Faculty and Staff Commended for Accomplishments

The academic year concluded at Westminster with a faculty and staff luncheon May 26 in Armstrong Dining Hall where departing faculty and staff were recognized for their contributions to school life, and a number of faculty members were presented awards. In addition, Westminster’s Director of Health Services, Dr. Davis Smith, was recognized for his extraordinary contributions to Westminster’s Covid-19 Task Force.

 

Tributes were given to departing faculty members Stacy Ciarlegio, Craig DeCiancia, Katie Mayopoulos, Lisa McGrath and Claudia McGuigan, as well as departing longtime staff members Assistant Business Manager Carol Kirsch and Assistant to the Head of School Diana Evans.

 

Long tenures at the school were acknowledged for both staff and faculty:

Staff:

Forty years of service: Dana Guay

Thirty years of service: Mike Stein and Jeff Brignano

Twenty-five years of service: Gary Ransom

Faculty Twenty-Year Service Pin:

David Chrzanowski

Tony Griffith

Mary Pat Gritzmacher

 

Director of Athletics Tim Joncas shared that The Founders League had awarded the 2021 M.D. Nadal Sportsmanship Award to Mitch Overbye, Westminster’s longtime softball coach and senior associate director of admissions.

 

The following faculty awards and academic chairs were announced:

 

The Swayze Award:              

Presented annually in honor of distinguished alumnus, trustee and former chair of the Board of Trustees Townsend Swayze ’55, this award is given to a member of the faculty for outstanding contributions to the life of the school.

Greg Williams

 

The O’Brien Award:             

This award is presented annually in honor of Marianna and Junie O’Brien P’81, who devoted their lives in service to young people and to schools. It recognizes a member of the faculty who has, over the course of the year, been especially selfless and generous with time and care in the nurture and support of students and whose extraordinary, ongoing personal commitment to young people sets an example to the Westminster community.

Grant Gritzmacher

 

C. Hiram Upson Family Chair:

The C. Hiram Upson Family Chair for faculty in the humanities who are master teachers of writing rotates every five years and was made possible through the generosity of C. Hiram Upson ’50, P’86, who served on the Westminster Board of Trustees for 11 years.     

Arianna Vailas

 

Coumantaros Family and William V.N. Philip History Department Chair:

John and Elena Coumantaros, along with their daughter, Sophia ’21, established this chair in 2020 to honor William V.N. Philip, the school's eighth head of school and a lifelong historian and educator.  The chair supports the Head of the History Department.