Harvard Alumni Association Award Winners Announced

The recipients of the 1998 Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) Awards have been selected. Established in 1990, the purpose of the HAA Award is to recognize outstanding service to the University through alumni activities. The following five alumni will be honored for their contributions at the opening dinner of the Fall HAA Board of Directors meeting on Nov. 5 at the Charles Hotel.

Charles E. Balbach '56, MBA '60, has been Harvard's tie to Western New York, serving as president of the Harvard/Radcliffe Club, director, and longtime member of the Schools Committee. He was presented with the club's Alumnus of the Year Award this spring. Balbach was president of the Harvard Business School Club of Western New York and, for more than 20 years, a member of the HBS volunteer educational program in Buffalo. He served as HAA Regional Director, carrying news between Cambridge and Upstate New York, and is currently a member of the Committee on University Resources and the Boston Major Gifts Steering Committee. A former owner of several teaching science supplies companies, Balbach is retired and now "giving back" to his community.

J. Dudley Fishburn '68 was the first Englishman and Member of Parliament to be elected to Harvard's Board of Overseers. Faithfully attending Board meetings, he chaired the Social Science Committee and served on many visiting and standing committees. His successful tenure as president of the Harvard Club of London lasted for a record-breaking 15 years, and he also served as Club secretary. From 1986-89 he was Elected Director of the Harvard Alumni Association. He currently chairs the visiting committee to the University Library and is involved in the upcoming refurbishment plans for Widener Library. Fishburn is associate editor of The Economist and treasurer of the National Trust.

Rodney D. Hardy '60 has an enthusiasm for Harvard and the Minnesota Club that has fueled his many years of service to both. Former president, vice president and treasurer of the Club, he is a Schools and Scholarships interviewer and co-chair of the Don Peddie Fund which produced a new film about Harvard used by the Admissions Office. He also designed and donated a new Harvard/Radcliffe Club of Minnesota banner to the Club. Former HAA Regional Director, and current Director for the Class of 1960, Hardy co-chaired his 30th and 35th class reunions, and is a member of the Area and Reunion Gift Steering Committees of the Harvard College Fund. He is owner of Sienna Corp., which designs and builds residential communities.

Patricia Cleary Miller '61 has been a unifying link between Harvard, Radcliffe, and the south central states. The first woman president of the Harvard/Radcliffe Club of Kansas City, she was vice president, a Schools and Scholarships interviewer for more than 30 years, and founding trustee and co-chair of the club's Endowment Fund. As an HAA Regional Director, she served on the committees for Harvard/Radcliffe Relations, Alumni Awards, and Communications. From 1992-95, she was a member of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association's board of management. Chairman of the English Department at Rockhurst College and a published poet, many in Cambridge refer to her as "our HAA poet." Miller was a 1993-94 Bunting Institute Fellow.

Harold B. Sedgwick '30, general chairman of his class, is the driving force that has kept the Class of 1930 close to Harvard. Well-known and highly esteemed within the Harvard community and as a clergyman, the Rev. Sedgwick has been chair of his Class's past five reunions. An enthusiastic follower of Harvard athletics, he is the seventh custodian of the "Little Red Flag" waved at every Harvard-Yale game. He has attended 59 Harvard/Yale football games since 1923, and 52 Harvard Commencements. In 1993 he was elected an Honorary Life Member of the Harvard Varsity Club, and is a member and past recipient of the Harvard Club of Boston's President's Award.