Association of Yale Alumni Names Yale Medalists

Five Yale University alumni have been selected by the Association of Yale Alumni to receive the Yale Medal in 2004.

This year’s recipients are Robert Bonds ‘71, Mark R. Dollhopf ‘77, Christopher A. Forster ‘54, the Reverend Richard Mather Mapes ‘49, ‘52 Div, and David W. Wallace ‘48 E.

Inaugurated in 1952, the Yale Medal is the highest award presented by the Association of Yale Alumni and is conferred solely to honor outstanding individual service to the University. Since its inception, the Yale Medal has been presented to 246 individuals, all of whom not only showed extraordinary devotion to the ideals of the University but also were conspicuous in demonstrating their support of Yale through extensive, exemplary voluntary service on behalf of Yale as a whole or one of its many schools, institutes or programs.

Bonds served as vice president of the Yale Club of Hong Kong for 25 years and is responsible for creating and sustaining an exemplary program for Yale alumni in the Far East. He was also instrumental in coordinating an extraordinary Yale Tercentennial Celebration in Asia.

Dollhopf has been responsible for conceiving and developing the Yale Alumni Chorus, which has toured China, Russia, Great Britain and South America, including performances broadcast from the Kremlin, Tiananmen Square and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. He has, through his daring and imagination, energized hundreds of alumni to become international ambassadors of song for Yale.

Forster ‘54 has served his class as secretary, treasurer, Class Council member, 40th and 45th Reunion co-chair and as an active leader of his Class Reunion Gift Committees. His dedication extends beyond his class to many areas of the University, particularly athletics, as well as the Yale Club of New York City.

The Reverend Mapes has been an exemplary volunteer at Yale for over five decades. He has served as 50th Reunion Chair for the Class of 1949, class secretary, Class of 1949 agent for the Alumni Fund, AYA delegate, president of the Yale Club of the Southwest, and board member for the Yale Club of New Haven.

Wallace is a Sterling Fellow, a member of the Yale Development Board and the Executive Committee of the Class of 1948. His devotion to education at Yale has led him to endow three professorships at the Yale Medical School, and to anchor the restoration and renovation of Branford College. He has also been generous with his time and involvement with his Class and the Yale Club of Greenwich.

The medalists will be honored at a ceremony on November 12 on the Yale campus, in conjunction with the annual AYA Assembly.