By Abigail Bates
Six alumni awards and one Faculty Emeritus title were presented at the 2023 Legacy Chapel on Friday, Oct. 6.
The Legacy Chapel, formerly known as Founder’s Day, has the earliest record of an alumnus of the year named in 1965. However, old STAR articles suggest that Houghton has been making awards prior to that time.
The Director of Donor Communications and Editor of the Houghton Magazine, Amanda Zambrano writes, “While the name and some of the periphery traditions have changed [over] the years, the heart to celebrate the work of faithful scholar-servants has been constant for a very long time.”
Nominations for an alumni award can be made by anyone through the Office of Alumni Engagement, the Office of Advancement or the President’s Office. Zambrano writes that these nominees are reviewed before the Alumni Board makes the final decision.
The Alumni of the Year is one of the highest awards Houghton presents, and the recipient of this award is Dr. Carl Lynch, III (‘72). He is a highly respected anesthesiologist and professor emeritus of anesthesiology at University of Virginia Health System. For approximately 20 years, Dr. Lynch has been a volunteer with a medical missions organization called Mision de Esperanza, and he is the creator and primary funder of the endowment for the Shannon Summer Research Institute at Houghton University.
2013 Graduates Rachel (Meier) and Justin Peck received the Young Alumni of the Year award. The couple are the founders of 431 Ministries, which reaches out to marginalized women in Central Tennessee. They have impacted the lives of hundreds of at-risk women and their children, Zambrano emphasizes, by providing safety, educational opportunities and the Gospel.
An Alumni Christian Service nominee is someone who has made a significant impact for the Christian faith through self-sacrifice and service. Dr. Jeffrey Thompson (‘01) is an emergency room doctor in Buffalo, New York, who has also served traveling around the world, primarily to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to instruct local emergency room doctors. He’s also a member of the President’s Advisory Board at Houghton University.
The recipient of the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award is Timothy Fuller (‘79) who has demonstrated exceptional achievement in his profession. He was a long-time Houghton employee who worked in the Office of Admission for over twenty-five years, before he went on to serve as a consultant in Christian higher education until his passing this last summer.
“His contributions both to Houghton and to the field of Christian higher education are truly remarkable; thousands of students found their way to Houghton because of Mr. Fuller,” Zambrano writes.
Timothy Deckert (‘95) is the recipient of the Alumni Appreciation Award. For a decade, he has served on Houghton’s Alumni Advisory Board, where he performed roles ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the board. Deckert also served on the search committee for a new president at the time of President Emerita Shirley Mullen’s retirement in 2021.
The Fearless Award, introduced in 2022 by President Lewis, is awarded to 2015 graduates, Stephanie (Ford) and David Bruno, who, Zambrano writes, have spent the past two years living out their firm believe in the sanctity of life by refusing the pressure to abort their third child when he was found to have trisomy-13 (Downs Syndrome).
President Lewis also bestowed the title of Faculty Emeritus on Professor Terry Paige, who retired last spring. This title can go to any long-serving faculty member who has retired.
“It’s a privilege to be able to share these stories with Houghton students and fellow alumni,” Zambrano—who created the citations read aloud during the Legacy Chapel—writes, “and to be able to cast a vision for what God can do in and through each and every one of us.” ★
