Hunter College High School Distinguished Graduate Awardees
Chosen by a Committee of the High School
1965
Mina S. Rees, Ph.D. ’19
Mathematician and educator. President, Graduate Division, CUNY; former dean of students, Hunter College. First
woman president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
1966
Ruth Lewinson ’13
Lawyer and philanthropist.
1967
Birdie Amsterdam
Lawyer, first woman on the New York State Supreme Court.
1968
Martina Arroyo ’53
Opera and concert singer.
1969
Pearl Borde Primus ’36
African-American choreographer and dancer; ethnologist, professor of physical education.
1970
Hortense Calisher ’28
Author and teacher.
1971
Constance Eberhardt Cook ’37
New York State legislator. Led successful fight for abortion rights in 1970.
1973
Mildred A. Busch ’25
Administrator and acting principal of HCHS.
1974
Belle Zeller ’21
Educator and union leader; first president of the Professional Staff Congress of New York City, CUNY.
1975
Carol Hutter Greitzer ’41
New York City Council Member.
1976
Roxee Ward Joly ’31
Educator; principal of the Julia Richman High School, Superintendent of High Schools, NYC.
1977
Olivia Cole Venture ’60
Actress; first African American actress to win an Emmy award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television
Movie.
1979
Chief Hon. Shirley Schlanger Abrahamson ’50
First woman justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court.
1980
Lucy Schildkret Dawidowicz ’32
Writer, historian of the Holocaust.
1981
Evelyn Sass Handler ’50
Scientist and educator. President, Brandeis University.
1982
Cynthia Ozick ’46
Author and scholar. Nominated for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and recipient of
fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
1983
Hon. Phyllis Whitman-Beck ’45
First woman justice, Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
1984
Audre Lorde ’51
African-American poet and feminist. Professor, Hunter College.
1985
Ellen Ash Peters ’47
First woman Chief Justice, Connecticut Supreme Court.
1986
Dr. Doris Honig Merritt ’40
Peditrician, Director of Research Training and Research Resources, NIH; author of numerous medical and research
publications. Professor and medical school administrator.
1987
Beatrice Shapanka Fitzpatrick ’43
President and founder of American Woman’s Economic Development Corp., a non-profit business counseling
organization.
1988
Blanche Davis Blank ’40
First woman associate professor and distinguished professor, Political Science, Yeshiva University; former dean of
Social Sciences, Hunter College; acting president of Hunter College from 1993-1995.
1990
Florence Howe ’46
Author, editor, educator. Founder and president, The Feminist Press. Former president, Modern Language
Association.
1991
Dr. Bernadine Healy ’62
Former president, American Red Cross; Former director, National Institutes of Health; cardiologist; former chair,
Cleveland Clinic Foundation Research Institute; former deputy director, U.S. Office of Science and Technology
Policy; vice-chair, White House Science Council.
1992
Ruby Wallace Dee ’39
Actress, political and social activist. First African-American actress to play Kate in The Taming of the Shrew and
Cordelia in King Lear.
1993
Dr. Deborah Tannen ’62
Linguist; professor, Georgetown University; best-selling author.
1994
Augusta Souza Kappner ’62
Educator, researcher and administrator; president, Bank Street College of Education.
1995
Susan Margulies Sheehan ’54
Distinguished author.
1996
Lynne D. Richardson, MD, ’72
Vice chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital.
1997
Angela Bofill ’72
Jazz singer and recording artist.
1998
Leona Feifer Chanin ’34
Distinguished philanthropist and community activist. Chair of Leadership Conference of National Jewish Women’s
Organization; senior vice president of American Jewish Congress.
1999
Helen Epstein ’65
Writer and university professor.
2000
Evelyn Cunningham ’34
Leader in the civil rights and women’s movements. Career in communications, journalism, politics, government, and
public service.
2001
Patricia Anne Williams ’61
Acting New York State supreme court justice.
2002
Jennifer Raab ’73
Attorney; former commissioner, NYC Landmarks Commission; president, Hunter College.
2003
Elena Kagan ’77
Supreme Court Justice.
2004
Cynthia Nixon ’84
Actress; activist for public schools.
2005
Robert Lopez ’93
Musician/writer; co-creator of Broadway’s Avenue Q and winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, first male
recipient of HCHS Distinguished Graduate award.
2006
Judith Jarvis Thomson ’46
Professor of Philosophy at MIT working in the fields of ethics and metaphysics; author of seminal 1971 article “A
Defense of Abortion."
2007
Susan Levine Fuhrman ’61
President of Teachers College at Columbia University
2008
Lin-Manuel Miranda ’98
Creator and star of Broadway’s In the Heights; Tony-award winner
2009
Mildred Spiewak Dresselhaus, Jan. ’48
Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at MIT, Emerita Institute Professor, National Medal of Science
awardee
2010
Evelyn H. Lauder, ’54
Businesswoman, philanthropist, and the creator of the Pink Ribbon campaign. She was the Senior Corporate Vice
President of the Estée Lauder Companies and a member of the board of overseers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center. In 1993 Ms. Lauder founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation which has raised more than
$350 million dollars in support of this cause.
2011
Dr. Adam Cohen, ‘97
Harvard Professor of Chemistry, and of Chemical Biology and of Physics; Winner of Westinghouse Science Talent
Search award while at HCHS. Recipient of Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award & named by
Technology Review TR35: top 35 technology innovators under the age of 35.
2012
Jean Kwok, ‘86
Author of the novel GIRL IN TRANSLATION and the 2014 MAMBO IN CHINATOWN, she is a graduate of Harvard
and Columbia’s MFA programs.
2013
Jon Daniels, ‘95
President of Baseball Operations and General Manager of Texas Rangers . When he was hired at the age of 28, he
was the youngest GM in Major League Baseball history.