The University of Vermont Alumni Association and UVM Foundation honored outstanding graduates, faculty, and Vermont philanthropist Lois McClure at its annual Reunion & Homecoming weekend celebration on Oct. 10. The “Celebration of Excellence” event featured remarks by UVM president Tom Sullivan, with award citations presented by Alumni Association president Kristina Pisanelli and UVM Foundation president and CEO Richard Bundy, to the following honorees:
Outstanding Young Alumni Award
2014 University of Vermont Alumni Association
Outstanding Young Alumni Award to Lowell Bailey ’05, Lake Placid, N.Y.
Lowell Bailey has been a member of the American National/Olympic biathlon team since 2005 and has competed on the world athletics stage since 1991. His best finishes include 1st in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2006, 3rd in the second sprint event at the World Cup competition in Kontiolahti, Finland, in 2014 and 18th at the Biathlon World Championships in the Mass Start event at Pyeong Chang, South Korea, in 2009. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, he finished 27th in the individual and 9th in the relay events. He held a world ranking of 14th in the 2011-2012 season.
Bailey first garnered national attention as a member of the U.S. Junior National Biathlon Team and a competitor in national and regional Nordic racing while still in high school. He was the Junior National Nordic Champion in 2000 and Junior National Biathlon Champion in 2000 and 2001.
A three-time NCAA All-American with the University of Vermont Nordic Team in 2003, 2004, and 2005, he was UVM’s Student-Athlete of the Year in 2005 and took second place in the NCAA Championships in Hanover, New Hampshire in 2003 and Reno, Nevada, in 2004.
“Although the competition season only takes place in the winter, the training schedule of an elite biathlete typically involves two sessions a day, six days a week, 48 weeks per year,” he says. “Combined with the preparation time for each workout, recovery time, and travel, this amounts to a full-time profession. But, I love my job!”
Bailey has loved music all his life and has played guitar and mandolin, written songs, and performed professionally with other local musicians. His future goals, he says, include working to implement biathlon and skiing as positive, healthy activities among youth within his local community in Lake Placid, New York.
2014 University of Vermont Alumni Association Outstanding Young Alumni Award
to Scott Bailey ’09, Boston, Mass.
Scott Bailey is the senior director of partnerships at MassChallenge, a Boston-based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting and strengthening entrepreneurs. Its mission is to catalyze a startup renaissance — a rebirth of the creative and inspired society that challenges old conventions and strives primarily to create new value in a world in which everyone recognizes that he or she can define the future and is empowered to maximize impact.
In his role, Bailey develops annual fundraising strategies, builds partnerships with public and private organizations, and investigates new expansion initiatives. Bailey plays a critical role in the day-to-day operations of an accelerator program and competition. He connects finalists with key stakeholders, partners, and sponsors and manages the competition judging logistics and the annual awards ceremony. Bailey supports local and global entrepreneurship by frequently hosting international delegations at MassChallenge and volunteers his time to work with entrepreneurs, speak on panels, and mentor college students in the Boston startup community.
After graduating from UVM, he served as the director of client programs at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET), a non-profit technology business incubator. During his time at VCET, Bailey prospected early stage companies for the $5 Million Seed Capital Fund, founded the Entrepreneurship Club, and joined a student run startup, BlirpIt, as director of sales and marketing.
He has played a key role in establishing the UVM alumni affinity group UVME. “I wanted to start the UVME group to bring together people and help alumni see the entrepreneurial spirit that all of us are capable of,” he says. “I have a lot of pride in UVM and the community of alumni that I joined in 2009. I thought that bringing together my best friends and the community was the best way I could give back for the experience I had at UVM.”
Alumni Achievement Award
2014 University of Vermont Alumni Association Achievement Award
to Rob Cox ’89, Newtown, Conn.
Rob Cox is an entrepreneurial journalist who co-founded and built a financial commentary website, Breakingviews.com, which he sold to Thomson Reuters in 2009. Now the Global Editor of Reuters Breakingviews in New York City, Cox oversees an award-winning team of columnists located in New York, London, Hong Kong, Madrid, Beijing, Singapore, Chicago, Washington, and Mumbai. He has worked as a journalist in the United States, UK, Italy, and Japan and travels extensively to meet business leaders, government officials, and investors worldwide.
