Groton Awards Recognize Distinguished Alumni 

Groton School presented its highest alumni honors—the Cui Servire Est Regnare Award and the Distinguished Grotonian Award—at a virtual ceremony Wednesday, May 12.

 

The event, a placeholder until reunion can resume in person, honored Cui Servire winner Marichal B. Monts ’81, founder of the Citadel of Love church in Hartford, Connecticut, and Distinguished Grotonian Joseph B. Cheshire V ’66, an esteemed attorney and civil rights advocate. Headmaster Temba Maqubela presented the awards and shared highlights of the awardees' inspirational life stories.

  

Mr. Monts provided a lifeline to his community, hard hit by the pandemic, when his church and two others fed the hungry, many of whom had lost employment due to shutdowns. Volunteers handed out some 15,000 meals.

 

Mr. Cheshire has been instrumental in cases that exonerated wrongly accused death row inmates, has written and lectured throughout the U.S. on criminal law and ethics, and served with a group in his home state of North Carolina that led to establishing the Indigent Defense Services Commission, which ensures legal representation for all.

 

He experienced a pivotal moment while still at Groton: then Headmaster Jack Crocker invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to visit the Circle in 1963 and arranged a one-on-one meeting between promising young Joe and Dr. King. The meeting inspired a life of civil rights advocacy and ultimately led to his career in law.

 

The Cui Servire Est Regnare Award honors a graduate who embodies the school’s ethos of service, while the Distinguished Grotonian recognizes a lifetime of work that reflects the essential values of the school. Normally, these awards are announced at reunion on the Circle, and the honorees feted. Reunion, however, has been postponed due to the pandemic and rescheduled for June 10–12, 2022 for graduates of years ending in 0, 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7.

 

The May reunion presentation, hosted by Groton School Alumni Association President Merrill Stubbs Dorman '95, also included remarks by Board of Trustees President Ben Pyne '77, P'12, '15 and Groton Fund President Crista Herbert Gannon '81. The Reverend  Alan McLean '51 delivered a blessing.

 

Remarks touched on the school's COVID-19 measures and the faculty's extraordinary commitment to health and safety, how the Board of Trustees' new strategic plan furthers the mission of the GRoton Affordability and INclusion (GRAIN) initiative, the record-breaking admission season, the retirement of iconic teachers, and excitement for the 2022 in-person reunion.