January 06, 2004
David L. Evans Scholarship at Harvard
From my cousin, David L. Evans, on his being honored by Harvard.
From October 3rd through 5th this campus was host to Harvard Black
Alumni Weekend 2003. More than 600 graduates returned which represented
approximately one-fifth of all black persons who ever matriculated as
undergraduates at Harvard in 133 years! Some of those in attendance were
Frank S. Jones ‘50, Henry Ford Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies at
M.I.T.; Walter C. Carrington ‘52, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and
Senegal; Wilbert C. Jordan ‘66, MD, founder and director of the OASIS
HIV/AIDS Clinic in Los Angeles; John A. McCluskey, Jr. ‘66, Chairman of the
African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Indiana
University; federal judge Deborah Batts ‘69; Kenneth R. Manning ‘70, Thomas
Meloy Professor of the History of Science at M.I.T.; Lee A. Daniels ‘71,
director of publications for the National Urban League; Wayne R. Curtis
‘76, Vice President of Fannie Mae; Laura Taylor Swain ‘79, also a federal
judge, and Suzanne Malveaux ‘88, White House Correspondent for CNN.While this shortened list of participants is impressive, it is
matched or bettered by the list of panelists. For example, one panel
included Thomas S. Williamson ‘68, Partner at Covington & Burling in
Washington, DC and former president of the Harvard Board of Overseers;
Democratic Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott ‘69 of Virginia; Renee M.
Landers ‘77, law professor at Suffolk University and former president of
the Harvard Board of Overseers; Stephanie Bell-Rose ‘79, President of the
Goldman Sachs Foundation and James E. Johnson ‘83, former Under Secretary
of the U.S. Treasury. Another panel on careers in media included A’Lelia
Bundles ‘74, biographer of Madam C. J. Walker, former producer of ABC World
News Tonight with Peter Jennings and former President of the Radcliffe
Alumnae Association; Henry W. McGee ‘74, president of Home Box Office; Mark
T. Whitaker ‘79, managing editor of Newsweek and Sharon E. Epperson ‘90,
columnist for Time Magazine. There was also a panel of graduates who agreed
to discuss their careers in the corporate world. They were Walter H.
Morris ‘73, partner with Ernst & Young LLP; George H. Yeadon ‘75, a senior
manager in Corporate Treasury at XEROX; Eric M. Turner ‘78, former Vice
President of the State Street Corporation and Carla A. Harris ‘84, Head of
Morgan Stanley’s Equity Private Placement Group. Still another panel
moderated by James S. Hoyte ‘65, Associate Vice-President of Harvard,
included Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Dr. S. Allen Counter,
neurobiologist and Director of the Harvard Foundation, and Lani Guinier
‘71, professor at Harvard Law School.At the formal dinner Saturday night Pamela Thomas-Graham ‘85,
president and CEO of CNBC, was the keynote speaker and Raymond J. McGuire
‘79, managing director of mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley was
master of ceremony. The Reverend Dr. Dwight N. Hopkins ‘76, Associate
Professor of Religion at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago
gave the invocation and Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher, Jr. ‘87, CEO of Fletcher
Asset Management, offered brief remarks at the dinner. Other panelists
included Harvard’s Professor of Law, David B. Wilkins ‘77; Professor of
Anthropology and African American Studies, J. Lorand “Randy” Matory ‘82;
Rev. Eugene Rivers ‘84 of the Ten Point Coalition in Boston and Judith
Jackson Fossett ‘87, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity
at the University of Southern California.The last action taken at the dinner was the announcement of the
David L. Evans Scholarship at Harvard . If you click on the following link , it will take you to some photographs of the Weekend.http://clubs.harvard.edu/university/BSA/pictures.htm
In the next to last row (third picture from the left) you will see
yours truly smiling in response to such a gracious deed.
Congratulations, David.
