One of the most anticipated events during Reunion Weekend is the annual awards presentation. Alumni from all Reunion classes gathered to congratulate award recipients.
Emily Smith Medallion
The Emily Smith Medallion award was named after Emily McKelden Smith, a graduate of Mary Baldwin Seminary in 1906, and recognizes alumnae who have shown exceptional commitment to their college, churches, communities, and beyond.
Nancy Payne Dahl ’56 has been a loyal supporter of Mary Baldwin serving on both the Alumnae Board and the Board of Trustees. After graduating from Mary Baldwin, she went on to the University of Virginia to earn a master’s in education with a specialty in reading. Dahl then spent 28 years as a reading specialist in elementary grades. She used this expertise in reading in her volunteer work at Western State Hospital teaching inmates to read. Active in her church, Christ Lutheran, Dahl has served on church council, worked as a Sunday school teacher, and is a lifetime member and officer of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Dahl continues her spirit of service through her volunteer work with Augusta Health Meals on Wheels and as a member of the PEO Sisterhood since 2005. Her gratitude for the growth and opportunities Mary Baldwin provided her shines through the work she has done for others.
Emily Wirsing Kelly Leadership Award
The Emily Wirsing Kelly Leadership Award is named in memory of former Alumnae/i Board president, Emily Wirsing Kelly and is given to alumnae who have gone above and beyond both in their service to the college and in their daily lives.
Anne Ponder Boyd ’61 has a lifetime of leadership rooted in her experience as a student leader at Mary Baldwin. She served as class officer; president of the National Student Association, Mary Baldwin chapter; and College Marshall; among other roles. Her commitment to Mary Baldwin did not falter once she left the campus. Boyd served as the president of the Dallas alumnae chapter as well as a member of the Board of Visitors and Board of Trustees. A force in women’s issues, she has worked tirelessly as part of the Women’s Issues Network, the Governor’s Commission for Women and as President of the Women’s Foundation of Texas. This work directly touched Mary Baldwin when she supported the Amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, 518 U.S. vs Virginia (1986) to eliminate gender discrimination by State of Virginia for Mary Baldwin students enrolled at VMI. A former rancher and owner of Kennedy Ponder Ranch, Boyd is an avid wildlife and grassland conservationist who enjoys bird watching, astronomy, piano and dance.
Service to Community Award
Sara Frances Ferrell Shay ’40 has been a powerful force in her local Linthicum Heights, Maryland, community as well as to the larger community of the United States. She has volunteered in Linthicum Heights for 70 years and was instrumental in bringing a library to Linthicum Elementary School and advocating for a high school. She was distinguished as an honorary mayor of Linthicum in September 2012. After her son Major Donald E. Shay went missing in action in Vietnam in 1970, Shay joined the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. Here, she began her tireless work on behalf of those whose family members had also gone missing. On Memorial Day, 2013, President Obama recognized Shay for her work and courage, garnering a standing ovation from the crowd at the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial. That same year, the Maryland Daughters of the American Revolution awarded Shay the Ellen Hardin Walworth Medal for Patriotism in recognition of 42 years working with the National League of POW/MIA Families.
Career Achievement Award
M. Elizabeth “Betty” Swope ’66 has dedicated her life to the service of others as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. At Mary Baldwin she received the AB degree in Spanish and went on to earn a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. A lifelong learner, Swompe also received a diploma in international security studies from the National Defense University and is a graduate of the Senior Seminar in foreign policy. As a Mary Baldwin student, Swope spent what she deems “perhaps the most important year” as an exchange student in Madrid, where she became one of the “Mary Balduinas,” the name Spanish host families and professors affectionately gave to Mary Baldwin students. In gratitude for this experience, Swope has come to be one of Mary Baldwin’s most determined advocates for study abroad opportunities. In addition, she has given multiple terms of service to the Alumnae/i Association Board of Directors and Advisory Board of Visitors. Swope’s spirit of giving has extended to her work in the U.S. Department of State through the Civil Service Mentoring Program and in informal mentoring programs, through which she has actively followed the careers of those she mentored.
Service to Community Faith Award
Eleanor Gubbins Moore ’76 is an enthusiastic and active member of Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church. Moore has taken on many different roles ranging from choir member and Doorstep visitor, in which she reaches out to with first-time visitors, to event chair for Stop Hunger Now, an organization that, in 2015, shipped over 49 million meals to families in 32 countries. Her spirit of wonder and desire to be of service aligned during several mission trips to Cameroon and El Salvador. Moore is also active in her greater community through almost a decade of volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity. In addition to owning her own web design firm, Moore Better Communication, she serves as a tutor and the program assistant for the Augustine Literacy Project, where she works behind-the-scenes, utilizing her website and communications expertise. With regard to her work with the Augustine Literacy Project, Moore asks, “What can be better than helping a low-income, struggling reader learn to read?” Her generous heart and commitment as a tutor led Moore to study Spanish to better communicate with her students’ parents.