Hamden Hall Country Day School Honors Alumni with Achievement Awards

Hamden Hall Country Day School honors four of its graduates at the 2012 Alumni Achievement Awards on Friday, Oct. 12, during the school’s Centennial Reunion at Cascade in Hamden.

Among those honored will be renowned local civic leader Lindy Lee Gold of New Haven, Class of 1962. She is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Shepard, Class of 1972; Dr. Richard Winters, a plastic surgeon from the Class of 1982; and Carol Nutile Burke, Ph.D., Class of 1947.

Recipients were chosen by Hamden Hall’s Alumni Association Council for exemplifying the school’s high standards and are role models who inspire and impact the lives of others.

LINDY LEE GOLD, 1962: Gold, a senior development specialist with the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development since 1998, is known statewide for her outstanding leadership in the Greater New Haven Community.

She has served as both an elected official and a tireless volunteer, having received several awards for her contributions to the region. Currently, Gold is chair of Gateway Community College Foundation, having served as a member of the foundation’s board of directors since 2007. She also serves on the state board of the Anti-Defamation League, as an associate fellow at Yale’s Pierson College,and on the boards of the Arts Council, the United Way of Greater New Haven and the Jewish Foundation.

In the past, she has served on the Shubert Performing Arts Center’s Executive Board; the New Haven Board of Education, where her volunteer work included being vice chair of the Intergroup Relations Task force; and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven,where she was president and chair of community relations.

She also was founder and president of Fellowship Inc. and Cornerstone Inc., and is past president of the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven.

CHARLES SHEPARD 1972: Shepard spent two decades as a journalist, reporting for the Charlotte (NC) Observerand Washington Post. His investigations led to federal convictions and prison terms for three executives at the United Way of America and four executives at the PTL television
ministry, including its president, televangelist Jim Bakker. Shepard’s reporting on PTL won the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service in 1988 for the Observer. A year later, Shepard published "Forgiven: The Rise and Fall of Jim Bakker and the PTL Ministry," a biography of Bakker.

In 2000, Shepard earned an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden business school. For the past 10 years, he has worked in a variety of roles with Menasha Corporation, a Wisconsin-based packaging business founded by his paternal great-great-grandfather, Elisha D. Smith. He resides in Reno, Nev., and Washington, D.C. His father,Charles R. S. Shepard, served as Hamden Hall’s headmaster from 1964 to 1969.

DR. RICHARD WINTERS 1982: Winters attended Tufts University and graduated with a B.S. in biology. He obtained his M.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he became a surgical scholar.

Winters completed his post-graduate surgical training with numerous awards and distinctions for academic excellence, surgical proficiency, clinical research and medical student/resident teaching at UCONN’s Integrated Program in General Surgery, The New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center Plastic Surgery Program, and University of California San Francisco/Davies Medical Center Institute for Microsurgical Transplantation/Replantation.He is board certified in both general surgery and plastic surgery.

Following his surgical training, Winters moved to New Jersey where he began a career in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center. Currently,he is vice-chairman of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the chief of the Center for Facial Restoration and Reanimation.

CAROL NUTILE BURKE 1947: Burke, who received her doctorate in microbiology from the University of Connecticut, was a professor at UCONN’s pathobiology department—a division of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), where she specialized in viruses. During her tenure, she held many offices, including chair of the Academic Standards Committee; president of the Faculty Alumni Center; director of the Connecticut Institute of Water Resources; and chair of the CANR Dean's Advisory Council for Promotion Tenure and Re-appointment.

Burke received many accolades–among them the Award for Outstanding Service: National Association of Water Institute Directors, and Outstanding Research Award: American Association of Avian Pathologists. She authored articles in several scientific publications, produced two instructional films, and co-published the “Manual of Basic Virological Techniques.”

Civically, Burke served on Vernon’s Board of Education, Charter Revision Committee,and Conservation and Wetlands Commission. Burke resides in Vernon.

For ticket information or to honor a recipient, contact Hamden Hall’s Office of Development at 203.752.2616.