Heritage Awards

The first Heritage Committee, formed in 1979, was asked “to recover and preserve an accurate record of the roots from which this institution and its various divisions have grown,” according to a pamphlet from that time.

Then-President Thomas A. Fulham appointed the committee of longtime University employees and editors in anticipation of Suffolk's 75th Anniversary Jubilee in 1981.

The committee set to work retrieving the University’s history from primary sources, which entailed archival research, questionnaires, and the collection of oral histories.

The Heritage Committee’s ultimate product appeared in 1982: the bound volume Opportunity’s Open Door.

The committee also selected noteworthy members of the University community to be honored with Heritage Medallions commemorating their service to the University.

The Heritage Committee took on renewed significance leading up to the University’s Centennial in 2006, and its Heritage Medallion Awards Ceremony has become a recurring event.

Heritage Medallion Recipients

September 19, 1981

Gleason L. Archer, Suffolk University Founder and President
Carrolla A. Bryant, University Executive Secretary, Registrar for Colleges
Frank J. Donahue, Treasurer, Board of Trustees Chair 
John E. Fenton, Sr., University President, Board of Trustees Chair
Catharine Caraher Finnegan, Gleason Archer’s secretary
John Griffin, Life Trustee, Registrar for Colleges
Dorothy M. McNamara, Bursar, Alumni Secretary

November 18, 1982

Ilse M. Fang, Humanities and Modern Language faculty
Catherine Fehrer, Humanities and Modern Languages faculty
Donald W. Goodrich, Vice President, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ella M. Murphy, English, Humanities and Modern Languages faculty
John F.X. O'Brien, Law School faculty
Florence R. Petherick, Humanities and Modern Languages faculty
Donald R. Simpson, Law School Dean
Frank L. Simpson, Law School Dean

April 22, 1983

Robert S. Friedman, Chair of Biology, Founder/Donor of Robert S. Friedman Field Station, Cobscook Bay, Maine

September 19, 1983

Charles Law, Director of Athletics
Richard J. Sullivan, University Librarian

October 17, 1984

Hiram J. Archer, first full-time faculty member, Trustee, Gleason Archer’s brother
Thomas A. Fulham, University President

December 7, 1987

Rexford A. Bristol, Trustee
Donald Grunewald, Vice President, first Dean of the College of Business Administration
Harold M. Stone, Sawyer Business School faculty

April 19, 1988

Edward G. Hartmann, History faculty, Director of Libraries
P. Richard Jones, Alumnus, Director of Archives, Mail Room Supervisor
Stanley M. Vogel, English Department faculty

April 24, 1990

John F. Lombard, Law School adjunct faculty
Alfred I. Maleson, Law School Professor Emeritus
Joseph H. Strain, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences 
Arthur J. WestJr., Biology Chair, Professor Emeritus

September 21, 2004

H. Edward Clark, English faculty, founded Collection of African American Literature
Benson Diamond, Sawyer Business School faculty
Malcolm M. Donahue, Law School Dean, faculty
Mary A. Hefron, Registrar for Colleges

September 19, 2005

Alexander J. Cella, Law School faculty
John M. Corcoran, Trustee
Catherine T. Judge, Law School faculty, Law School Registrar
Richard L. McDowell, Dean, Sawyer Business School, Director of the Center for State Government Management
Michael R. Ronayne, Jr., Dean and faculty member, College of Arts & Sciences
Margaret Collins Weitz, Professor Emerita, College of Arts & Sciences

September 19, 2006

Thomas J. Boynton*,  Chair, Board of Trustees 
John E. Fenton, Jr., Law School Dean
Francis X. Flannery, University Treasurer and Vice President
Jeanne M. Hession, Trustee
David J. Sargent, University President, Law School Dean

September 19, 2007

Clarence Cooper, Executive-in-Residence, Sawyer Business School faculty
George A. Frost*, benefactor to University founder Gleason Archer, Trustee
Frederick A. McDermott*, Law School Dean
Maria Miliora, Chemistry faculty
Daniel Perlman*, University President
Daniel Sankowsky, Sawyer Business School faculty

September 17, 2008

William Coughlin, Director of Admissions
Herbert Lemelman, Law Associate Dean, faculty
Robert Munce*, University President
Alexandra Dundas Todd, Sociology faculty

September 16, 2009

Nancy Clemens Croll*, Director of Academic Computing, Sawyer Business School faculty
Beatrice L. Snow, Biology Chair, faculty
Lorraine DiPietro Cove, Assistant Dean and Registrar, Law School

September 21, 2010

Kenneth F. Garni, Director of the Counseling Center, Chair of Psychological Services
Marjorie C. Kelleher*, Director, Adult and Evening Studies, Enrollment Management
Charles P. Kindregan, Associate Law Dean, Director of the Center for Professional Development, faculty 
James F. Linnehan*, Chair, Board of Trustees, Life Trustee

September 20, 2011

Warren G. Briggs, Information Systems and Operations Management faculty
Lawrence L. Cameron, Life Trustee
Louis B. Connelly
*, Director of Public Relations and Sports Information
Glen A. Eskedal, Education and Human Services faculty
Joseph P. McEttrick, Law faculty

September 19, 2012

Patricia I. Brown*, Associate Law School Librarian Emerita
John P. Chase*, Life Trustee
Michael F. Dwyer, Assistant Treasurer
Laurie W. Pant, Professor and Chair, Accounting

September 19, 2013

Wilma J. Busse, Director, Counseling Center
John C. Cavanagh, Professor Emeritus, History
Pierre E. Du Jardin*, Associate Professor, Management
Valerie C. Epps, Professor of Law
Donald M. Unger, Professor and Chair, Education and Human Services

September 18, 2014

Peter Caputo*, Professor of English
Morris McInnes, Associate Dean and Professor of Accounting
Congressman John Joseph Moakley,* Law alumnus, University Trustee
Carol Sawyer Parks, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, Life Trustee

September 20, 2016

John Deliso, Associate Vice President for Advancement, Associate Law Dean 
Paula Fleck, Bursar
Myra Lerman, Assistant Dean, Sawyer Business School
James Nelson, Director of Athletics 

September 17, 2018

Richard Beinecke*, Professor, Institute for Public Service
Karen Blum, Professor Emerita of Law, Research Professor of Law
Anthony Eonas, Associate Professor, Business Law and Ethics
Frederick J. Marchant, Professor Emeritus of English
Nancy Stoll, Dean of Students

* Posthumous award