Honored Alumni and Others

Each year the College honors outstanding alumni and others during Homecoming. This year’s honorees included Dr. Sybil Coleman ’64 (Athletic Hall of Honor), Marc Whitehouse ’70 (Athletic Hall of Honor), Edward Brown ’75 (A. J. Gordon Missionary Service Award), Ann Seavey ’75 (Winifred Currie Award in Education), Dr. Reginald Nichols ’79 (Jack Good Community Service Award), Bob Weil ’85B (Entrepreneur of the Year), Bill Park ’95 (Young Alumnus of the Year), and Dr. Roger Green (Lifetime Achievement Award). 

Sybil Coleman ’64 has been a staple of the Gordon Athletics community for over 50 years in a variety of roles. A three-sport athlete at Gordon, she coached four varsity sports at the College—volleyball, basketball, softball and field hockey—while serving as Director of Women's Athletics from 1964 to 1066. As a professor of social work, she is one of the most avid supporters of athletics among the Gordon faculty and can often be spotted at volleyball and basketball games. She began her Gordon tenure as a four-year member of the volleyball, basketball and softball teams that varsity level, and won league titles in the club sport of bowling. Gordon's volleyball team won league championships in two of her four seasons (’62 and ’63). She captained Women's Basketball as a junior and senior, and the team went 10–0 in 1963, its best mark in College history. In 1965–66 Sybil was in charge of Gordon's mixed volleyball team, which took home a league title over the likes of Harvard. While teaching social work, she has also taught archery and badminton in Gordon's physical education department. 

Long-time coach Marc Whitehouse ’70 has the distinguished honor of possessing the most wins in the history of both the Men's and Women's Soccer programs. He took over the Men's Soccer program in 1980 from Dave Macmillan and the Fighting Scots immediately found success in his system. Gordon entered into its best five-year stretch in the history of the program with an overall record of 65-18-11 and two NAIA National Championship appearances. The 16 wins recorded in 1983 and 1984 stood as the best season ever until current head coach Derek Potteiger led the Scots to a 19-3 record in 2013. From 1992-1998, Marc led Women's Soccer as the team transitioned from club to varsity in the NCAA. Gordon went 13-1 in his second season at the helm and never lost more than five games in a season during his first run with the program. The Scots won the CCC championship in three of his first seven seasons and made the conference title game in two of the other four. Marc returned to coaching the men from 1999 to 2003 and continued his success there, going 67-30-9 in five seasons and winning a CCC title in 2003. He won Coach of the Year awards nine times from a number of different associations. He closed out his 30-plus years of service with 11 straight years of coaching Women's Soccer again, during which time Gordon would earn three runner-up places in the Commonwealth Coast Conference. He also coached baseball, men's basketball and softball at Gordon and served in a variety of administrative roles. When he retired in 2014 his overall career mark between the two soccer programs was 376-148-48. He never had a losing season at Gordon. 

Edward Brown ’75, CEO, Care of Creation
As director and CEO of the agency Care of Creation and as its senior associate to the Lausanne Movement, Ed is developing a global creation care network. He speaks across the U.S. and internationally. He previously led the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. A "missionary kid" who grew up in Pakistan, he has served as a pastor overseas and in the U.S., and worked with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Ann Seavey ’75, Director of Academic Support, Gordon College
Since 1992 Ann has been a tireless advocate for Gordon students. Hired to develop the newly founded Academic Support Center, she established a department that equips students for success—among them, students with physical or learning disabilities, and students for whom English is a second language. She continues to innovate, and made possible the launch of a program for first year students with Asperger’s, non-verbal learning disabilities, social anxiety and traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Reginald Nichols ’79, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, Warner Pacific College
Reginald has worked with communities in southern Africa, Latin America and the United States in the areas of sustainable development, collaborative networks, and diversity, and on an international project to increase philanthropy and civic leadership. As a W. K. Kellogg International Leadership Fellow and a Salzburg Seminar Fellow, he has led youth projects and seminars and worked with Caribbean, Latin American and South African leaders to increase the effectiveness of organizations and leadership.

Bob Weil ’85B, founder and CEO, Trutone
Frustrated by the lack of visual cues offered by conventional electric guitar volume pedals, Bob set out to create the solution he assumed other guitar players like him would want. He taught himself electronics, mechanical engineering, and patent law. Over time his Trutone instruments have pioneered a new standard in the industry and are used by many leading artists (from Aerosmith to U2).

Bill Park ’95, hedge fund entrepreneur
As a South Korea-based member of State Street Corporation's Asia Pacific Leadership Team, and Asia-Pacific chair of State Street's Global Giving Campaign, Bill led his colleagues in Seoul to support Yeomyung School, an alternative middle and high school focused on educating North Korean refugee students. After 20 years with State Street, Bill stepped down in June to pursue establishment of a hedge fund, a project for which he remains in Seoul.

Dr. Roger Green, Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, and Terrelle B. Crum Chair of Humanities
When Roger J. Green retires next May he will have taught biblical studies and theology for 46 years, graciously, humbly and excellently—first at Asbury College, then at Barrington College from 1970 to 1985, and in the years since, at Gordon. After his final Commencement, he and his wife, Karen, will lead their final Holy Land Pilgrimage for alumni and others.
Roger is a longtime member and a scholar of the Salvation Army; his research on its history and theology wove a new strand of theological understanding into Gordon's curriculum. His knowledge of Wesleyan thought complemented his colleagues' specialties, and his grounding in the Salvation Army's commitment both to preaching and to social ministries—and its welcoming of women in ministry—fit well with Gordon College's institutional identity. Roger has helped generations of Gordon students become well-versed in Scriptural support for obedience to the commandments of Jesus in one's day-to-day life as well as in one's heart.

In addition to earning master's degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. from Boston College, he received an honorary degree from William and Catherine Booth College (now Booth University College) and in 2012 the Salvation Army honored him with the rarely-bestowed Order of the Founder, its highest honor. He preaches and lectures internationally at Salvation Army ministers’ conferences and lay retreats. In addition to contributing to several editions of the Bible, and work published in journals, he is the author of a bookshelf's worth of volumes about the Salvation Army, including War on Two Fronts: The Redemptive Theology of William Booth and Catherine Booth: a Biography of the Co-Founder of The Salvation Army. He and Karen live in Danvers, Massachusetts and attend the Salvation Army church in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.
 

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