparedness & Response Program, he worked days and nights during the national emergency. He also helped to coordinate responses to the anthrax attacks, emergence of SARS, national outbreak of monkeypox, and other emergencies. During much of this time, he was pursuing an MSPH at the Rollins School of Public Health. Never one to sit still, he is now pursing a PhD in information systems at Goizueta Business School.

To his friends and colleagues, what makes Bray's achievements even more special is his humanitarianism, especially his ability to put people and collaboration before technology. As a student of Emory College, he received the Humanitarian Award. He regularly volunteers with Habitat for Humanity locally, and has served as a crew leader and EMT on Habitat for Humanity International trips to the Philippines, Romania, Nepal, Ghana, South Korea, and Thailand. In fact, he and his wife were in Thailand during the tsunami response and spent their holidays helping to construct new homes after the disaster. More recently, during the summer of 2007, he was a guest lecturer at Oxford University, courtesy of a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship.

 


Judith London Evans '69C

Judith London Evans '69CJudith London Evans '69C (psychology) learned the importance of "giving back," both in terms of time and money from her father, Dr. Irving London '35C '38M. From 1992 to 1995, she served a three-year term on the inaugural Dean's Council for Emory College. She has also been involved with the creation of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and with women's issues on campus as an active participant at the Center for Women. In December 2003, she joined a panel discussion entitled "Emory Women Through the Years" to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of women being admitted to the College.

Since 1971, Mrs. Evans has worked at TIAA-CREF, one of the largest financial service providers in the world. As director of corporate meetings and special events, she manages the unit responsible for meeting by the boards of trustees, executive management team, and large internal groups of employees.

Mrs. Evans resides in New York City with her husband, Eli N. Evans, who is president emeritus of the Charles H. Revson Foundation and an author. They have one son, Josh Evans, who is an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Paul '63C-'66L and Ruth McLarty

Paul '63C-'66L and Ruth McLartyWhen the Emory chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity was named "top chapter" among 124 others in the U.S. last fall, Paul McLarty '63C-'66L had good reason to be proud. Since 1988, the Decatur-based lawyer and alumni chapter leader (who also received top ATO honors) has made it his personal mission to return the ATO house to its former glory days when he was a member in the early 1960s.

In the process, he and his wife, Ruth, have come to represent "the best of our Emory ambassadors," says Allison Dykes, vice president of alumni relations. They employ students in their businesses (his law firm and her title company), host gatherings for students, open their house to guests at the Highlands Weekend event, serve on the Emory Alumni Board, and donate to the Miller-Ward Alumni House.

More recently, they have turned their attention to helping students with endowed scholarships. In addition to a fund in the College, they have established an annual scholarship in the Law School that is given only to students who attended Emory College. "I'm interested in building alumni relationships," says Paul McLarty, "so this gives me a shot at developing a relationship that is long lasting."

And to ensure their legacy of giving continues to help future generations of students, they've set up estate planning in their wills.

Isabel Garcia '99L, a lawyer in McLarty's firm who has benefited firsthand from his mentorship, says the McLartys are absolutely devoted to their cause. "There is no limit to the generosity Paul and Ruth give to Emory students," she says.


J. Davidson "Dusty" Porter '85C

J. Davidson "Dusty" Porter '85CWhen most alumni talk about their Emory experience, they tend to look back and reminisce about the way things were. J. Davidson "Dusty" Porter '85C, on the other hand, looks back and forward. Porter, the incoming president of the Emory Alumni Board, says Emory meant as much to him as a young man as it means now that he's in his forties and even as he looks ahead.

"It involves a shared sense of priorities," said Porter during a recent phone conversation from his office at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where he serves as vice president for student affairs.

"I've watched the programs and centers that I really believe in continue to flourish. I've seen how campus life has focused on leadership development efforts and worked with students on differences and diversity. And I've been proud of the fact that Emory has taken specific steps to support students of different sexual orientation on campus."

Porter first became involved in campus life as an undergraduate—he learned the ropes of working with students by being an active member of several student organizations, including the Chi Phi fraternity, and as a resident advisor in his dorm. In fact, he believes that his RA experience formed the cornerstone of his career in student affairs because it was so positive. Besides, he added with a laugh, "Once you've been an RA in the Dobbs Pit (the bottom floor of Dobbs), you have nowhere to go but up...so to speak."

