Joan Winkel Ripley `55

A LU M NA E A SSOCI AT ION OF MOU N T HOLYOK E COL L EGE
A lu m na e M e da l Of Honor 2015
PR ESEN T ED TO
Joan Winkel Ripley ’55
J O A N W I N K E L R I P L E Y, C L A S S O F 1 9 5 5 , you have devoted many years of loyal volunteer service to
Mount Holyoke College by taking on formal and informal leadership roles and countless organizational responsibilities—
large and small—for your class, your club, and Mount Holyoke College.
You have been an enthusiastic member of the Mount Holyoke community for more than sixty years, from your first days as
a first-year student in Safford to today when you celebrate your sixtieth reunion. You are class president, head class agent,
and website co-coordinator for your class. Your classmates applaud your efforts in all three spheres. Your work on the
class website is cited by many as an excellent example of your interest in creating a cohesive class community. Constantly
working to draw your classmates closer to each other and to the College, you are a driving force behind your class’s fall
on-campus mini-reunions. In addition, you currently serve as the communications chair for the Westchester Club.
For your fiftieth reunion, you headed a class committee to create an oral history project linking the classes of 1955 and
2005, a project that resulted in you co-authoring the book Uncommon Women Together–Generations Apart. Since then,
you have encouraged subsequent classes to continue building a connection between the fiftieth reunion class and the
graduating seniors. Furthermore, under your leadership as head class agent, the class of 1955 has achieved 100 percent
participation in the Mount Holyoke Fund for the last three years—a remarkable feat.
Joan, for your inclusive and expansive work in the name of Mount Holyoke College, it is a great honor for the Alumnae
Association to present you with the Alumnae Medal of Honor on this, your sixtieth reunion.
M A RC I A B RU M I T K RO P F ’6 7
JA N E E . Z AC H A RY P R E S I DE N T E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R A LU M N A E A S S O C I AT IO N O F M OU N T H O LYO K E C O L L E G E A LU M N A E A S S O C I AT IO N O F M OU N T H O LYO K E C O L L E G E