Allen Glick ’63 will be presented with the Distinguished Service Award, and Richard Boucher ’03, M.B.A. ’04, and Anthony Colon ’03, M.P.A. ’04, will jointly receive the Young Alumni Award at the May 17 Friday Night Dinner at Clark University’s Reunion Weekend.
Jeffrey Lurie ’73, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, will deliver the keynote address.
Dr. Lee Gurel ’48 will receive the Fiat Lux Award for Extraordinary Service by a Legacy Society Member, which will be presented at the Legacy Society luncheon on Friday, May 17, at 11:30 a.m.
Distinguished Service Award
Allen Glick needed to look no further than his own family for inspiration when he was building his successful auto dealership business. His grandfather came to the United States from Russia, penniless, and worked his way from being a junk hauler, and then a mill owner, to become one of the largest owners of buildings and parking lots in downtown Worcester.
That work ethic was passed to Allen’s father, Selig, and then to Allen.
“I truly think the best thing my father ever did was to never spoil me. He made sure that I worked hard and earned an honest week’s pay,” Glick once told a reporter. “There is no magic to succeeding; you just need to dedicate yourself to succeeding.”
Glick has been an extraordinary supporter of Clark University for many years. He served on Clark’s Board of Trustees for fourteen years, first as an alumni-elected trustee from 1987 to 1993, and then as a board appointment from 1993 to 1997. He rejoined the board in 2001 and served on the Audit, Major Gifts, and Investment committees, and as chair of the Audit Committee for several years. Glick has also provided exemplary service to the Alumni Council.
In 1973, he established The Lillian and Selig Glick Scholarship Fund in honor of his parents, followed by the Allen M. Glick Chair in Judaic and Biblical Studies, in 1996. He most recently established the Dr. William E. Topkin ’60, M.A. Ed. ’63, Ed.D. ’67, Scholarship Fund in honor of his cousin, who is a former dean of students at Clark and a Clark trustee emeritus. Throughout the years, Glick has also helped to build the Dolan Field House, University Center, and the Traina Center, and generously supported the exhibition “Painting in the Shadow of the Plague: Italy, 1500-1750,” which Clark helped to organize in Worcester. He is a member of Clark’s Legacy Society and a charter member of the Jonas Clark Fellows.
Glick received his B.A. in marketing with departmental honors from Clark in 1963, where he was also a member of the Kappa Phi fraternity and a staff member of Pasticcio. He went on to own and operate Glick Nissan, a group of five automobile dealerships in the Framingham, Mass., area from 1968 until 1999. He sold four of the five dealerships in 1999, but continues to serve as president and treasurer of Glick Nissan in Westborough. He also serves as a trustee of A.M. Glick Realty Trust and is a private investor. From the late 1980s until 2003 he served on the boards of many local banks.
In addition to his philanthropic and business activities, Allen and his wife, Iris, have found time to be generous hosts of Clark alumni events for senior leadership at their horse farm in Vermont. As a consistent attendee of University events in Worcester and abroad, Allen Glick has modeled the qualities of engagement that Clark seeks to develop in its alumni.
Young Alumni Award
The Young Alumni Award recognizes extraordinary achievements on behalf of the Clark community. This year, for the first time, the University presents the award to a Clark couple, Richard Boucher ’03, M.B.A. ’04 and Anthony Colon ’03, M.P.A. ’04. Both Boucher and Colon have been class agents, served on their Reunion Committee, been advocates for Clark in the Miami region, and have attended many Clark events.
Boucher, a Worcester native, started his connection to Clark in 1993 when he was accepted into the Robert Goddard Scholars Program. Colon, a first-generation Puerto Rican from Brooklyn, learned of Clark’s rich history and open-minded environment while attending New York City’s Talent Unlimited School of the Performing Arts. The two met in 1999 at the welcoming reception at Harrington House.
At Clark, Anthony served as a tour guide for the Admissions House while Richard was a manager at the Clark Fund. Together, they studied psychology, volunteered as SARC members, revived the Latin American Student Organization, and studied abroad in Scotland while making lifetime friends and connections.
After graduating from the fifth-year master’s program, Boucher in business and Colon in public administration, they purchased real estate in the Main South neighborhood, which they now rent to Clarkies. While in Worcester, Anthony served as the director of public education and advocacy for the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance and Richard as the associate executive director for the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Corporation. While at SWNIC, Richard received a proclamation from Worcester Mayor Tim Murray for an outstanding contribution to the community.
In 2005 they moved to Miami Beach to pursue new endeavors. In 2008 Anthony co-authored a publication entitled “Unlocking the Promise: A Guide for Funders Interested In Transformational Grant-Making” and in 2010 was featured in the publication “How to Become a Nonprofit Rock Star: 50 Ways to Accelerate Your Career.” Currently Anthony manages a portfolio of real estate investments and remains focused on addressing housing and community economic development issues through nonprofits and philanthropic organizations.
Richard is director of special events for the South East Region of the Macy’s Parade and Entertainment Group, earning awards for innovation and creativity. He leads the region’s community volunteer program, “Macy’s Partners in Time,” and has been a part of the production of iconic events such as the Fourth of July Spectacular and the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Today, they reside on Miami’s Venetian Islands, work with several charitable organizations and hold board positions for various causes. As 2003 class agents they have worked to increase donor participation and continue to remain connected to the Clark community through regional alumni events.
Fiat Lux Award for Extraordinary Service by a Legacy Society Member
Dr. Lee Gurel ’48 began his career treating the mental health needs of the nation’s veterans, moving later into a long career as a research psychologist with the Veterans Administration, last serving as chief of research in Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences at the Washington, D.C., VA Hospital. Dr. Gurel has also been involved with the American Psychological Association and served in the 1970s as president of both the APA’s Division of Psychologists in Public Service and of the District of Columbia Psychological Association. He has published extensively in the areas of schizophrenia and the evaluation of psychiatric treatment.
Dr. Gurel’s association with Clark began in 1943, when he enrolled in a summer session program at the University after graduating from Worcester’s Classical High School. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Clark in 1948, during which time he served as editor of The Scarlet for one year.
His stay at Clark was interrupted by two years of service in the U.S. Navy. He earned his M.S. degree in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1952 from Purdue University. His extensive philanthropic support of Clark has been far-reaching. In 1995, Dr. Gurel established The Lee Gurel / John E. Bell Endowed Student / Faculty Achievement Award, for an outstanding psychology student and the professor deemed most critical to his/her success. This was followed in 1999 by the Gurel Asian Studies Prize, which is presented each year at Convocation to an outstanding student in Asian Studies. In 2004, Dr. Gurel endowed a Psychology Enhancement of Teaching fund at Clark to support a partnership with the APA to support an annual workshop at Clark for high school teachers to advance the teaching of psychology at the pre-collegiate level. Most recently, in October 2009, he established the Lee Gurel Endowed Education Fund to help leverage the effectiveness of the Mosakowski Institute. This fund supports The Gurel Speakers Fund, The Gurel Faculty Development Fund and The Gurel Student Research Fellowship Fund. In addition, in 2006, Dr. Gurel established an annual award to a graduating Worcester high school student for outstanding achievement in the study of English.
A native of Poland, Dr. Gurel moved to Worcester when he was 3 years old and attended Worcester public schools. He summarized his philosophy of giving when he said: “I feel that we all owe an enormous debt to the teachers and institutions that equipped us for fuller, more satisfying lives.”
Dr. Gurel is married to Linda Loy and has two children from a previous marriage.