2008 Alumni Association Awards

The Alumni Association will honor four outstanding alumni with its 2008 awards during Reunion Weekend festivities on Saturday, May 31. The awards will be presented by Benjamin Hernandez ’95, the Alumni Association’s Vice President for Alumni Awards.

The Frances Liebenow Armstrong ’36 Service Award will be presented to Nanalou West Sauder ’56 of Lexington, Virginia for her service to the Alumni Association and to the University. Mrs. Sauder served on the Board of Visitors from 1990 through 1994 and from 2003 through 2007, and was reappointed in 2007 to a second four-year term. She is currently Vice Rector of the Board. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association and was elected to emeritus status. She is a longtime member of the President’s Council, and served as co-chair of the Class of 1956 reunion gift committee.
Betty Orr White ’68, Head of School at Sacred Hearts Academy in Hawaii, is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Under Mrs. White’s leadership, the school was recently recognized as a National School of Character, one of ten schools nationwide to receive that designation, which recognizes K–12 schools and school districts for providing exemplary comprehensive character education programs. Initiatives developed under her leadership include an annual science symposium to encourage girls to pursue studies in math, science and technology, a financial literacy conference for girls, and a week-long economic summit focusing on specific occupations and professions. Mrs. White joined Sacred Hearts Academy, Hawaii’s largest all-girls school, as a social studies teacher in 1971 and eventually was named vice principal and then principal. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools.
Rebecca Erbelding '03 and Harry Thomas '97 will receive the Young Alumnus Merit Award, which recognizes an alumnus within 15 years of the date of graduation for outstanding achievement in any of the following areas: profession or career, civic activities, humanitarian causes, and endeavors in creative arts and sciences.
Rebecca Erbelding '03 is an archivist at the United States Holocaust Museum. In 2007, she received a photograph album originally created and owned by the adjutant to the final commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The photographs depict several Nazi officers stationed at Auschwitz participating in various recreational activities. Ms. Erbelding’s research helped to identify the album’s creator as well as several other subjects in the photographs, including Josef Mengele. The project has been described in the New York Times, in the New Yorker, and a National Geographic documentary. Ms. Erbelding has been interviewed on French, British, German, Brazilian, and American television and radio, and has been featured on programs with Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel.
Harry Thomas '97 discovered a passion for working with students during his undergraduate years at Mary Washington. He began his career as an academic advisor at George Mason University, and later moved to secondary education as a guidance counselor and then director of guidance with Stafford County Public Schools. His path led to his appointment as assistant principal at James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg, where he served for three years before being named principal of the city’s Walker-Grant Middle School, where his leadership, visibility and support make him popular among students, teachers, and parents.