Alumni Award winner Dr. Laurie Patton ’79 and Middlebury senior Claire Abbadi ’12 discuss education during the awards presentation.
Carrying on the tradition that started with acclaimed alumnus John F. Kennedy, Dr. Laurie L. Patton ’79 and Mr. Dodge D. Thompson ’66 received the 2016 Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award for outstanding accomplishments in their professional fields. The presentation ceremony occurred during an all-school meeting on Wednesday, April 6. After the ceremony, Mr. Thompson gave a speech, while Dr. Patton sat down with Choate alumna Claire Abbadi ’12 for an onstage conversation.
Both recipients recalled their transformative experiences at Choate. “The award caused me to really reflect upon the formative experiences I had at Choate. I had to sum up my thoughts to the student body and faculty,” Mr. Thompson remarked regarding his speech.
The Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award was created in 2010 when the Rosemary Hall Alumnae Award merged with the Choate Alumni Seal Prize.
The Choate Alumni Seal Prize originated in 1958, and the first recipient was future President John F. Kennedy ’35. A few years later, in 1965, Rosemary Hall created the Rosemary Hall Alumnae Prize.
Each year, a number of prominent alumni are nominated by fellow alumni or by the school. These nominees are presented to the Alumni Association Nominating and Prize Committee as candidates. According to Ms. Monica St. James, Director of Alumni Relations, several factors are considered when selecting recipients. She explained, “We would like to honor alumni for their major accomplishments.”
She added, “I also think that other alumni feel good about honoring the recipients. What we do is we send the honoree a letter, and then we send a similar letter to members of their class, informing them and inviting them to the presentation. We have some extraordinary people who go far out of their way to come back to this school.”
After Choate, Mr. Thompson earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and, later, an MBA from Harvard. He went on to oversee the preservation of artwork at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, his first step towards a distinguished career in curatorial work. As the Chief of Exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art, he has organized more than 600 exhibitions over the past 30 years. For his work, Mr. Thompson has received multiple awards, including the Chevalier of Arts and Letters from the Republic of France, and the Order of Merit from the Republic of Italy.
In an interview with The Choate News, Mr. Thompson advised, “Always remember you can look through both ends of the telescope. You can gaze at the stars, but also turn the telescope around and enjoy the different view.”
Mr. Thompson credited his accomplishments to former faculty member Mr. Johannes van Straalen. “He was keenly influential on me for a special knowledge of Russian language and history at a very daunting time considering our international relations. In addition, he taught me a life lesson of how to support myself,” said Mr. Thompson.
As for his love for art, Mr. Thompson mentioned the mandatory art history course taught by Mr. Jean Pierre Cosnard. This course introduced Mr. Thompson to what would become a lifelong interest at a time when “these young gentlemen believed that an interest in art must betray a degree of femininity,” as Mr. Cosnard wrote in his proposal for this course in 1983.
Similar to Mr. Thompson, Dr. Patton kindled her passion for education, culture, philosophy, and the arts during her three years studying at Choate.
Dr. Patton, a scholar on religion and a translator of the classical Sanskrit text the Bhagavad Gita, currently serves as the seventeenth President of Middlebury College, and is also the first Choate graduate to head a college or university.
Abbadi interviewed Dr. Patton on stage. Talking about her realization of Choate’s uniqueness after she graduated, Dr. Patton encouraged everyone to fully enjoy the freedom to explore at Choate, a community that she described as exceptionally close and supportive.
She encouraged the students, “Make sure that you remain as rigorous as you are at Choate, but remain open to possibilities in life.”
Both current students and alumni found Mr. Thompson and Dr. Patton’s remarks inspiring. Yuhan Wang ’15 related to Dr. Patton’s words. “There were times the exhaustion and all these challenging things were just being thrown at you and they were probably so overwhelming that you would forget what an amazing opportunity and what an amazing community Choate is. When you look back after you graduate, it’ll only be the sunshine and unicorns,” she commented.
“The presentation gave me great insights about how to utilize our opportunities here at Choate.” Kaki Su ’19 commented. “It’s interesting to hear how both of them went through the same thing as I did, and how their experience at Choate continues to live with them.”
