University of New England

UNE honors 6 prominent Maine women with Deborah Morton Awards

Six prominent Maine women were honored on September 26 as recipients of the 2005 Deborah Morton Awards at a ceremony at Ludcke Auditorium on the University of New England’s Westbrook College Campus.
 
Susan M. Collins, United States Senator from Maine; Louise Parker James, former instructor of American History and assistant dean of students at Westbrook Junior College; Eleanor Parker Merrill, community volunteer, poet and former faculty member of Westbrook College; Sister Mary Norberta, president & chief executive officer of St. Joseph Hospital and St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation in Bangor; Kay Rand, principal of BSSN Resources, a consulting subsidiary of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson; and Paula D. Silsby, U.S. Attorney, District of Maine, were the award recipients and spoke at the awards convocation ceremony. 
  
Award History

The Deborah Morton Awards are presented each year by the trustees of the University of New England to outstanding women who have achieved high distinction in their careers and public service or whose leadership in civic, cultural or social causes has been exceptional.
 
The Deborah Morton Award, first presented at Westbrook College in 1961, was the first annual award in Maine to honor women's achievements. It was named in memory of Deborah Morton of Round Pond, Maine, valedictorian of the 1879 class of the Westbrook Seminary - the forerunner of Westbrook College, which merged with the University of New England in 1996. Morton was a teacher, dean, linguist, historian and prominent Portland civic leader whose service to Westbrook College spanned more than 60 years. Since 1961, more than 150 distinguished women have been honored with the award.
 
A scholarship is also awarded annually to a UNE student from the Westbrook College Campus, and this year’s recipient is class of 2007 dental hygiene major, Jacqueline Morrill.
 
Awardees' Biographies
 
Susan M. Collins, Caribou -- United States Senator. Susan Collins was elected to represent the State of Maine in the United States Senate in 1996 and was re-elected to a second term in 2002. She is the 15th woman in history to be elected to the Senate in her own right. Senator Collins serves as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, one of the 12 major committees in the U.S. Senate. She also serves on the Armed Services Committee, the Special Committee on Aging and the Joint Economic Committee. Previously she served for six years on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Senator Collins was also the first freshman senator ever to lead the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Collins has been a tireless advocate for education. Her goal of expanding access to higher education led her to co-author the 1998 Higher Education Act and to support increases in Pell grants and other student financial aid.  Her efforts on behalf of the University of New England have benefitted both the community and the state. With projects such as the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency program and the Performance Enhancement and Evaluation Center, Collins has provided tremendous learning opportunities for our students. She has won praise from her home state newspapers as well as national newspapers from coast to coast. Collins has received many professional and civic honors from such wide-ranging groups as the American Diabetes Association, the National Federation for Independent Businesses, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Association and the National School Boards Association.
 
Louise Parker James ’43, Portland -- Community volunteer and former instructor of American history and assistant dean of students at Westbrook Junior College. James served as a member of the UNE Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2004 and during this time served on the UNE Nominating, Institutional Advancement, and Long Range Planning Committees. She also served as a UNE Capital Campaign volunteer. James is a current member of the President’s Circle Gala Planning Committee and was past chair of the committee.  She serves as an advisory board member of UNE’s Maine Women Writers Collection and is a member of the Westbrook College Alumni Association. James also served as president of the Women’s Board of Maine General Hospital for two years and as chairman of the State of Maine Board Overseers of the Bar for two years. She is a corporator of Maine Medical Center and served on the Judicial Ethics Committee Board of Dumbarton House, Washington D.C. She was a Portland Public Library trustee (having recently been named honorary chair), a North Yarmouth Academy trustee, and has been a dedicated volunteer with the Portland Museum of Art, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Colonial Dames of America, and Portland Junior League. James was the 1984 recipient of the Westbrook College Tower Award and 1998 recipient of the Heloise E. Withee Class of ’40 Alumni Service Award. The Parker Pavilion, located on the Westbrook College Campus at the University of New England is named for Mrs. James and her sisters, Wilma Parker Redman ’41, HON ’92, ’02 , trustee emerita and Eleanor Parker Merrill, HA ’93. James is the widow of the late P. Heyward James and the mother of H. Parker James, Ph.D., of Boston, Massachusetts.  
 