Cox appears regularly on CNBC and MSNBC and moderates panels at gatherings including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He also hosts The Exchange, a weekly talk show on Reuters.com featuring authors, politicians, philanthropists and business leaders.
After graduating from UVM, Cox lived near Tokyo working on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program and traveling across Asia and Europe. From 1994 to 2000, he worked for Bloomberg News in New York, Milan, and London.
Cox’s many accolades in journalism include recognition from the Society of American business Editors and writers, the Society of Silurians, and Reuters’ Journalist of the Year award. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Daily Beast, New York, Fortune, Esquire, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, and Wall Street Journal.
In 2012, Cox helped found Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit foundation and advocacy group that has become an influential voice in the national debate on gun violence prevention. Cox served as its chairman and continues on the board of directors.
Cox and his wife, Hannah ’89, live in Newtown, Conn. with their two teenage boys, Sam and Ethan.
Distinguished Service Award
2014 University of Vermont Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
to Walter Blasberg ’71, North Hero, Vt.
Walter Blasberg remembers summer as a time for skipping rocks, cycling, and boating in the Champlain Islands when he was a child. He lived in New York and California but returned to the islands every year to vacation. Eventually, friends suggested he take over North Hero House Inn when it came up for sale, and that’s exactly what he did. Blasberg has owned and operated the historic inn, which has been called a jewel in the crown of the Lake Champlain Islands, since 1997. The elegant, 26-room inn has private baths and balconies, some of the islands’ best views, and an outstanding restaurant.
Prior to his life as an innkeeper, Blasberg also compiled some 40 years’ experience in the investment side of the insurance industry, having focused on clean energy fund business development and management. He served as the managing director at Conning & Company, Conning Research & Consulting, Inc., and Conning Asset Management Co., with responsibility for these firms’ client business development. He holds the C.F.A. (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation.
A dedicated volunteer alumnus, Blasberg has worked in numerous capacities on behalf of his alma mater over the years, including as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, Alumni Association representative to the UVM Board of Trustees, chair of the 1971 class gift committee, secretary of the alumni relations class council, and chair of Ira Allen Society Committee. He is also active in the Alumni Career Network.
His daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Blasberg, graduated from the College of Medicine in the Class of 2014.
2014 University of Vermont Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
to Ian D. Boyce ’89, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Ian Boyce is managing partner with Dickmeyer Boyce Financial Management, Inc., in Fort Wayne, Indiana. A Certified Financial Planner, he began his career in financial services in 1998 at J.P. Morgan Chase. In 2004, he and Dave Dickmeyer formed Dickmeyer Boyce Financial Management, Inc. Together they have built a successful advisory practice that now serves over 250 clients and manages over $125 million in assets.
In addition to earning accolades for his business acumen, Boyce is celebrated as one of the greatest success stories of the UVM athletics program. A standout hockey star at UVM who went on to play in the NHL and IHL for ten years following graduation, he collected numerous honors along the way. Perhaps the best two-way forward to ever play for the Catamounts, the 1999 UVM Hall of Fame inductee helped lead Vermont to its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1988. In 1989 he captained the only Vermont team that reached the ECAC Division I championship game. The St. Laurent, Quebec, native was the 1989 winner of the Semans Trophy for leadership, loyalty, and service to UVM.
Boyce was a key member of Coach Mike Gilligan’s first recruiting class in 1985-86. A unanimous selection by his teammates as captain for his senior year, he scored a career-high 42 points in 1988-89. That year the Cats made it to the ECAC semifinals at Boston Garden for the second straight time — the first and still the only back-to-back trips to the ECAC semis in UVM hockey history.
A leader both on and off the ice, Boyce has served in a volunteer capacity for numerous organizations in and around his home community of Fort Wayne and as an alumnus on behalf of the University of Vermont. He served as a member of the UVM Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2012, two of those years as its chair.
George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award
2014 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award to Donna Rizzo, Burlington, Vt.
Donna Rizzo, professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Dorothean Chair in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, is the recipient of the 2014 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award.
