HAA honors outstanding service to University

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) Awards were established in 1990 to recognize outstanding service to the University through alumni activities. This year’s awards ceremony will take place during the fall HAA board of directors meeting on Oct. 12.

Paul R. Corcoran Jr. ’54 of Waltham, Mass., has long been a devoted Harvard alumnus. He was co-chair of his 30th, 35th, 40th, and 50th reunion committees and is a former president of the Harvard Club of Boston. A former HAA director (1982-84) and treasurer (1985-86), Corcoran was also the chair of the HAA committee on reunion and class affairs (1984-85). He was an adviser to and a member of the board of directors for the Harvard Student Agencies, an honorary member of and adviser to the Harvard Varsity Club, and a Parents-Friends host for foreign-born Harvard students.

He was the owner and former president-treasurer of The Harvard Shop on JFK Street in Harvard Square. He was also director of the Harvard Square Business Association and president of the Central Square Business Association. Until July 2003, he was a director of Port Financial Corp., the holding company for Cambridgeport Bank.

Frank H. Duehay ’55, M.A.T. ’58, C.A.S. ’65, Ed.D. ’68, I.O.P. ’82, of Cambridge, Mass., has served Harvard as an alumnus, administrator, teacher, and community leader. A former assistant dean and lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he worked hard to bring more diversity to the School’s student population. He was also the director of graduate programs in educational administration and an associate director of the Harvard Summer School. He has long been connected with the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), serving as a faculty committee member and as a member of its board of directors and advisory committee. Most recently, Duehay led a successful four-year capital campaign for the PBHA, which involved his 50th reunion class and achieved one of the campaign’s key objectives: to endow and name the executive directorship. The campaign topped its goal of $7.2 million by raising an additional $600,000.

Duehay served 36 years as an elected official in the city of Cambridge, and during this period was three times elected mayor. He is currently chairman of the board of trustees for the Cambridge Health Alliance, a governmental health and hospital system affiliated with Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Tufts Medical School.

Karen Spencer Kelly ’80 of Philadelphia has served Harvard in many capacities on the HAA Executive Committee, including secretary, vice president, first vice president, and the first African-American woman to hold the office of HAA president (2001-02). Other Harvard service includes serving as a Radcliffe trustee (1995-99), aiding in the transition to the Radcliffe Institute. A member of the Class of 1980 10th Reunion Gift Steering Committee, Kelly most recently was selected chief marshal of the class of 1980. She was president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Philadelphia (2004-05), and was a member of the visiting committees to the Department of Athletics (1986-89) and Harvard College (1989-92). She is a past member of the HAA Committee to Nominate Overseer and Elected Director Candidates and is currently a member of the HAA Awards Committee.

Active in her local community, she was recently appointed to the board of directors at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and is a member of the Alumni Board of Advisers at Villanova University School of Law. She is an attorney and partner of the Philadelphia law firm Kelly, Monaco & Naples.

Frederic P. Smith ’56, J.D. ’59, A.M. ’62 of Los Angeles has given back to the University through his longtime and far-reaching involvement with the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Southern California. A member of the club since 1964, he joined its board of directors in 1972 and was elected treasurer in 1975. As treasurer of the club, he worked tirelessly to increase annual financial aid for needy students. In 1980 Smith was elected president of the club and helped to establish large-scale celebrity benefits to raise money for scholarships and to institute a Scholarship Trust Fund in Cambridge. Owing to Smith’s efforts, then and now, the club’s donations to Harvard increased from $1,000 every three years to $55,000 per year. After his presidency, he continued as a member of the board of directors, working in the areas of programming and fundraising. In 1988 he was re-elected to his present position of vice-president of finance and financial aid. He has also served on numerous club committees, including the Schools and Scholarships Committee and the Nomination Committee. At the club’s 1997 annual meeting, Smith received the John Harvard Award for Distinguished Community Service, and in 2002 he received the HAA Outstanding Club Contribution Award.

A retired intellectual property attorney, Smith is actively involved in the Boston Latin School West Coast Alumni Association, having served as treasurer and president (1991-93).

Sidney M. Spielvogel A.M. ’46, M.B.A. ’49 of New York City has generously demonstrated his devotion to Harvard. He has served as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) annual fund chair since 1996, and has been a member of the Graduate School Alumni Association Council, almost continually, since 1983. Spielvogel has been a volunteer solicitor in New York, a regular participant at GSAS phonathons, and is also an organizer of the annual career options day panels in nonacademic fields for the GSAS Office of Career Services. A member of the Harvard Club of New York, he hosts two events a year at the club for the GSAS Alumni Council. An equally dedicated volunteer with the Harvard Business School (HBS) community, he served as gift chairman for his 50th HBS reunion, and is currently the chief agent for the class of 1949 HBS Fund. Spielvogel is also a member of the Harvard Business School Club of New York. He has been an investment banker since 1956 and is a managing director of Corporate Capital Consultants Inc. in New York.

Ciji Ware ’64, of Sausalito, Calif., has been involved in University affairs over many years. She has served the Harvard Alumni Association in many capacities, first as elected director (1993-96), then as first vice president (1997-98), and ultimately as president (1998-99), becoming the first woman graduate of the College to assume this role. She served as a board member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Southern California, assuming the role of president from 1991 to 1993, again as the first woman graduate of the College in this capacity for the merged clubs. She produced, narrated, and co-wrote two musical scholarship fundraisers: “Puddin’ on the Ritz: Hasting Pudding’s Greatest Hits,” starring Jack Lemmon ’47 and John Lithgow ’67, Ar.D. ’05; and “Bravo Bernstein!,” starring Gene Kelly.

Ware has written five award-winning fact-based historical fiction books and has broadcast in Los Angeles as a television and radio reporter and commentator for 23 years. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award, a Dupont Award for Investigative Reporting, as well as the Dorothy Parker Award of Excellence for historical fiction. Her latest book is a nonfiction work to be published in January.