SUNY Cortland Alumni Association to Honor 'Distinguished Alumni' on July 19

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Ernest E. Southworth

CORTLAND, NY (07/07/2008)(readMedia)-- The SUNY Cortland Alumni Association will present its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Award, to three graduates during the Alumni Reunion Weekend luncheon in Corey Union on Saturday, July 19.

The 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients are Ernest E. Southworth '58, a gifted teacher and statewide leader in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) of the United States of America, and Willard Lewis '66, retired president of Isothermal Community College in North Carolina. The association will bestow its Distinguished Young Alumni Award on John R. Higgitt '98, a law clerk in the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Judicial Department.

Since 1968, 105 SUNY Cortland graduates, including this year's honorees, have received the Distinguished Alumni Award for their career accomplishments and outstanding service to their community and their alma mater. In addition, 17 alumni have been recognized with Distinguished Young Alumni awards and six have been named Honorary Alumni.

Ernest E. Southworth '58

For his dedicated service to the Elks of America, in July 2006 Ernest E. Southworth '58 was elected Grand Esteemed Leading Knight, the second highest position in one of the largest and most active fraternal organizations in the world, with almost one million members in more than 2,000 lodges across the country.

Southworth, who lives in Cortland, N.Y., currently represents the New York State Elks Association Major Projects Committee, Inc., on the Board of Directors of the Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State. He has chaired that committee since 2002.

"He has been a good friend and strong supporter of Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State (CP of NYS) and our 24 affiliates for more than 40 years as a member of the Elks," wrote Susan Constantino, associations president and CEO. "The New York State Elks Association has helped to raise funds and public awareness in support of our Home Service Program since 1964. In that time, the Elks have raised well over $20 million to help the program serve people with disabilities and their families in their home communities. Ernie has helped to raise funds for our organization at both the local and state level."

Southworth has held many leadership positions with his own lodge as well as on a regional and statewide level with the organization. Initiated into the Elks in Cortland in 1960, he was elected Exalted Ruler in 1968, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Elks. Southworth became an honorary life member in 1969 and has continued to serve his lodge in many ways. He was president of the New York State Elks Association in 1992.

He retired in 1995 from Tully Central School after 37 years of service to public education, wrote the alumnus who nominated Southworth for Distinguished Alumnus.

"He was known for his innovative teaching methods as well as his vast knowledge of history, especially the Civil War era," wrote Louis M. Withiam '54, Lt. Col. USMCR Ret. "He received many honors for his work and dedication to his students, the school system and the school community."

"Students and faculty alike acknowledged Ernie's incredible mastery of history and his genuine interest in his students' progress," added Jim Nicholas, a former colleague whose own four sons learned American history from Southworth. "Throughout those years, working side by side with Ernie, I considered his greatest asset, besides his fabled knowledge of history, his dedication to helping every kid who sat in his classroom."

A native of Cortland, Southworth graduated from Cortland High School. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Social Studies from the College, he returned to his alma mater again to receive a Master of Science in 1960 and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in 1975.

Southworth was involved in youth work and served as a member of the Cortland Jaycees from 1960-75, as an alderman from 1970-79 and as deputy mayor in 1977.

Southworth is past president of the Cortland Exchange Service Club, a past district director of the New York Exchange Clubs and secretary for 25 years to the Cortland club. He is past president of the Tioughnioga Lake Association, a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus, a member of the University Club of Cortland and serves on the Cortland Country Club Membership Committee.

Southworth and his wife, Eva, have four living children, Michael Southworth, Luann Southworth Skeval '82, Julie Southworth Costantini '84 and Kristine Southworth Hunt '89.

Willard Lewis '66

In July 2007, Lewis retired after serving for 21 years as the president of Isothermal Community College in Spindale, N.C. The institution marked the occasion by naming its partly constructed, 24,000-square-foot lecture hall, distance-learning and administrative office facility the Willard L. Lewis III Life Long Learning Center.

Lewis completed a 41-year career in education with his retirement from Isothermal, a comprehensive, two-year public institution that serves 2,500 students in two counties at a main campus in Spindale and a branch in Columbia, N.C. He led the college to embrace culture and the arts, oversaw the financing and construction of a performing arts center, and developed two creative academic programs with pre-college students to improve the public's access to an affordable college education.