Other activities that shaped his future included being a "senior interviewer" in the Admissions Office (a select group of seniors actually interviewed applicants back then), working in the AMUC (now the DUC) as a building manager, and directing or acting in many of the shows put on by Ad Hoc Productions.

In the classroom, his moment of epiphany came while taking psychology courses (including those taught by Professor David Edwards) that focused on why people behave the way they do, particularly within organizations. "It was amazing to me that I could study something in classes that interested me in life," he said.

While working on his doctorate in college student personnel from the University of Maryland, College Park, he reignited his Emory experience by joining the Washington, D.C. alumni chapter.

"I reconnected with alumni I knew and met new alumni who were moving into the area," said Porter. "It was a nice way of enjoying cultural and social events, restaurants and museums while connecting with people."

These days, he considers himself lucky to have an affinity with the University as a student and as a member of the alumni board. To show his appreciation and his support of Emory during its current capital campaign, he recently made the decision to make a bequest to Emory in his will (albeit with the understanding that "hopefully it will take a long time before that gift is bequeathed").

Even his gift involves looking back and forward. As a young man, Emory made a difference in his life. Now he sees "how important it is for other students to receive the Emory experience so they can make a difference in the world through their gifts."


Wendy Rosenberg-Nadel '82C

Wendy Rosenberg-Nadel '82CWendy Rosenberg-Nadel '82C seems to have a natural instinct for volunteerism. While only a sophomore at Emory, she and Debbie Genzer '82C launched Volunteer Emory, creating one of the University's signature organizations that still spreads the spirit of volunteerism throughout the community over twenty-five years later.

Since graduation, she has continued to pursue her interests in the nonprofit field and public service. She worked for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation (earning a master's of education in counseling psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University) before starting a consulting business that focuses on communications, strategic planning, and board management for nonprofits. As chairman of the Byram Hills Education Foundation, she has raised funds to support local schools; she also lent her skills as communications director for a local political campaign. Several years ago she was deeply involved on issues surrounding child poverty in the U.S. for Save the Children, her work resulting in a book (The web of support: Providing safe, nurturing, learning environments during out-of-school time, 2000) and her own testimony before Congress on child poverty.

Thanks to the "Emory Cares" program, in which alumni join with others to participate in service projects around the world, Nadel became involved with a newly revived New York City alumni chapter, leading her to reconnect to Emory in other ways. Over the last few years, shehas been dedicated to Emory in many capacities, including founding chair of the Westchester County Alumni Chapter, Emory Alumni Board member, chair for the Student-to-Alumni Experience Committee, Class of 1982 Reunion Committee member and class gift chairman.


Judson C. "Jake" Ward Jr. '33C '36G

Judson C. "Jake" Ward Jr. '33C '36GNo history of the College is complete without a mention of Judson C. "Jake" Ward Jr. '33C '36G. Born on the same weekend in 1912 that the Titanic sank, Ward began his studies at Emory in the fall of 1929 a few months prior to another milestone in U.S. history, the beginning of the Great Depression. In hindsight, it seems little wonder that Ward chose to become a history professor rather than a lawyer. Almost eighty years later, Ward is still at Emory as dean of alumni and works in a building that honors his legacy, the "Miller-Ward" House.

His fifty-plus year career in education spans teaching at several colleges, including West Point during his stint in the army, and in 1947 becoming the youngest college president (Georgia Teachers College at Statesboro) in Georgia at the time, a post he held before being promoted to assistant chancellor of the state university system. Fifteen years after graduating from Emory, he returned as dean of the College, where he proceeded to establish a more rigorous admission process, raise the standards for matriculation, and help build Emory's early doctoral programs. Under his leadership, women entered the College as residential students for the first time in 1953. Four years later he was promoted to vice president and dean of faculties of the University. In 1970 was named executive vice president, a position from which he retired in 1979 before rejoining the University in 1985 as alumni dean.

In addition to serving Emory throughout his life, he has also been a long-time supporter and has a record of thirty-nine consecutive years of giving (as far back as the records were kept). The Judson C. Ward Consecutive Giving Society was established in 2006 to honor him and those individuals who support Emory University through sustained annual giving.

Frequently cited for his intellect, humor, charm, wisdom, Ward has received the Award of Honor of the Association of Emory Alumni (AEA), the Thomas Jefferson Award, and the Freedom Foundation Award. He is as famous in some circles for teaching his "Couples Class" for over thirty years at Glenn Memorial as he is in other younger circles for hosting his "Jake's Open House," an annual Halloween party open to the Emory community.

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