Eleanor Parker Merrill, HA ’93, Portland -- Community volunteer, poet and former faculty member of Westbrook College. She taught in the Portland Public Schools for 30 years and was nominated for Teacher of the Year. She is a 1993 UNE Honorary Award recipient and the Parker Pavilion on the Westbrook College Campus of UNE is named for Mrs. Merrill and her sisters, Wilma Parker Redman and Louise Parker James. At Portland’s First Parish Church she gave the occasional lay sermon, and served as a member of its governing board, including serving as President for two years. She has served as president of the former Portland Chamber Music Society and has worked on committees and as a volunteer at the Maine Historical Society and the Portland Museum of Art. For twenty years she led a reading group at the Women’s Literary Union on the Westbrook College Campus and was well known as a book reviewer in the Portland area. She has a passion for poetry and has written both serious poetry and family doggerel. Her address, Of Pac Man and Picasso, was delivered at the First Parish Church in Portland in 1983 on the occasion of the opening of the Charles Shipman Payson Wing of the Portland Museum of Art. It was also published in the Congressional Record. While living in England during WWII, she conducted a series of twenty-four lectures entitled “Understanding America” for an adult education group based at the University of Birmingham. She also conducted individual lectures for the British Ministry of Information. 
 
Sister Mary Norberta, C.S.S.F., FACHE, Bangor - President & chief executive officer of St. Joseph Hospital and St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation in Bangor, a Felician Sister and registered nurse. Sister Mary Norberta started St. Joseph hospital in an ordinary house and has developed it into one of two significant Bangor hospitals. She was responsible for the creation, organization and staff recruitment for the new hospital and initiated the policy of having fathers in the delivery room, one of the first hospitals in Maine to do so. Sister Mary Norberta recognized the lack of basic health-care services in some of the rural areas of Maine that have no physicians, so she created family practices in small towns subsidized by the hospital. These efforts grew into a thriving network of physician practices which eventually grew into its own health-care network. Based on an idea from an endocrinology physician, Sister Mary Norberta financially supported the creation of an osteoporosis research center, which has conducted internationally recognized research leading to new ideas about the northern climate’s impact on osteoporosis. When confronted with reduced reimbursement rates threatening the financial stability of small community hospitals in northern Maine, Sister Mary Norberta led the charge to organize these rural hospitals into the Maine Health Alliance. She also has dedicated hospital laundry and kitchen services to homeless shelters. Sister Mary Norberta is affiliated with numerous professional organizations, boards and has been featured in many publications. In 2000, she received The Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal, a religious award from Rome, presented by Bishop Joseph Gerry. She attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University, among other schools.
 
Kay Rand, Hallowell - Principal of BSSN Resources, a consulting subsidiary of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson. Rand previously served as chief of staff to former Maine Governor Angus King. As chief of staff, Rand developed an intimate understanding of the executive branch of state government and a respectful and respected relationship with the Legislature. In 1994, Rand was the manager for Independent candidate King's successful campaign for governor. Prior to her alliance with Governor King, for two years Rand represented the business community in government affairs with a focus on real estate development, environmental permitting and general economic development. Rand served as deputy commissioner during former Maine Governor John McKernan’s administration in the Office of Comprehensive Land Use Planning working with municipalities, regional entities and state agencies on growth management strategies. For 12 years, Rand was the lobbyist representing the Maine Municipal Association and Maine municipalities before the State Legislature and state administrative agencies and was the key liaison with Maine's congressional delegation on municipal matters. Rand’s mission is to effect policy changes in business and communities to make Maine a better place. On a more local level, Rand is a member of her town planning board, a member of her church choir and has raised two daughters, both now in college. She grew up in Ashland in Aroostook County, and, like most children there, picked potatoes every year of her life until she went to college at the University of Southern Maine.
 
Paula D. Silsby, Portland - U.S. Attorney, District of Maine. In 2001, she established an anti-terrorism task force for Maine.  Prior to the nomination, Silsby was the chief of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maine. In 1985, she co-founded Pine Grove Child Development Center, Inc.  She has served as instructor in trial practice courses at Harvard Law School, University of Maine School of Law, the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute and the Maine Trial Lawyers Association. In 1998, she received the Caroline Dube Glassman award by the Maine Bar Association. This award is presented annually to a woman who has worked to remove barriers and to advance the position of women in the profession; worked to educate the bench, bar or public on the status of women in the profession; or acted as a role model for younger or less experienced women lawyers. Silsby previously received Attorney General Janet Reno’s Department of Justice’s Director’s Award for Executive Achievement and was also a candidate for the national Margaret Brent Women’s Lawyer’s Achievement Award. She is an active member of the University of Maine School of Law Alumni Association and recently completed two terms on the Association’s Board of Directors.

(Press release issued Sept. 20, 2005)