UMass Magazine Online

Fall 2004

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Around the Pond

Inspiring Achievements

–Deborah Klenotic




	Norma Jean Anderson (photo by Ben Barnhart)

THIS SPRING CHANCELLOR JOHN V. LOMBARDI awarded UMass Amherst’s first-ever Distinguished Achievement Awards “to help us remember and be inspired by the vision and spirit of off-campus leaders.” Dr. Norma Jean Anderson, professor emerita, and Harold Grinspoon, a Springfield business leader and philanthropist, were honored for their extraordinary professional and community leadership.

Nothing was out of bounds, remembers Anderson of the School of Education from 1970 to 1994, when, as a dean and professor, she created an atmosphere of diversity that made the school a magnet to people around the world. “We had students from Africa, Thailand, and all over Europe, and from community action groups, other universities, government jobs, the media, church groups. There was a synergistic atmosphere we all thrived on.” Dr. Anderson admitted more women and students of color than ever before into the doctoral program and recruited 225 people without bachelor’s degrees—but with “a spark,” as she calls it—into the master’s program, including Bill and Camille Cosby. She asked teachers to “bring their best selves to their teaching” and she led the campus administration in a self-assessment of institutional racism that became a national model.

Harold Grinspoon “loves entrepreneurs and sees entrepreneurship as the best way to a better world,” says James Theroux, visiting professor in the Isenberg School of Management. Grinspoon’s charitable foundation ( http://www.hgf.org/ ) launched Entrepreneurship Initiatives, a program in which students at UMass Amherst and other colleges compete for funding for their inventions. They match wits in the Elevator Pitch Tournament, delivering 90-second pitches about their product to bring home the gold. He has guaranteed college tuition for scores of deserving children in Springfield through the I Have a Dream program; has served on the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Springfield; and is the foremost contributor to Judaic institutions in western Massachusetts.

Grinspoon founded Aspen Square Management, which owns and operates apartment complexes in 23 states. He serves on the board of the National Multi-Housing Council, which promotes quality affordable housing. In 1999 Grinspoon was named New England Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.

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