APPLETON, WIS. — Bob Spoo’s latest return to his hometown of Appleton will be as one of the honored guests at Lawrence University’s annual Reunion Weekend Celebration June 20-22.
A 1975 graduate of Appleton East High School, Spoo will be recognized with a distinguished achievement award Saturday, June 15 during the Reunion Convocation at 10:30 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. He will be one of six alumni honored for career achievements, contributions to the betterment of society or volunteer service to Lawrence.
More than 900 alumni and guests from 43 states and six countries, including destinations as distant as Australia and Kenya, are expected to return to campus to participate in the weekend-long festivities.
Spoo
Spoo, professor of intellectual property, law and literature at the University of Tulsa and John Holdridge, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Program, each will receive the Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award. Named in honor of the second president of Milwaukee-Downer College, the Briggs award recognizes alumni of more than 15 years for outstanding contributions to, and achievements in, a career field.
A 1979 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lawrence who worked as a student counselor in the admissions office after graduating, Spoo has enjoyed a career that has taken him full circle, from academia to law and back to higher education again.
A recognized scholar of Irish author James Joyce and co-editor of the preeminent literary journal James Joyce Quarterly for more than 10 years, Spoo was a tenured English professor at the University of Tulsa before embarking on a legal career. After earning his law degree in 2000 at Yale Law School, where he was the executive editor of the Yale Law Journal, Spoo joined a California law firm where he distinguished himself in copyright issues and intellectual property law.
His interests in helping artists and authors legally protect their original work grew out of his own experiences writing and editing materials about Joyce, Ezra Pound and other authors. In addition to dozens of record companies and filmmakers, Spoo has shared his expertise on copyright infringement with the National Library of Ireland, the government of Vietnam, numerous software technology companies and at conferences around the world.
Spoo recently left his position as an associate at Howard Rice Nemerovski Candady Falk & Rabkin law firm in San Francisco to return to the University of Tulsa.
Holdridge
Holdridge, a 1977 Lawrence graduate, has spent much of his career at the forefront of the fight against the use of capital punishment in the United States. Through the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Program, Holdridge advocates for the reform of the death penalty process and the protection of capital defendants’ rights.
A graduate of New York University School of Law, Holdridge, who lives in Dunham, N.C., spent time as a public defender in Connecticut’s Capital Defense and Trial Services Unit and more than a decade as director of the Mississippi and Louisiana Capital Trial Assistance Project in New Orleans. Among the clients he represented were Larry Maxwell, who faced a triple capital murder indictment but was later freed and Michael Ray Graham, who was exonerated after spending nearly 14 years on death row.
Holdridge successively co-argued the seminal case of State v. Peart, in which the Louisiana Supreme Court recognized that indigent defendants have a pretrial right to effective counsel and that the heavy caseload of the New Orleans indigent defender system violated that right.
The National Legal Aid & Defender Association honored Holdridge in 2001 with its Life in the Balance Achievement Award for his efforts in “representing not only the poorest clients but the poorest lawyers.”
Farnham Jarrard, Bristol, Va., and Judy Sutherland, Evanston, Ill., each will receive the George B. Walter Service to Society Award. Named in honor of Walter ’36, beloved former faculty member and dean of men at Lawrence who believed strongly that every individual can and should make a positive difference in the world, the award recognizes alumni who best exemplify the ideals of a liberal education through socially useful service in their community, the nation or the world.
Jarrard
Jarrard, a 1958 Lawrence graduate, made his name in the steel industry and left his mark in community service.
He entered the steel business shortly after graduation and eventually rose to president and CEO of Allied Structural Steel in Hammond, Ind. He later spent 16 years as senior vice president of Bristol Steel and Iron Works, Inc. His contributions to the industry were recognized with an honorary lifetime directorship in the American Institute of Steel Construction, one of only 11 such appointments awarded in the organization’s 87-year history.
After moving to Bristol, Jarrard immersed himself in his new community, serving as an agent for positive change and spearheading several successful economic development initiatives.
His lengthy public service includes 12 years on the Bristol town council, including eight as mayor. He also served as chair of the Bristol Utilities Board of Directors, guiding efforts that led Bristol to become the first municipal utility in the country to build and operate its own fiber optics network to provide telephone, cable and data services.
Jarrard has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Bristol’s Virginia Intermont College, co-chaired a nonprofit foundation to restore Bristol’s historic train depot and led the fight to reestablish passenger rail service between southwestern Virginia and Washington, D.C. The director of Bristol’s Paramount Center for the Arts has hailed Jarrard as “an ideal citizen, involved and interested in all aspects of the community.”
Sutherland
Sutherland, also a 1958 Lawrence graduate, is a former student of Walter, the man her award honors. While studying for her master’s degree in counseling psychology, Sutherland took an art therapy class at Chicago’s Adler School of Professional Psychology that ignited her life’s work as an educator, registered art therapist and
administrator.
She joined the Adler school as a teacher and with encouragement from the administration, soon was entrusted with the task of developing the school’s master’s degree program in art therapy and overseeing the appropriate professional accreditation. Based on the Adlerian framework that includes respect for each individual, an optimistic and collaborative approach to helping others and a commitment to advancing society through social involvement and support for the marginalized and underrepresented, the program Sutherland created was approved by the American Art Therapy Association in 1993. She served as director of the master’s program in art therapy until her retirement in 2006, nearly doubling its enrollment during her tenure.
Sutherland, who has called making art “a form of prayer,” has been a frequent presenter at Adlerian conventions and workshops around the country, focusing on using art and psychodrama in psychotherapeutic work with dreams.
Noonan
Jo Noonan, Atlanta, Ga., will be presented the Gertrude B. Jupp Outstanding Service Award. The award honors Jupp, a 1918 graduate of Milwaukee-Downer College, who was named M-D Alumna of the Year in 1964 for her long volunteer service to the college. It recognizes Lawrence and Milwaukee-Downer alumni of more than 15 years who have provided outstanding service to the college.
A 1978 graduate, Noonan has been an actively engaged volunteer, serving the college in a variety of capacities for the past 30 years. She was a member of the Lawrence University Alumni Association for six years, including two as board president (2003-05). She served as class secretary for the Class of 1978 and as a member of the Alumni Advisory Working Group. She has been active in alumni event planning for the Atlanta region and is current chair of her 30th reunion steering committee.
Tie Shue
Steve Tie Shue, Minneapolis, Minn., will receive the Marshall B. Hulbert Young Alumni Service Award, which recognizes a Lawrence alumnus or alumna of 15 years or less, who has provided significant service to the college. This award honors Hulbert ’26, known to many as “Mr. Lawrence,” who served the university in many significant capacities for 54 years.
The youngest person ever to receive the Hulbert Award, Tie Shue was the president of his graduating class in 2004 and has remained a leader among his classmates since leaving Lawrence. He served four years on the LUAA board of directors, beginning when he was still a student and ending in 2007 as vice president. He also served as chair of his class’ 5th reunion steering committee, was a four-year member of the Viking gift committee and is active as a regional event volunteer.
