SU alumni to be honored as Arents MedalistsMay 26, 2004Matthew R. Snydermrsnyder@syr.edu
Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw H’04 and Associate of the Chancellor Mary Ann Shaw H’04, along with four other Syracuse University alumni, will be honored on June 5 with the 2004 George Arents Pioneer Medals for outstanding accomplishments, the highest alumni honor the University bestows. The medals will be presented during the Arents Award Dinner, part of the University’s Reunion Weekend, June 4-6.
The Shaws will be presented with George Arents Pioneer Medals for excellence in the field of educational administration. They each received honorary degrees at SU’s 150th Commencement on May 9.
Other honorees receiving Arents Medals are the Rev. Joseph C. Ehrmann Jr. ’73 (for excellence in the field of ministry), Carole Wolfe Korngold ’57 (education), Kenneth R. Sparks ’56, G’61, G’64 (public service), and Martin J. Whitman ’49 (business).
For more information on the Arents Medals, the Arents Award Dinner and Reunion Weekend, call SU’s Alumni Relations Office at (315) 443-3516 or (800) SUALUMS (782-5867).
Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw H’04 and Mary Ann Shaw H’04In August 1991, Kenneth A. “Buzz” Shaw became Syracuse University’s 10th Chancellor and President. As a result of Shaw’s leadership, SU has become one of the nation’s leading student-centered research universities. SU is one of the few higher education institutions to have improved nearly every facet of campus life during the tough economic times of the 1990s, during which
SU faced its own budget cuts of more than $60 million and 600 jobs. Today, SU enjoys greater financial resources, greater student and faculty diversity; stronger student enrollment and retention; and continued affordability to make higher education more accessible to students.
Shaw’s leadership extends well beyond the SU campus. He assumed an active leadership role with the NCAA, chairing the Basketball Issues Committee and the Division I board of directors. He also chairs the Commissioner’s Advisory Council on Higher Education for the New York State Education Department, is a member of the New York State Commission on Education Reform and serves on the board of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Locally, Shaw chairs the Metropolitan Development Association and has served as chair of the MDA’s Health Care and Educational Services Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, Unity Mutual Life Insurance Company, the University Hill Corp., the Museum of Science and Technology and the Policy Council of Success by Six, and is a member of the executive committee of Syracuse 20/20.
Previously, Shaw was president of the University of Wisconsin System (1986-91). He also has served as chancellor of the Southern Illinois University System (1979-86), president of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (1977-79), and vice president and dean of Towson State University (1969-77).
Shaw earned a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University, a master of education degree from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from Purdue University. He announced last year that he will retire from the Chancellorship; after he steps down on July 31, Shaw will take a year’s leave of absence and then return to teaching and assume other responsibilities as assigned by incoming Chancellor Nancy Cantor and the Board of Trustees.
Mary Ann Shaw has broad experience in education, fund development and community service. At SU, she helped create and works closely with the Center for Public and Community Service, which promotes and facilitates public and community service as a fundamental part of the teaching and learning experience for students, faculty, and staff. Mary Ann Shaw was an original founder of the SU Literacy Corps, was instrumental in the creation of the Pulse
Program (previously known as Arts Adventure) and also helped develop a successful relationship between SU and the High School for Leadership and Public Service in New York City.
Prior to her appointment at SU, Mary Ann Shaw was vice president of fund development and marketing for the United Way of Dane County, in Madison, Wisc. Before moving to Wisconsin in 1986, she was director of The Reading Center in Edwardsville, Ill., and served as a visiting lecturer at Southern Illinois University.
In the Syracuse metropolitan area, Mary Ann Shaw is chair of the Steering Committee for the development of the Central New York Children’s Hospital at University Hospital. She also is the chair of the Capital Campaign for the Children’s Hospital. She was instrumental in the development of United Way’s Success By Six, an innovative community collaboration to ensure that area children are ready to learn and be successful when they enter school, and is currently the chair of its finance and administrative committee. Currently, she is on the board of directors of Lifetime Healthcare Inc., the Salvation Army of the Syracuse Area, Syracuse Stage, Syracuse Symphony, and Central New York Community Foundation.
Mary Ann Shaw holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in education from Towson University.
The Rev. Joseph C. Ehrmann Jr. ’73Playing for the Baltimore Colts in the mid-1970s, All-American defensive tackle and former SU player Joseph C. Ehrmann Jr. ’73 helped his team to three straight division titles.
Nearly 30 years later, Erhmann is sharing his talent in a completely different way-by ministering to the secular and spiritual needs of the minority community in inner-city Baltimore.
Now an ordained minister, Ehrmann is the founder of “The Door,”a non-denominational, interfaith ministry that provides afterschool, summer, athletic, reading, tutoring, mentoring, substance abuse prevention and family counseling programs.
“The programs offered by The Door have provided positive outlets and role models for inner-city youth and their families for nearly 20 years,” says Thomas P. Myers ’72, a friend and former classmate of Ehrmann.
