This award is presented to alumni who have distinguished themselves in their chosen fields; served in local, state or national affairs or provided service to society; and demonstrated outstanding support of the school.
Neravetla is a cardiothoracic surgeon who locally spearheaded the lung cancer screening program, the expansion of minimally invasive cardiovascular surgery and launched a transcatheter heart valve replacement program.
Rue is the president and general manager of Littleton and Rue Funeral Home and Crematory, is the mayor of Springfield, previously serviced as a city commissioner and is a significant supporter of Ridgewood School.
Nelson-Campbell is a professor emerita of Rice University, and has been a translator, editor, and scholar of medieval and French literature. She has received Rice University’s George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching, the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award, and is a Chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes Academiques, one of the oldest civil honors bestowed by the French Republic.
The Honorary Alumni Award recipients are Violet Turner and Gail Suzel. This award is for people who, although not alumni, have served the school by making a significant contribution of time, effort or resources, and by serving as a role model for students.
Turner, who is being posthumously recognized, was one of Ridgewood’s faculty members and heads of school in a career that started in 1931 and continued into the 1960s.
Suzel who serves as head of Ridgewood’s Hollenbeck Preschool and is its lead teacher, taught in Yellow Springs and at Springfield’s Nightingale Montessori before joining Ridgewood in 2004. She has taught first grade, coached Science Olympiad, choreographed the school musicals and served on the board of the Gary Geis Dance Company.
The annual alumni dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 20, and is open to the public. Reservations can be made by calling 937-399-8900.
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