Slideshow | Photos by Julia Yue Zhou C’06 and by Tommy Leonardi C’89
Award of Merit Recipients & Citations
Walter J. Gamble, M.D., M’57
A graduate of Penn Medicine and an Emeritus Professor and Emeritus Senior Associate in cardiology at Harvard, you are our white-coated champion of financial aid. It was your shining vision to create a program that would eliminate egregious amounts of debt by providing full-tuition to all of our medical students. Since the creation of the 21st Century Endowed Scholars Program in 1992, you have already funded more than 100 medical students. At this moment, there are over 40 Gamble Scholars and scholarship recipients enrolled at Penn Medicine. Through your example, and by offering a Gamble Challenge Grant, you have encouraged legions of others to open the doors to exceptionally talented students.
Always eager to advance medical science and Penn, you will do anything to help, including participating in events here and around the country. Penn Medicine has already bestowed on you its Alumni Service Award. We join in acknowledging your guidance on the Penn Medicine Board of Trustees and the Medical Alumni Leadership Council, and your past service on the Penn Medicine National Alumni Council.
Your accomplishments at Penn are part of a lifetime continuum of humanitarian achievement in the field of medicine. As Director of Pacemaker Services for the Children’s Hospital of Boston, you took a personal interest in the lives you worked so hard to save, following the progress of children with pacemakers into adulthood. The warmth of your personality is evident at Penn, too, where you and your wife, Anne, have become close friends with your many Gamble Scholars, cheering them on in their eagerness to put their own special gifts to good use.
During your days as a Penn student, you explored some of your other talents as photographic editor of Scope, the Medical School yearbook. It seems that the mental pictures you carry with you from those days are vivid ones, since they inspired you to loyal participation in class reunion efforts, service as Class Agent, and active alumni participation in the Boston area.
Outside of Penn, you are on the Board of Directors of Pathfinder International, a group created by your parents to provide access to quality family planning and reproductive health services throughout the developing world, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and advocate for sound reproductive health policies in the United States and abroad.
Possessing ample amounts of what Franklin called the “ability and inclination” to serve society, you have the vision to see clearly into a future that you are enthusiastically helping to create. Penn Alumni is proud to present you with it highest accolade, the 2005 Alumni Award of Merit.
Wendy Mann Hornick, CW’73, SW’75
You have put your educational experiences to excellent use serving society, especially children and the chronically ill. At the College for Women, you majored in psychology and education, made the Dean’s List, belonged to Kite and Key and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, served as Secretary of the Senate (Student Government), and graduated cum laude, all while volunteering two days a week at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. You went on to get your Master’s from Penn’s Graduate School of Social Work (recently renamed the School of Social Policy and Practice) and a post-Master’s certificate from Christopher’s Hospice in London, England.
For 25 years you have dedicated yourself to the American Cancer Society, pioneering as the group’s first paid social worker and then, as a volunteer, earning the prestigious St. George Award. Your current positions as Second Vice President of the Society’s Eastern Division Board of Directors and President of the New York City Advisory Board are an indication of the high regard in which you are held. Your work has brought you not only intrinsic rewards but also adventure and excitement. In recent years, you traveled to Russia to help establish The Baikal Cancer Society. At home in New York, you stood on center court at Madison Square Garden to receive the Coaches vs. Cancer Award. Currently, you are leading a campaign to build an American Cancer Society Hope Lodge for patients and families.
Penn, too, has been an ongoing focus of your selfless care and attention. Joining the Overseers of the then School of Social Work in 1977, you have served on its Dean Search Advisory Committee, and chaired an annual appeal, as well chairing its first-ever Adopt-A-Classroom Reunion Class Giving Program. A former Dean of the School, Ira Schwartz, credits you with helping to catapult it into a position of national prominence by playing a major role in the restructuring of the Board of Overseers and supporting the School’s strategic plan. Dean Richard Gelles, agrees. “Without Wendy,” he says, “I doubt we would even have a school today, let alone one that is nationally ranked and highly regarded by students and graduates.” It is no wonder that your many awards include the School’s Certificate of Recognition.
