Oakwood Alumni Association will recognize nine recipients of the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award Homecoming Week.

Please join us Thursday, Oct. 3 as we honor the following individuals  at the NCR Country Club.  Heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served during the cocktail hour from 6 to 7 p.m., with the awards presentation beginning immediately afterwards. 

Tickets are $40, and can be purchased online (below), or by mailing a check to: Oakwood Alumni Association, 20 Rubicon Rd., Oakwood, OH 45409.  REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Sept. 28, 2019

Purchase tickets online HERE

2019 
Dr. Barbara Winston Blackmun ('45)

BFA, University of California at Los Angeles - 1949; MA - Art History, Arizona State University - 1971; PhD - African Art History, University of California at Los Angeles - 1984

Upon graduation from Oakwood High School, Barbara moved to California to study art at the University of California Los Angeles.  Immediately after graduating with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree, she toured post-war Europe on a bicycle with a group of strangers, an experience which stimulated her desire for world travel. Teaching art in Trona, California she met and married her husband Rupert, and soon she would get her chance to travel again.  In 1964 the Blackmun family uprooted and moved to Malawi.  Barbara volunteered teaching English, and soon became interested in local African art, building upon her interest until she was teaching at the University of Malawi, where she created the first student art and fashion show for the university. Blackmun returned to the United States and earned her Master’s Degree in Art History at Arizona State University and began her 30-year teaching career at San Diego Mesa College. It was during the pursuit of her PhD in African Art History at UCLA in 1984 when she became an expert on Nigerian Artwork and acted as a consultant for museums, universities and private collectors around the world. In 2010 she retired from San Diego Mesa College where she was Professor and Department Chair of the Department of Visual Arts.  

Don Williams ('48)

Charles ('50) and Ann (Harlamert) Simms ('52)

Dale Hatfield ('56)
Dale Hatfield has over 50 years of experience influencing public policy in telecommunications and regulation, spectrum management and related areas in the public and private sectors. An outstanding teacher of communications technology, Hatfield is an Executive Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship and an Adjunct Professor in the Technology, Cybersecurity and Policy programs, both at the University of Colorado (CU). Hatfield has a stellar reputation for his commitment to public service, intellectual honesty, and fair-mindedness. His government service includes senior policy-making roles at the Office of Telecommunications Policy in the Executive Office of the President, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He holds a BS in electrical engineering from Case Institute of Technology and an MS in Industrial Management from Purdue University. In 2008, Hatfield was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by CU for his commitment to the development of interdisciplinary telecommunications studies.

Dr. Douglas Payne ('58)
BS, Harvard University - 1962; MD, Harvard University - 1966

A graduate of Harvard College in 1962, Dr. Douglas Payne was a member of the first class of Harvard Medical School and received his MD in 1966. In his seven years at Strong Memorial-University of Rochester Medical Center, he completed his residency and fellowship training in cardiothoracic surgery.  After his training, Dr. Payne was drafted and served in the U.S. Army as a full Major in Southeast Asia for two years. In 1975 Dr. Payne became an assistant professor of surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine, and while at Tufts, Dr. Payne rose to Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery, was the Chair of the Department of Surgery, and started the heart transplant program there. In 1999 he received the Distinguished Faculty Award at Tufts University School of Medicine. He retired from practice in 2011 and is an Emeritus member of the Board at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. 

Irvin G. Bieser ('59)
BA, Harvard University - 1963; JD, Harvard University - 1966

Irvin G. Bieser, Jr. graduated from OHS in 1959 and received his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from Harvard University.  After graduation, he passed the bar exam and joined the Peace Corps which led him to Liberia, West Africa where he served as Instructor of Law at the University of Liberia Law School (1967-1969). There, he developed and oversaw a nationwide training program for lower court judges and magistrates and spent his free time traveling throughout West Africa learning to love the people and their culture. Returning to Dayton, he joined the law firm of Bieser, Greer and Landis where he practiced for over fifty years. His activities outside of the law practice are impressive. His desire to improve the Dayton community for the betterment of all is evident in his work as a Commissioner and President of Five Rivers MetroParks and as Chair of the City of Dayton Public Arts Commission, and Trustee for organizations including, but not limited to: The Frank M. Tait Foundation, the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm, Montgomery County Public Defender Commission and The Nature Conservancy of Ohio.
 

Barbara Mokrzycki Sanderson (‘64)
BS, The Ohio State University - 1968

After graduation from Oakwood High School, Barbara Mokrzycki Sanderson attended The Ohio State University majoring in business and met and married fellow OSU student George Sanderson. Barbara moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s, working in diverse fields including behavioral research, counseling and banking. She cared for her brother, Roy S. Mokrzycki (OHS ‘61) until his death in September 2014.   Barbara returned to her 50th class reunion in October 2014, enjoying the opportunity to reconnect with Oakwood classmates. Shortly thereafter she contacted the Oakwood Schools Foundation to establish the Barbara Mokrzycki Sanderson Fund for Facilities. In 2015, OSF was notified by her estate of her passing and received a distribution of funds in May 2016. Barbara’s generous gift designated for the benefit and support of Oakwood Schools facilities is the second largest in the history of the Foundation. The Oakwood Schools are profoundly grateful for  Barbara’s generous gift, and her loving legacy will be remembered forever in Oakwood Schools.

Diane "DeeDee" Granzow Simpson ('73)

 

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2017 
Irvin H. Harlamert ('48)
Douglas C. Lane ('63)
Edward J. Schneider ('47)
Carolyn "Toni" Tonini Winger ('53)
Alexander and Sue Seifert Williams ('61)

2015
David C. Greer ('55)
Chris Gorog ('71)
Richard A. Lange ('64 - attended thru '62)

2013
Edgar Herrman (‘39)
Ruth A. Herman (‘47)
Father Joseph Goetz (‘51)
Floyd Lanier Graham (‘58)
Bradley L. Williams ('68)

2012
Charles W. Whalen, Jr. (‘38)
David L. Smith (‘39)
Dr. Robert W. Gaines, Jr. (‘60)
Kathy Fitchey Calvin ('67)

2011
Charles A. Ford (`68)
Rowan A. Greer (`52)
Michael K. Kennedy (`68)
Robert M. Pool (`33)

2010
Peter B. Armentrout (`71)
Kim Faris Weimer (`74)
Rick W. Schwartz (`67)

2009
Petah E. Coyne (`71)
Edman L. Gray (`57)
Cyrus W. Spurlino (`53)

2008
Harry G. Ebeling (`50)
Carl L. Henn (`41)
Eleanor Pickrel Peterson (`37)
Frederick N. Young (50)