HAA awards Harvard Medal to four

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has announced the recipients of the 2002 Harvard Medal: Peter A. Brooke ’52, M.B.A. ’54, Sharon Elliott Gagnon, A.M. ’65, Ph.D. ’72, John A. Lithgow ’67 and Daniel C. Tosteson ’46, M.D. ’48. First given in 1981, the Harvard Medal recognizes extraordinary service to the University. President Lawrence H. Summers will present the medals during the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association on the afternoon of Commencement, Thursday (June 6).

Peter Brooke has been helpful to the University in many areas, including Harvard’s international interests, athletics, libraries, and undergraduate education. He was an overseer from 1992 to 1994 and 1994 to 2000. Brooke has served on many visiting and standing committees of the Board of Overseers, chairing the Alumni Affairs and Development Committee and the Committee to Visit the College. He currently serves on the Athletics Visiting Committee, the Executive Committee on University Resources, and the Asia Center Advisory Committee. He chaired the HAA Overseer/Director Nominating Committee and previously was an HAA Elected Director. In June 2000, he received Harvard Business School’s Alumni Achievement Award, and this year he is the vice chair of the Class of 1952’s 50th reunion gift committee.

Despite the fact that she lives in Alaska, Sharon Elliott Gagnon‘s attendance record on the Board of Overseers was perfect. During her final year, 2000-01, she was president of the Board and served on the Search Committee that selected President Summers. She chaired the Standing Committees on Humanity and the Arts, and on Schools, the College, and Continuing Education. Prior to her service as an overseer, she was president of the HAA, an HAA Regional Director, and chair of the National Schools and Scholarships Committee from 1989 to 1992. For the Harvard Club of Alaska, she has interviewed prospective students since 1982, and chaired the Schools and Scholarships committee between 1983 and 1988.

Critically acclaimed actor John Lithgow has always made time for Harvard. A member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers from 1989 to 1995, he arranged his professional life around trips to Cambridge. He served on many visiting committees, and chaired the Committee to Visit the Loeb Drama Center from 1990 to 1997. He currently serves on the Visiting Committee to the Memorial Church. In 1991, he helped create Arts First, a collaborative effort with the Office for the Arts that has become a popular May event at Harvard and in the Cambridge community. Each year in early May, he arrives in Cambridge and assumes the title of grand marshal, leading the Arts First parade with the Harvard band.

Daniel C. Tosteson is the Caroline Shields Walker Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and dean emeritus of the Medical School (HMS). Dean from 1977 to 1997, he changed medical education at HMS through the design and implementation of the New Pathway to General Medical Education. This curricular change affected medical education at Harvard and around the world. During his tenure, the Harvard Institutes of Medicine was established to foster collaboration between faculty in the Quadrangle and the affiliated teaching hospitals. Among his many accomplishments were the creation of new departments and international programs, increased enrollment, two highly successful capital campaigns, and expansion of the physical facilities. He is still an active research scientist.