Maine Maritime Academy to Honor Its Best and Brightest

CASTINE, Maine – Maine Maritime Academy will honor its best and brightest at a ceremony to be held on the college campus in mid-November. The college will formally recognize alumni accomplishment, student academic success, and outstanding faculty at its annual Celebration of Achievement on Thursday, Nov. 12.

In total, 25 individuals associated with the college will be recognized for their outstanding accomplishments. According to MMA President Leonard Tyler, several recognition ceremonies are held jointly each year to foster mutual respect, admiration, and inspiration among all honorees. The ceremonies include the college’s Wall of Honor induction, Scheel Scholars and ABS Scholars presentations, and an Excellence in Teaching award. They highlight the interrelationship of alumni professional and civic success, student curiosity and scholarship, and inspired teaching and academic commitment, respectively.

Initiated in 1997, the college’s Wall of Honor was created to recognize alumni, who, through achievements in professional and civic life, have brought honor to themselves and to Maine Maritime Academy. The Wall was established not only to pay tribute to their achievements, but also to allow their success to serve as inspiration to current students and their fellow alumni to strive for personal excellence.

The 2009 inductees will join 54 distinguished alumni honorees with a framed photograph and biographical sketch permanently displayed in the college’s Wall of Honor located in the Kresge Room of the Harold Alfond Student Center. Inductees are selected from nominations made at large by alumni and the public. Selection criteria prescribes that candidates be a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy and own, be a president, chief executive officer, or chair of the board of directors of a company; or have been elected to the office of mayor, governor, U.S. House of Representatives or Senate; or have achieved the rank of flag officer in a branch of the military; or have achieved significant prominence or lifetime achievement in a chosen field. Advanced education, professional awards and honors, community service, and voluntary service to Maine Maritime Academy are also considered for selection. The annual selection process is carried out by a committee comprised of members of the Wall of Honor.

This year’s Wall of Honor induction will recognize the career accomplishments of two distinguished alumni, John W. Fairbanks, MMA Class of 1952, and Douglas W. MacKay, M.D., MMA Class of 1947.

John W. Fairbanks, technology development manager at the U.S. Department of Energy, will be recognized for his career contributions to the fields of engineering and thermoelectric energy. A former program manager at the U.S. Department of Energy, and program engineer at the Naval Ship Engineering Center, Fairbanks is noted for initiating the first vehicular application of thermoelectric while serving as a Power System Manager at the NASA-Goddard Space Center.

Throughout his distinguished engineering career, Fairbanks has received numerous commendations for his academic work. He is a two-time award winner of the Association of Scientists & Engineers presented him with their best technical paper. He has also served on multiple occasions as the Invited Plenary Speaker at the European Conference on Thermoelectrics and as the Invited Plenary Speaker at the International Thermoelectric Conference. His work has been recognized through NASA’s Apollo Achievement Award and the Astronomy Spacecraft Team Award of the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. He is the past recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Maine Maritime Academy’s Outstanding Alumni Award.

Fairbanks earned B.S. degrees in engineering at Maine Maritime Academy and at Stanford University. He holds an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Santa Clara. He is a retired Captain of the U.S. Navy Reserve.

Douglas W. MacKay, former chairman of the department of orthopedics at the University Medical Center, Lafayette, La., will be honored for his accomplishments and contributions in field of orthopedic medicine. He has been recognized as a leader in the treatment and correction of childhood deformities including clubfeet and scoliosis. He was the inventor of various medical and surgical devices to assist with related procedures, including a device and safe surgical approach to address severe back pain, and a device to relieve pain and gain early motion following total knee replacement.

Prior to his chairmanship of the Medical Center, he was engaged as private practitioner with General Orthopaedics, for more than 5 years in the same area. Dr. MacKay concurrently served for 16 years as a professor at George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C., and as chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at Children’s Hospital, National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. He also served as the certifying examiner in charge of pediatrics for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons. While serving as chief surgeon at Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children, Shreveport, La., he also served as professor and head of the Department of Orthopaedics at LSU School of Medicine. He was also the chief surgeon at Carrie Tingley Hospital for Crippled Children, Truth or Consequences, N.M.

MacKay earned a B.S. degree in engineering at Maine Maritime Academy and attended the University of Maine. He earned his M.D. at Tufts University Medical School in 1955. Dr. MacKay’s distinguished professional contributions to his preferred area of medicine include serving as a founding father of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America, and president of the Louisiana Orthopaedic Society, Washington, D.C. Orthopedic Society, and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society.

Maine Maritime Academy also honors selected students annually as Henry A. Scheel Scholars, the college’s highest undergraduate academic honor. Awarded to those students who best exemplify intellectual curiosity and academic achievement, the distinction is named in honor of the late Henry A. Scheel, a resident of Rockport, Maine, and a noted naval architect, who expressed his high regard for Maine Maritime Academy by leaving funds to permanently endow scholarships for outstanding students.