Rizzo joins the select group of UVM faculty recognized over the years for excellence in teaching by virtue of her ability to ignite a passion for learning and discovery in so many UVM students. Rizzo has received more than $8 million in research funding and was recently named to the Dorothean Chair in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, which honors faculty whose work promises to advance the field, who are doing major scholarly work with graduate students, and who teach basic engineering to undergraduates.
Professor Rizzo’s research focus is on the development of new computational tools to improve the understanding of human-induced changes on natural systems, particularly groundwater, and the way decisions are made about natural resources.
The recipient of numerous grants including a prestigious National Science Foundation award, Rizzo has been a tireless steward of the highly successful Barrett Undergraduate Research Program, which has enabled undergraduate students in CEMS the opportunity to do research prior to entering a graduate program. Professor Rizzo’s prowess as a researcher and her engaging manner in the classroom have inspired some 80 undergraduates to assist her in her research.
Above all, it is her gift for teaching that inspires and motivates her students and earned her the UVM Alumni Association’s George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award for 2014.
Leadership in Philanthropy Award
2014 Leadership in Philanthropy Award to Lois Howe McClure, Shelburne, Vt.
Giving with “warm hands” is a guiding principle for Lois McClure’s philanthropic work. The J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation, a supporting organization of the Vermont Community Foundation, was established in 1995 to continue the tradition of project-oriented, collaborative philanthropy practiced by the McClures.
Over the years, McClure and her husband, the late Warren “Mac” McClure, have provided generous support to the University of Vermont and other Vermont organizations including Fletcher Allen Health Care, Champlain College, St. Michael’s College, Community College of Vermont, Lyndon State College, Vermont Technical College, Shelburne Museum, the United Way’s Legacy Fund, the Vermont Respite House, Rokeby Museum, ECHO at the Leahy Center, the McClure Multigenerational Center, Trinity Church in Shelburne, Burlington Community Land Trust, Vermont Historical Society, the Visiting Nurse Association, Community Health Center (Burlington), Lund Family Center, and the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge. She has served as a board member, honorary board member, or campaign committee member for many of these organizations. She is the namesake of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s Lois McClure, a replica 1862-class sailing schooner launched in 2004 with her support and which tours Lake Champlain in summer as the Champlain Valley’s ambassador to history.
McClure’s deep commitment to UVM dates back to 1978, when she and Mac named the Howe addition to the Bailey-Howe library for her father. Since then, multiple gifts have been made to the university. In 2008, McClure made a $5 million gift to create the Center on Aging at UVM, the largest single gift ever donated by the McClure family. Thanks to this generous gift, the center is able to focus research and scholarly work on the significant social, political, economic, and health impacts brought about by an aging population, with benefits that accrue to the common good.
About the Alumni Awards
The Alumni Distinguished Service Award has been awarded since 1958 to volunteer alumni leaders whose service to the University of Vermont and the Alumni Association has enhanced the reputation and furthered the mission of the university.
The Alumni Achievement Award has been awarded to alumni since 1985 for outstanding achievement that has been recognized at the local, state, and/or national level.
The Young Alumni Award has been awarded since 1979 to alumni who graduated within the past ten years for volunteer service to the University of Vermont and to the Alumni Association, and for commitment to furthering the mission of the University.
The George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award was established by the UVM Alumni Association in 1974 to honor excellence in teaching. It is given annually to a faculty member nominated by alumni, students, faculty, and staff for significant contributions to the broadening of students' academic experience and the enrichment of campus life. The award is named in honor of the late Dean Emeritus George V. Kidder '22, who served the University of Vermont for more than 70 years.
About the UVM Foundation Leadership in Philanthropy Award
For the first time in 2012, the University of Vermont Foundation added to the great tradition of alumni association recognitions with a new award — the Leadership in Philanthropy Award — presented to a deserving individual or couple for a passionate commitment to furthering the efforts of philanthropy at UVM through their leadership, vision, volunteerism and personal philanthropy. Recipients of this award must be lifetime members of UVM’s Ira Allen Society with demonstrated impact in promoting and expanding philanthropy that supports the University of Vermont.