Thanks to all who joined the BLS Community on Nov. 18 for the 2023 Celebration of Latin School Brunch & Awards. Video Recording
Distinguished Graduate - Joseph S. Deitch ’68
Named one of the most influential people in financial services by Investment Advisor magazine, Joseph Deitch is founder/chairman of Commonwealth Financial Network, America’s largest privately-held independent broker/dealer and RIA. For more than a decade, the BLS Deitch Leadership Institute has propelled student success through a range of programming including a unique summer fellowship experience.
Outstanding Recent Graduate - Oscar A. Baez ’04
Oscar Baez’s exemplary career in public service, which began as a Ward Fellow at BLS, has paved the way to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, The White House, and the Executive Secretariat of the Department of State. His overseas experience includes diplomatic assignments to Shanghai, Brasilia, Port-au-Prince, Jerusalem, and Tunis.
Thank you to our 2023 Celebration of Latin School sponsors!
Each year the Boston Latin School Association Board of Trustees solicits the nomination of individuals to recognize and reward as Distinguished Graduate and Outstanding Recent Graduate for their outstanding accomplishment and service to their community and/or alma mater for the Awards. Those names are reviewed by the Awards Committee and are considered for a Graduate Award.
Nominations for these awards are welcomed from any member of the BLSA community including alumni, parents, or friends. Nominations should include all known data on the nominees as well as specific reference to sources. For more information, contact Kim Deely Emery '87, P'21 at the BLSA.
Distinguished Graduate Award
The first Distinguished Graduate Award (formerly the Graduate of the Year Award) was presented to John Cardinal Wright '27 in 1954. In the nearly 70 years since, the award has been Boston Latin School Association's highest honor, given each year to an individual exemplifying the motto "Sumus Primi." Nominees will be evaluated based on several criteria, including:
• Significant contribution to the community in which he or she lives,
• Substantial life achievement in career or community, and
• Engagement in activities engendering pride on the part of alumni of BLS.
Created in 1995, the outstanding recent graduate award recognizes the achievement of the most recent generation,
highlighting one individual whose actions have served as an inspiration and motivation to others. Nominees will be evaluated based on several criteria, including:
• Graduated from Boston Latin School within the last 25 years,
• Contributed selflessly to the local, national, international community and/or Boston Latin School,
• Served as a positive role model for alumni and students of the Boston Latin School, and
• Inspired action on the part of others.
Alumni may also be recognized for their devotion and service to alma mater and her alumni by the following
awards: Dr. Joseph F. Desmond '44 Award, Lee J. Dunn Award, and Edward Lambert '39 Class Leadership Award.
Dr. Joseph F. Desmond '44 Volunteer Award
This award was established by the Boston Latin School Association in memory of Dr. Joseph Desmond '44, teacher,
acting head master and loyal alumnus, and is presented annually to a BLS alumnus/a whose contributions to the school
typify the spirit of dedication and generosity that Desmond exemplified. The Desmond Award recipient is chosen by the Board of Trustees chair and BLSA president.
Dr. Joseph F. Desmond '44 Volunteer Awardees
(Formerly Volunteers of the Year)
2010: Gerald A. Levenson '56
1999: John P. Page ‘55
2008: Julianne Donley Gilpin '80
1998: Paul C. Kelly '43
2007: Duncan O'Brien '78
1997: Robert G. Hoffman '47
2006: Ellen Moy-Maneikis '78
1996: Bruce McKinnon '74
2005: Lawrence S. DiCara '67
1995: Tracy Guinta O'Donnell '81 and Anne DiNatale Spry '81
This award was established by the family and friends of Lee J. Dunn '24,
former dean and adviser of Class I at the school and executive secretary of the Association, through whose efforts
many Latin School students were able to attend the college of their choice. The Dunn Award is given annually to a BLS
alumnus/a who has shown dedication, commitment and industry in furthering the efforts of the school and its alumni.
The Dunn Award recipient is chosen by a separate committee.
Lee J. Dunn '24 Awardees
2012: Robert D. Graham '50
1990: John T. Daley '57
2011: John F. Pow '51
1989: John S. Buckley '62
2010: Thomas F. Mafffei '64
1988: Stephen A. Greyser '52
2009: Charles I. Clough Jr. '60
1987: Louis S. Corsini '57
2008: Head Master Emerita Cornelia A. Kelley H'44
1986: Charles L. Arena '51
2007: John Page '55
1985: Lee J. Dunn Jr. '61
2006: Mary Tamer '85
1984: John I. Fitzgerald '36
2005: William Koplovsky '54
1983: Gerard Foley '63
2004: William H. Wright '69
1982: Costa Chalas '36
2003: William McCarron '79
1981: Roger B. Tyler '13
2002: Robert Rittenburg '51
1980: Michael G. Contompasis '57
2001: Stanley E. Tobin '48
1979: Lawrence W. Beloungie '37
2000: Paul C. Kelly '43
1978: Austin W. Jones Jr. '48
1999: William Schawbel '57
1975: Antonino F. Iovino '22
1998: Bruce F. McKinnon '74
1974: William F. Looney, Jr. ‘49
1997: Charles L. Longfield '74
1973: Federic B. Williams '25
1996: James W. Hegarty ‘57
1972: William F. Morissey '15
1995: Edward C. Lambert '39
1971: Thomas D. Craven '13
1994: Marshall S. Cogan '55
1970: John F. Elsbree ‘28
1993: Leon D. Starr '35
1992: Edward D. Hurley '32
1991: Stanley Miller '48
Edward Lambert '39 Class Leadership Award
From the very first “look to your left” lecture, your class is part of your Latin School identity. Your class helped
create many of the special memories you carry of alma mater and your class committees, or their modern
counterparts, continue to help guide how you see the institution on Avenue Louis Pasteur today. For the staff at the
Association, class committees are one of the most vital resources we have in our effort to build and nurture
relationships with alumni. In 2006, to celebrate outstanding effort from a class leader or leaders, BLSA created the
Edward Lambert '39 Class Leadership Award, named in honor of the late Edward Lambert '39: a stellar class leader,
longtime coach and faculty member, and an inductee to the Varsity Club Hall of Fame. The Lambert Award is selected by
the BLSA president.
Ro Fallon is co-founder, president, and CEO of Promontory Therapeutics LLC, an emerging, clinical-stage company focused on developing immunotherapies. He credits his Peace Corps experience as formative to his worldview leading to a career of more than three decades of global transactional and strategic leadership. An inspirational leader who applied his expertise on global financial markets, as former chair and CEO of Korea Exchange Bank, he also managed the Asia-Pacific region for J.P. Morgan Chase. Fallon is chairman emeritus of CIEE, The Council on International Educational Exchange, and a member of The Council on Foreign Relations.
Outstanding Recent Graduate: Berly Cordero ’02
Berly Cordero is the founder and executive director of Women’s Worth, Inc., a microfinance organization that aims to help low-income women in developing countries achieve financial independence by providing training in business skills and access to networks of information that help lift them, their families, and their communities out of poverty.