The doctors and scientists who’ve won Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Awards have performed feats and discovered things the average Joe can’t even pronounce. The men and women honored for achievements in community service and the arts and humanities have made life much more pleasant for those who live in Colorado.
Their backgrounds are as diverse as their amazing achievements, but the one trait each of them shares is modesty.
Community Service Award recipient Carol Gossard, for example, describes herself as a “somewhat wise octogenarian who is earnest, honest and forthright” who encourages emerging leaders “to care, to be passionate and to be committed to work, projects and relationships that really matter.” She has devoted 50-some years to historic preservation and the arts, and has recently developed a keen interest in the emerging field of bioethics.
Jean Frazier, widow of Arts and Humanities recipient Cal Frazier, recalled that her husband always believed “You can accomplish a lot of things if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.” Prior to his death in January, Cal Frazier had been the Colorado State Commissioner of Education, a senior fellow for the Education Commission of the States and head of the Alliance for Quality Teaching.
John Hall, the Science and Medicine Award winner, is considered the world’s pre-eminent laser experimentalist and as such, shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics. Legend has it that when he was asked how he planned to celebrate his receipt of the Nobel, he replied: “Oh, I will take my best wife out for lunch today, I think.”
Gossard, Hall and Frazier’s awards were presented at a luncheon held at the Westin Tabor Center that also honored the 2006 Livingston Fellows, five nonprofit executives whose $25,000 stipends will be used to support their advanced learning and professional development: Jennifer Atler, executive director of Invest in Kids; Valin Brown, executive director of Colorado Bright Beginnings; Melinda Higgs, president of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center; Marguerite Salazar, president and CEO of Valley Wide Health Systems of Alamosa; and Brian Wagner, executive director of the Durango Arts Center.
The fellowships are named for Johnston R. Livingston, chairman emeritus of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation board, and recipients were chosen by a panel made up of Lauren Casteel, Nolbert Chavez, Patricia Cooper, Michael Durkin, Jean Galloway, Barry Hirschfeld, Christine Johnson, Stan Kamprath, Barbara Neal, Adele Phelan, Dean Prina, Suzanne Ryan, Willie Shepherd, Tom Stokes and Janine Vanderburg.
Members of the inaugural class of Livingston Fellows – Susan Birch, executive director of the Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association; Colleen Colarelli, president and CEO of Girls, Inc. of Metro Denver; Kevin Seggelke , president and CEO of Food Bank of the Rockies; Jamie Van Leeuwen, project manager of Denver’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness; and Chip Walton, producing artistic director of Curious Theatre Co., also attended the luncheon.
The awards given to Gossard, Hall and Frazier also carried a $25,000 stipend. Gossard is putting hers toward the soon-to-be-built Fulginiti Pavilion at the Center for Bioethics on the University of Colorado’s Fitzsimons campus; Hall is using his to establish a scholarship fund for young scientists; and Jean Frazier is contributing her husband’s prize money to the Rose Community Foundation for educational projects.
Past recipients who were at the Westin Tabor Center to congratulate their successors included Cleo Parker Robinson, Dan Ritchie, Noel Congdon, Jil Rosentrater, Rick Ashton and Lewis Sharp (Arts and Humanities); Nellie Mae Duman, Dana Crawford, Anabel and Jerome McHugh, Elaine Gantz Berman and Stephen Berman, and Anna Jo Haynes (Community Service); and David Patterson, John Repine, Victor Spitzer, David Talmage and Stephen Withrow (Science and Medicine).
Others sharing the recipients’ joy were Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper; City Councilwoman Judy Montero; former state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis; Tom Kundinger; Jesse King; Tom Robinson; Nancy Parker; Pat Livingston; chairman of the board J. Landis “Lanny” Martin and his wife, Sharon; and foundation president Dorothy Horrell.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