You have served Penn in many other ways as well — as a founding member of The Penn Club of New York, a leading volunteer for the “Celebration of 125 Years of Women at Penn”, and an enthusiastic supporter of Mask & Wig. With your alumnus husband, Louis, you support two endowed scholarships, one in memory of your Penn father-in-law. Your Penn family also includes your brother, great-aunt, brother-in-law, late uncle, and son Tripp, who received the 2002 Penn Alumni Student Award of Merit.
For acting on Benjamin Franklin’s edict, “well done is better than well said,” and for serving as a model of excellence for our alumni around the world, Penn Alumni is delighted to present you with a 2005 Alumni Award of Merit.
Patricia Marin, C’90, andCarmen Maldonado, C’91, GED’92
Patricia — as the founding President of the Association of Latino Alumni (ALA) — and Carmen — as the current President of that organization — you have together changed the landscape of Latino alumni participation at Penn. Your dedication to the ALA Scholarship, one of ALA’s most significant initiatives, has greatly contributed to its success. The Scholarship has far exceeded its original goals, inspiring the participation of 150 individual donors and ten matching corporations and foundations. As a result, you have already supported three young scholars, and will fund two outstanding Latino students this year, Rocio Polanco, C’06 and Natalie Vargas, ENG ‘06. In accordance with your larger vision, you have worked tirelessly and successfully to involve Latino alumni in Penn activities, co-sponsoring a program on Latinos in Philanthropy, events with La Casa Latina, and social and programmatic gatherings on campus and throughout the country.
In addition to your joint leadership of ALA, you are individually engaged in several other alumni leadership pursuits. Patricia, you have served on the Penn Alumni Council of Representatives and the Penn Alumni Board of Directors, the Secondary School Committee, and the James Brister Society, through which you were key in planning an affirmative action symposium, “Achieving Equal Opportunity and Diversity in Higher Education.” Carmen, you serve as our ALA liaison on the Penn Alumni Council of Representatives and the Penn Alumni Board of Directors, as Co-Chair of the Penn Alumni Diversity Alliance, and as a member of the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women.
In gratitude for your dramatic demonstration of the power of two transforming the Penn community and the communities within that community, we proudly present you both with the 2005 Young Alumni Award.
Marc F. McMorris, C’90, WG‘94
As an enthusiastic and energetic Penn undergraduate, you played varsity lacrosse all four years, joined the Sigma Chi fraternity, and were inducted into the Friars Senior Society. As an equally engaged alumnus, you are already proving to be among our most dedicated and effective alumni leaders.
An ex officio member of the Trustee Development Committee by virtue of your current position as Chair of The Penn Fund, you lead the critically important effort to help fund priority areas of undergraduate education such as financial aid. Selected for the School of Arts and Sciences New York Dean’s Council, you help strengthen the School’s visibility and fundraising capabilities in the New York metropolitan area. Additionally, you bring your strengths to the Penn Alumni Board of Directors, the Penn Alumni Council of Representatives, and the Class of 1991 Gift Committee. A devoted member of the James Brister Society, you hosted last year’s reception for newly-admitted students at The Penn Club of New York. On the occasion of your 10th Reunion, you established an endowed scholarship at Penn in honor of your mother, Joan McMorris.
Outside of Penn, you serve on the board of Classroom, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing educational opportunities in inner-city schools, and on the Junior Council of the American Museum of Natural History.
In acknowledgment of your true Penn spirit and outstanding contributions to the University and society, Penn Alumni is delighted to present you with the 2005 Young Alumni Award.
Peter V. Shoemaker, C‘86
A staunch advocate of Penn and a strong proponent of a liberal arts education, you thrived here as a student –– excelling in history, earning a place in the Friars Senior Society, serving as an officer of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and graduating with three varsity letters in lacrosse.
Without missing a step and still focused on victory, you went on to become a champion team player for Penn Alumni. After co-chairing the Council of Recent Graduates, you joined the Alumni Association of Southern California, also known as the Penn Club of LA, where you dedicated yourself to the Endowed Scholarship Committee, before taking on the responsibilities of President. Further expanding your horizons, you became Chair of Penn Alumni’s Global Alumni Network, serving on its Council of Representatives, Executive Committee, and Board of Directors. As Vice President for Alumni Programming, you were the driving force for adding intellectual content to Homecoming Weekend, especially the annual Penn in Print program, and contributed to the success of the first-ever Penn Alumni Golf Outing during Alumni Weekend. A long-time, dedicated member of the Southern California Regional Advisory Board, you recently joined its Executive Board. Additionally, you are a past chair of the Red and Blue Society and the Los Angeles Secondary School Committee, and a founding member of the very first Penn Fund Executive Board.
