Nine alumni and parents honored at Back to Bates

Ed Wilson ’62 and Sylvia Stuber Heap ’50 received signature alumni awards at Back to Bates on Oct. 8 and were joined by seven alumni and parents who received Bates’ Bates Awards.

Heap received the Alumni Community Service Award for 55 years of community, health, and educational development work that “have improved the lives of thousands of people in Watertown, N.Y., and throughout the Empire State,” her citation noted.

And if the “values of service and civic responsibility are fundamental to the Bates education,” then Heap has “in countless ways…exemplified these values.”

Wilson, already the recipient of the Papaioanou Distinguished Alumni Service Award and a Bates’ Best Award, completed his triple crown with the Stangle Award for Distinguished Service to the Bates Community.

Stangle Award honors Wilson for always helping “make connections for Bates people, for the benefit of their careers, their lives, and the college.”

Seven alumni and parents received Bates’ Best Awards:

George Taylor P’16 and Marianna B. Accomando-Taylor P’16 for being “front and center” in their support of Bates rowing;

Jeremy Chase ’91 and Chris Magendantz ’91, Bates Fund class agents, for understanding and expertly conveying the importance of annual giving to their classmates;

Erica Seifert Plunkett ’86 for ensuring, as the Class of 1986’s co-president and 30th Reunion social chair, that her classmates feel that “Bates is forever their home — and a joyous one at that”;

Bruce Campbell ’76 for being, as the Class of 1976’s 40th Reunion gift chair, a “jack of all trades and master of every single one”; and

Fisher Qua ’06 for his volunteer work in the Seattle area to help young alumni have a “strong and passionate long-distance relationship with Bates.”