Pass the Torch

New York City landmark Guastavino’s was the elegant setting for this year’s annual Scholarship Dinner & Auction on April 29. In addition to raising money for the College’s scholarship fund, the event honored two alumnae and a beloved professor. For his exemplary distinguished career, Dennis Dalton, professor emeritus of political science, was honored with the Margaret Mead Award, named for the famed cultural anthropologist and 1923 Barnard graduate. Honored with the Frederick A. P. Barnard Award for their dedicated continued service to the College were vice chair of the board of trustees Jolyne Caruso-FitzGerald ’81, who has served as co-chair of the event since 2005; and Helene L. Finkelstein Kaplan ’53, Barnard trustee emerita and chair emerita, who with her husband, Mark, endowed Barnard’s first chair in the physical and natural sciences. Kaplan’s family and friends also set up the Helene L. Kaplan ’53 Scholarship Fund.

Emceed by ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts, the event was attended by more than 500 friends and alumnae, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and chair of the board of trustees Anna Quindlen ’74; entrepreneur Martha Stewart ’63; singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega ’81; founding editor of CosmoGIRL! and former editor-in-chief of Seventeen Atoosa Behnegar Rubenstein ’93; philanthropists Cheryl Glicker Milstein ’82 and Philip Milstein; and Lisa Sprung Cohen ’80 and James Cohen, president and CEO of Hudson Media.

The benefit featured both silent and live auctions, the latter conducted by the energetic and unflappable Harmer Johnson. A third online auction also contributed to the proceeds of more than $1.7 million. “With the difficult economic situation facing families of all income levels today, the financial aid program is more important than ever,” said President Debora Spar. “We are grateful that our alumnae and friends have responded with such remarkable generosity.”

-Photographs by Zach Hyman, Patrick McMullan, Martina Szarek, and David Wentworth