Ehrmann played for Baltimore from 1973-80, for the Detriot Lions from 1981-82 and for the Chicago Blitz of the United State Football League before attending Dallas Theological Seminary and Westminster Theological Seminary. He moved his family to inner-city Baltimore-to live in one of the most economically depressed and crime-ridden neighborhoods in the country. In 1986, Ehrmann and his wife, Paula, began The Door, also known as the Baltimore Urban Leadership Foundation, as a storefront ministry.
“From that storefront, Joe began to provide hope to individuals who previously had no hope,” Meyers says in the nomination for Ehrmann’s Arents medal.
Ehrmann has expanded his role in ministry to working to develop partnerships between urban and suburban populations for mutual benefits and understanding. He is currently senior pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium, Md. He runs a foundation, Building Men For Others, and serves as a football coach for Gilman High School, a private high school in Baltimore.
Carole Wolfe Korngold ’57Carole Wolfe Korngold ’57 of Scarsdale, N.Y., who received her bachelor of science degree with honors from SU’s former College for Human Development, has been an active and committed leader of the Montessori community since 1965, lecturing around the world and co-chairing the first Montessori World Congress in Rome. She is the founder and director of the Center for Montessori Teacher Education/NY and executive director of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, N.Y. She is past president of the American Montessori Society.
She instituted the first Montessori Infant and Toddler teacher education program in 1980 and has helped shape what Montessori stands for today. She has created Montessori teacher education programs in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan and New Jersey, as well as in Canada and Israel. She has also trained teachers from Bermuda, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico and Trinidad. Each summer, approximately 200 new Montessori teacher interns and school heads spend time at Korngold’s summer institute, learning the Montessori approach to education.
Korngold has been a consultant to the Allegany Indian Reservation, the Anchorage Public Schools, the Foundation Center for Migrant Workers, Greyston Family Inn for Homeless Families and Hall Neighborhood House Day Care, among other organizations. She belongs to Eta Pi Upsilon Honorary Society, the American Montessori Society, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Westchester Association for the Education of Young Children, the North American Montessori Teacher Association and the Westchester Association of Women Business Owners.
In 2000, Korngold received the highest honor within the Montessori community, the American Montessori Society’s Living Legacy Award.
Kenneth R. Sparks ’56, G’61, G’64Kenneth R. Sparks is executive vice president of the non-profit Federal City Council (FCC), an association of 200 top business and civic leaders seeking to improve government and the quality of life in the nation’s capital. During his nearly three decades with the FCC, Sparks has held a variety of additional appointments, including director of a Presidential Commission overseeing development of the new $700 million United States International Cultural and Trade Center in Washington (now the Reagan Trade Center); chairing a Metro task force that developed a funding plan for the rail and bus system’s capital improvement needs; and serving on the advisory board for the Center for Excellence in Municipal Management at George Washington University as well as the boards of directors of the Washington Hospital Center Foundation, the Helen Hayes Awards and the Make a Difference Foundation.
Sparks has served as the secretary of the Economic Club since its inception in 1986. From 1970-81, Sparks was an adjunct professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University and American University. He was named director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in 2003 and has served since 1999 on the board of the Center for International Private Enterprise.
Prior to joining the FCC, Sparks served in a variety of positions at the U.S. Information Agency, including research director of the Voice of America. During 1968 and 1969, Sparks directed the Public Affairs Office at the Office of Economic Opportunity. As a naval aviator and public information officer, Sparks served on active duty in the U. S. Marine Corps from 1957-60.
Sparks holds a B.S. in speech, M.S. in television and Ph.D. in communications from SU; and a J.D. from George Washington University. His ties with SU remain strong; he has served as the SU Alumni Club president, as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and as president of the national Alumni Association. He was a member of the task force that developed the SU Greenberg House facility and was the first chair of the new SU Washington Advisory Board.
He has helped make Washington the vital SU center it is today, with programs throughout the year for current SU students and alumni alike.
Martin J. Whitman ’49Martin J. Whitman ’49, after whom the Whitman School of Management is named, has made a long-term financial commitment to the school that is one of the largest gifts ever received by SU. He is co-chief investment officer of Third Avenue Management LLC, the investment advisor to the Third Avenue Funds as well as to private and institutional clients. He manages the Third Avenue Value Fund. Whitman has a long, distinguished history as a control investor and is a recognized expert in the field of bankruptcy. He has successfully identified value in distressed securities for more than 50 years. Third Avenue Management invests predominantly in the equities of well-capitalized companies, priced at no more than 50 percent of their takeover value. Whitman was named Mutual Fund Manager of the Year by Morningstar in 1994.
Whitman serves on the board of Nabors Industries Inc., an American Stock Exchange-listed company in the land drilling and oil services industry.
For the past 28 years, he has been a Distinguished Management Fellow at the Yale School of Management. He has also taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Whitman is the author of “The Aggressive Conservative Investor” (Random House, 1979) and “Value Investing: A Balanced Approach,” (John Wiley & Sons, 1999) as well as a number of articles on security analysis and investment banking.
In addition to his 1949 bachelor of science degree from the School of Management, Whitman received a master’s degree in economics from the New School University in 1958. He is a chartered financial analyst.
