East Walpole Resident Janice Wilkins Receives Colby-Sawyer College's Highest Award for Distinguished Service

Related Media

Janice Wilkins

NEW LONDON, NH (05/26/2010)(readMedia)-- Colby-Sawyer College presented its highest award, the Susan Colgate Cleveland Medal for Distinguished Service, to alumna Janice Wilkins, at its 2010 Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 8. Wilkins, a long-time resident of East Walpole, Mass., and graduate of the Class of 1941, was honored for extraordinary leadership as a member of the college's Alumnae Association and Board of Trustees as well as for generous financial support of the college's highest priorities.

Wilkins began her college education at Colby Junior College, then a two-year school for women, earned an associate's degree in liberal arts and sciences. She later earned a bachelor's degree in history and government from the University of Maine and a law degree from Boston University.

After completing law school, Wilkins was active in her community and enjoyed a distinguished career as a lawyer. In Walpole, Mass., she served as the town's first female selectman for 10 one-year terms and was involved in the local Salvation Army Fund and Girl Scout Council. She also wrote the articles of incorporation for the town's first Little League and was invited to throw out the first ball at the league's opening day.

Specializing in regulatory compliance and foreign and domestic trademark issues, Wilkins began as a fair trade attorney and worked primarily for the Kendall Company before she moved into trademark law with the American Cyanamid Company in New York City. She then joined the Olin Corporation, and through its subsidiary, Squibb, turned her focus to international trademark law. She later returned to Massachusetts and to the Kendall Company as head of its trademark department, where she worked until her retirement in 1998.

Despite her career demands, Wilkins has remained close to her first college community. She wrote the initial bylaws for Colby-Sawyer's Alumnae Association and later joined its Board of Directors, serving from 1955 to 1976 on many committees and as vice chairman. She was then elected to the Board of Trustees, which she served from 1976 to 1985. In 1992 she was presented with the college's Distinguished Alumni Award.

Wilkins contributed a major gift and bequest to the college's capital campaign in 2002, telling then-President Anne Ponder that she wished to pass on to future generations of Colby-Sawyer students the values of a liberal education that were so important to her life. She articulated these values as follows: "To pursue excellence; to take responsibility; to be part of a community; and to strive for connection."

"Janice is a woman who applied her liberal education as we define it at Colby-Sawyer," said Wilkins' friend and former trustee and alumna Ellie Morrison Goldthwait. "Here she discovered her talents, she developed her abilities and she adapted to change."

President Tom Galligan described Wilkins as "a real life symbol of what we believe in" and a role model for students. "She is an intelligent and dedicated alumna who during her career was a ground-breaking attorney and public servant. She has also devoted herself to her college's well-being through her service and generous support."