Your leadership and passion for Penn extend well beyond your official roles. You have moderated a panel at the Western Regional Alumni Leadership Summit in Oakland, California, hosted the Global Alumni Network Exchange during Alumni Weekend, and saw the Penn Club of LA win the Regional Program Award of Merit under your leadership. All the while, you have made attending and hosting Penn events an important part of your life. Along with your wife, Elizabeth, you welcomed over 140 students and parents into your home for the Southern California newly admitted student reception, and have hosted many Penn Athletics receptions. It is not surprising that your loyalty and enthusiasm have earned you some renown. During the 2002 Volunteer Appreciation Celebration, you sat with then President Judith Rodin until the first media time-out during the basketball game, when you were given on-court public recognition for outstanding volunteer dedication.
If Penn seems to be in your blood, that’s because it is. Your Penn Trustee father, Al, proudly attended the Penn graduations of you, your brothers John and Chris, and your sister, Julie, all cheered on by your mother, Sally, as Red-and-Blue as any alumnus and a former Overseer of both the Graduate School of Education and the University Museum. The Penn alumni tradition is further shared by your grandfather, an uncle, and three cousins.
Believing, with Franklin, that a liberal arts education helps us to see the world whole, you demonstrate that vision in all that you do for your alma mater. Penn Alumni is delighted to present you with its highest accolade, the 2005 Alumni Award of Merit.
Patricia Braun Silvers, CW’72
While a student at Penn, you majored in history, joined the Kite and Key Society and the Blood Donor Club, worked as a reporter for The Daily Pennsylvanian, and made the Dean’s List. After graduating, you applied your perceptiveness, sensitivity, and creativity to the role of middle-school teacher. For the past 25 years you have lavished your time and talents on Penn.
A member of the Penn Alumni Board of Directors since 1997, you co-founded and co-chaired its Global Alumni Network’s International Advisory Board, on which you currently serve as a member. Thanks to your efforts, Penn is ever more powerfully connected with our diverse alumni, both locally and globally. The Penn Fund has also been strengthened by your past service as Co-Chair and ongoing leadership on its Executive Board. You have filled important roles on The Benjamin Franklin Society International Committee, The Penn Fund Parents Boards, and the Gift Chair Committee, which you co-chaired, having already co-chaired your Class’s 25th and 30th Reunion Gift Committees with great success.
A loyal member of the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women (TCPW) since 1999, you are currently Co-Chair of its Programming Committee and work tirelessly to encourage members to return to campus by providing them with interesting and educational programs. In the past you co-chaired the 15th Anniversary Celebration and, as a former member of the Student Life Committee, you co-chaired TCPW’s signature career event for undergraduate students in 2002. Through your work on the Sculpture Committee of the “125th Celebration of Women at Penn”, you helped create a lasting legacy on campus for generations of Penn women and men.
Since 1980, you have conducted secondary school interviews of applicants to Penn and are currently Co-Chair of the Secondary School Committee for The Horace Mann School in New York, a position you share with your alumnus son, Daniel. Other members of your Penn family include your son Robert, mother-in-law, Florence (who celebrated her 50th Reunion on your son Daniel’s graduation day), and husband, David, whom you met at Penn and who joins you in annually sponsoring the Silvers Visiting Scholars Program in Penn’s Jewish Studies Department. You also remain a loyal member of the Harrison Society and The Penn Club of New York.
Your extraordinary responsiveness to Penn’s needs, and the high level of commitment you bring to your many positions, mark you as one of our most valued volunteers. We are grateful that you are now bringing that same measure of dedication to the Board of Overseers of the School of Social Policy & Practice.
Supporting Franklin’s contention that “energy and persistence conquer all things,” you, too, direct your powers toward advancing education, individuals, and society. Penn Alumni gratefully presents you with its highest accolade, the 2005 Alumni Award of Merit.