This year’s 11 recipients were selected for the academic honor by the chairs of the academic departments at the college. They represent the highest standard of achievement within each of the undergraduate majors offered at the college.

They are Kasey L. Blackman, South Thomaston, Maine, international business and logistics major; Maxwell T. Collins, Sedgwick, Maine, power engineering technology major; Jeanie B. Cushman, South Thomaston, Maine, marine science major; Matthew P. Dow, Lake George, N.Y., interdisciplinary studies major; Kelsie L. Eiane, Harpswell, Maine, marine systems engineering - non-license track major; Gillian L. Faustine, Winthrop, Mass., marine transportation operations major; Edward M. Fleming, Duxbury, Mass., marine engineering operations major; Adam S. Graves, Hopewell, Pa., marine systems engineering - license track major; Seth M. Green, Lincolnville, Maine, marine engineering technology major; Amanda R. Hyde, Minneapolis, Minn., marine biology major; and Christopher A. Scott, Union, Maine, small vessel operations major.

A recently established academic distinction will also be presented at this year’s ceremony, recognizing the accomplishments of 10 outstanding students and the academic support of a leading U.S. ship classification society, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). According to ABS, consistent with its role as a leader in marine technology and its position within the maritime industry, the company is committed to supporting maritime education through a global scholarship program. Scholarships are awarded to deserving engineering and naval architecture students at colleges and universities that are recognized as national or international leaders in maritime technical education and research. Candidates for the scholarship opportunity at MMA were selected from those students enrolled in the college’s 5-year marine systems engineering program. Recipients will each receive a $10,000.00 scholarship in each of the final two years of their academic career at MMA. They are also provided the opportunity to complete an internship at ABS. They were selected by a committee of MMA engineering faculty and administrators based on their overall grade point average, their classroom and academic leadership, and their intellectual curiosity and growth.

This year’s recipients are Andrew M. Blackman, Warren, Maine; Kenneth M. Brown, Chicago, Ill.; Kincaid H. Cook, Phippsburg, Maine; Brandon C. Dubois, Lewiston, Maine; Ryan G. Gannon, Concord, N.H.; Adam S. Graves, Hopewell, Pa.; Brandon D. Humphrey, Hartland, Maine; Jonathan M. Kalloch, Gorham, Maine; Charles W. Thibault, Skowhegan, Maine; and Clayton L. Tolman, Rockport, Maine.

Maine Maritime Academy will also present the fourth annual Excellence in Teaching Award, the college’s highest faculty achievement award. The award designates a member of the college faculty as selected by students and alumni, as the faculty member that best exemplifies proficiency in their field of expertise, and passion for teaching and student learning.

This year’s recipient will be Margaret E. Brandon, South Thomaston, Maine, associate professor of marine transportation at MMA. For more than 20 years she has served as a sea-going tall ship and research vessel captain, and has taught nautical science to undergraduate, high school, and graduate students. She was the American Sail Training Association’s Sail Trainer of the year in 2002, and her maritime service has been recognized by the United States Coast Guard. Her maritime expertise has been enhanced by an M.M.A. degree in Marine Policy and Law from the University of Rhode Island, as well as participation in an NEH Institute in Early Modern Maritime History at the John Carter Brown Library.

Since her appointment to the MMA faculty in 2006, Brandon has participated extensively in hands-on learning opportunities for students, serving regularly as a training officer aboard the schooner Bowdoin and as a proctor for the United States Coast Guard licensing exams. For the past three years she has accompanied MMA students to sail aboard the Barque Elisa, a historic square rigged sailing vessel based in Galveston, Texas.

Brandon recently organized the 3rd Annual Women on the Water Conference hosted at Maine Maritime Academy earlier this year. Brandon, a 1600-ton master of steam, motor, or auxiliary sail vessels, earned a B.S. degree at the University of Rhode Island. She was appointed to the college faculty in 2006.

The college will also recognize Donald P. Eley, Blue Hill, Maine, professor of marine transportation at MMA and coordinator of the college’s Small Vessel Operations Program. Eley was promoted to the rank of full professor at the conclusion of the 2008-2009 academic year following a rigorous peer review process. His promotion was unanimously approved based on his extensive service to the promotion and development of the college's program in small vessel operations, his more than 16 years of dedication to teaching excellence at the college, and his academic outreach to industry in the areas of improved training and certification for limited tonnage mariners. Eley’s promotion also noted his service as a training officer for the schooner Bowdoin, and cooperative education coordinator for the colleges programs in Small Vessel Operations and Small Craft Design. Eley, a 200-ton master of steam, motor, or auxiliary sail vessels, earned a B.A. degree at Humboldt State University, and an M.S. degree at Maine Maritime Academy. He was appointed to the college faculty in 1993.