Under Lewis' stewardship, the College launched the New Century Scholarship Program that assures seventh graders with poor test scores or insufficient funds for college an almost tuition-free education. To gain admission to Isothermal Community College, parents or guardians sign an agreement for their offspring to reach certain academic benchmarks until their graduation and perform community service. The first class of New Century Scholars entered Isothermal in Fall 2007 with minimal program dropouts. Lewis also helped cultivate the $12 million gift that supports this scholarship program.

The Early College concept was implemented recently to enable direct admission to high school first-year students who take a combination of high school and college classes. Intended to allow students to graduate from the college and high school simultaneously, the program has enjoyed outstanding success, provided a source of motivation and challenge for students and has created more demand than can be met.

"The first graduates of the program will process this spring, one year ahead of an already accelerated pace," Lewis wrote.

Another major building construction project during his administration was the Foundation Performing Arts and Conference Center, which opened in May 2007. The state-of-the-art performance and meeting facility features a 1,350-seat auditorium and a large banquet hall and meeting rooms. Most of the money to build this much-needed cultural gathering place was raised privately in a community of fewer than 70,000 people. With the center's opening, thousands of residents have experienced the performing arts, many for the first time.

Lewis was active with the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents, serving as a past president and officer who addressed system-wide issues affecting the quality of education in the state's community colleges. As a response to a legislative mandate for greater accountability, he chaired the body assigned to develop the Critical Success Factors. He also served on the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a regional accrediting body that develops, monitors and maintains performance measures for its member institutions.

Laura Frances Crain French '37, M '65 nominated Lewis for Distinguished Alumnus because she and her late husband, William, had benefitted greatly from having this resource for continuing education and cultural enrichment in their community.

"We have enjoyed tuition-free classes as well as low-cost programs at Isothermal College," she wrote when nominating him.

Born in Connellsville, Pa., Lewis graduated from New Berlin (N.Y.) Central School. He graduated from SUNY Cortland with a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary English. Lewis subsequently obtained a Master of Science in Guidance Counseling from SUNY Oneonta and a Doctor of Education in Counselor Education from College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Before joining Isothermal, he served as branch campus administrator at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.

Lewis and his wife, Mary, live in Forest City, N.C. They have a grown son, Andrew.

John R. Higgitt '98

Since deciding to pursue the legal profession as a career while he was a student at SUNY Cortland, John R. Higgitt '98 has been trying to make a difference in New York state law.

The Troy, N.Y., native is the personal law clerk to Justice James M. McGuire for the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, which hears appeals from cases in Manhattan and the Bronx. The caseload includes some of the most high-profile cases and complex commercial actions in the nation.

As a law clerk, Higgitt drafts decisions, researches legal issues and advises the judge on legal matters pertaining to appeals and applications. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2002, and since then has written or contributed to four published legal articles that have been cited in judicial opinions or by other legal authorities.

"As a younger professional within a field dominated by older and more experienced professionals, John continues to distinguish himself immensely from his colleagues within any age group by achieving and accomplishing numerous and impressive goals within his field," said Jacob Silvestri '98, an alumnus from Troy, N.Y., who nominated Higgitt for the award.

Higgitt has served on two prestigious committees in the New York legal community. Since 2002 he has been a reporter to the New York State Pattern Jury Instruction Committee, Civil (PJI), composed of 13 distinguished jurists from New York state and three reporters, all of whom are responsible for drafting and updating all model jury instructions for civil actions in the state.

For the past three years, Higgitt has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Civil Practice to the Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts of the State of New York. Comprised of 32 lawyers and law professors, this committee is responsible for proposing legislation aimed at improving civil procedure. Each year, numerous proposals by the committee are passed by the legislature and signed into law.

Since 2007, Higgitt has served as an adjunct professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan. He previously worked as the personal law clerk to Justice Joan B. Carey, justice of the Supreme Court and deputy chief administrative judge for the courts of New York City.

At SUNY Cortland, Higgitt majored in sociology and was a member of Alpha Kappa Delta, an international sociological honor society. After graduation, he continued his education and earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 2001, where he graduated cum laude.

"John Higgitt epitomizes distinction among his Cortland peers, making him worthy of such an enormous honor from an institution near to his heart," Silvestri said.

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