Purple with Purpose

Celebrate Fellow Ephs

Williams people make a difference in their communities every day. Let’s recognize and celebrate their remarkable civic contributions.

Many are familiar with the ways that Williams currently recognizes Ephs for volunteer service to the college and for their personal and professional accomplishments, such as Bicentennial Medals and reunion awards. Through these structures, the college currently recognizes 10-12 alumni a year, far fewer than the number worthy of celebration.

Through Teach It Forward and Purple with Purpose, we want to honor and recognize those who are making a substantial impact in their communities across the world. The leaders of the Williams Regional Associations, with support from the college, will review nominations and select people to recognize in their regions. The success of this program will ultimately depend on your engagement—starting with your nominations, which will feed the pipeline of Ephs considered for recognition. Think about those members of the Williams family who are making a difference in their personal or professional lives and share their achievements by nominating them for an award.

The following Ephs have been recognized by their Regional Association since the beginning of the program:

Vivian Dorsel ’80, Berkshire Association
Michael Wynn ’93, Berkshire Association
Bill Clendaniel ’67, Boston Association
Susan Collings ’76, Boston Association
Bart Mitchell ’80, Boston Association
Jose Valenzuela ’07, Boston Association
Michael Yogman ’68, Boston Association
Greg Zaff ’84, Boston Association
Oren Pollock ’49, Chicago Association
Brewster Rhoads ’74, Cincinnati Association
Lib Stone ’82, Cincinnati Association
Becky ’95 and Bobby Walker ’95, Fairfield County (CT) Association
Ted May ’70, Hartford Association
Robert Embry, Jr. ’59, Maryland Association
Guillermo Fernandez ’92, New York Metropolitan Association
Lynette Guastaferro ’92, New York Metropolitan Association
Anna Waring ’78, Northern California Association
Melissa Congdon ’80, Northern California Association
Steven Zlotowski ’84, Northern California Association
Chris Satullo ’75, Philadelphia Association
Spencer Beebe ’68, Portland Association
Maureen Edman ’93, San Diego Association
Sarah Altschuller ’97, Washington DC Association

Learn more about the Regional Recognition Program here, or nominate a fellow Eph now.

Remember Your Mentor

Great teaching is at the heart of the Williams experience. The college will undergo a significant transformation over the next decade as nearly 40 percent of its faculty members retire. We invite you to contribute memories and personal stories about the impact of individual retirees. Your contributions will be collected and shared with retirees as we all celebrate their legacies, provide a fitting sendoff, and offer a collective “thank you.”

The following retiring faculty members will be recognized in academic year 2017/18. Submit your memories using this form and they will be shared with retirees at the end of the academic year.

	Hank Art, Rosenburg Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology		Bob Bell, Frederick Latimer Wells Professor of English
	David Dethier, Edward Brust Professor of Geology and Mineralogy		David Eppel, Professor of Theatre
	Zirka Filipczak, J. Kirk T. Varnedoe ’67 Professor of Art		Larry Kaplan, Halford R. Clark Professor of Natural Sciences
	Libby Kieffer, Lecturer in German		Aida Laleian, Professor of Art, Emerita
	Chip Lovett, Philip and Dorothy Schein Professor of Chemistry		George Marcus, Professor of Political Science
	Larry Raab, Harry C. Payne Professor of Poetry		David C. Smith, Senior Lecturer in Biology
	Paul Solomon, Professor of Psychology		Rick Spalding, Chaplain to the College
	Barbara Takenaga, Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Art

A new song for Williams!

Twenty songs were submitted by alumni, three finalists were chosen by the judging panel, and nearly 1700 votes were cast by members of the Williams community. Brad Wells, Claire Leyden ’16 and Justin Jones ’16 announce the winner here. The winning song will be integrated into college life alongside “The Mountains” and will be sung/performed at events including Commencement, Reunion, Homecoming, first-year orientation, and Mountain Day.

We owe a debt of gratitude to those who put time and effort into crafting song submissions.  Special thanks to our three finalists: Martha Williamson ’77 and Marc Lichtman ’78 for “College in the Corner (We are Williams)”, Patrick Megley ’14 for “Climb High”, and Kevin Weist ’81 and Bruce Leddy ’83 for their winning entry, “Echo of Williams”.  Their songs, along with eight other new entries from the Competition, will be included in the next Williams Songbook to be published in fall 2016.  The last Songbook was published in 1959.

Help Recruit Future Ephs

There are 11 Admission Officers at Williams. There are 28,000 of you. Help those officers spread the Williams gospel and recruit future Ephs.

“What’s Williams?” is an all-too-familiar question most of us have heard, and it gets louder the farther Ephs live from the Purple Valley. Ours is a relatively small, but fanatical, alumni family always ready to spread the good word about Williams. You can play a part in that process—here are some tools to help.

One of the best ways to see the Williams of today is through the lens of the student body. The most recent student profile includes a range of demographic insights to provide you with needed context, and the Williams viewbook helps complete the picture. Please share these two resources with anybody you think should be exploring Williams or simply needs an answer to the question, “What’s Williams?”

Contact your Williams Admission Office Representative

Williams Admission staff members travel the country and the world spreading the word about Williams. See who covers your region and contact them if there’s a school, organization, or student in your area you’d like to get on the Admission Office’s radar.

Become an Admission Volunteer

The Admission Office has identified specific areas where alumni can offer support. Explore those opportunities and sign on to help.

Volunteer

Williams has the oldest alumni association in the world, and it’s among the strongest, most engaged, and most devoted. Six out of 10 alumni give to the college every year, and every June, 3,000 alumni and families flock to Williamstown for reunions, to renew their connections with classmates and with Williams.

Motivated by a desire to give back and engage with college friends and the Williams of today, volunteers contribute countless hours in an effort to better their college and the connections that make it thrive. The partnership between volunteers and the staff members who support their efforts is deeply collaborative and rewarding. The college is dependent upon, and forever in debt to, the volunteers who contribute the gift of time and talent to Williams.

Learn more about opportunities for engagement as a Williams volunteer.

Give

Members of the Williams family support each other in myriad ways, from contributing hours of service to the benefit of their communities to making financial contributions to the college in support of today’s students and faculty. We make bequests to benefit future generations of Ephs, teaching it forward in the great philanthropic tradition begun by our founder, Ephraim Williams.

Make a difference for Williams today and make a gift through the Alumni Fund or Parents Fund. 

Learn more about bequest gifts and other gift planning vehicles.