The HDS Alumni/Alumnae Council (AAC) today announced the opening of the nomination process for the 2015 cohort of recipients of the Peter J. Gomes STB '68 Memorial Honors.
Inaugurated in 2013 and given annually, the award honors a small group of graduates whose lives and work exemplify the mission and values of Harvard Divinity School.
In a note to alumni, the Rev. Sarah Taylor-Peck, MDiv '07 and chairperson of the AAC, quoted from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Worship" from The Conduct of Life: "…when there was any extraordinary power of performance, when great national movements began, when arts appeared, when heroes existed, when poems were made, the human soul was in earnest, and had fixed its thoughts on spiritual verities, with as strict a grasp as that of the hands on the sword, or the pencil, or the trowel."
" 'Extraordinary power of performance' is a phrase that so aptly captures the life, work, and spirit of Peter Gomes," she wrote. "In memory of our beloved fellow HDS alumnus, and in celebration of our entire unique and distinguished alumni community, we seek to honor distinguished alumni whose 'extraordinary power of performance' in life, work, and service, pays homage to the mission and values of HDS, as Peter's certainly did."
Last year's Gomes honorees were scholar and international human rights leader Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, MTS '84; fashion mogul and peace advocate Simon Xavier Guerrand-Hermès, MTS '93; accomplished minister and leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Elizabeth A. Eaton, MDiv '80; and organizer and activist against clerical sexual abuse Peter J. Isely, MDiv '88. The AAC also honored former HDS Dean William A. Graham, AM '70, PhD '73, for his long and distinguished service to the School.
Alumni are invited to nominate fellow graduates from all personal or professional paths online. The deadline for nominations is December 5, 2014, and the honors will be presented in the spring.