Flashback
60 years ago
Lemon first recipient of Capen Award
Sixty years ago, A. Bertram Lemon was the first recipient of the Samuel P. Capen Award, which had been created by the General Alumni Board as a tribute to retiring UB chancellor Samuel P. Capen.
Lemon, PhG ’13, joined the faculty of the School of Pharmacy (predecessor to the current School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences) in 1917 and served as the school’s dean from 1936 to 1954. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, he served the UB Alumni Club as secretary, treasurer and bulletin editor. He is credited with organizing the UB band, orchestra and glee club.
The Samuel P. Capen Award was established “to recognize notable and meritorious contributions from alumni to the university and its family, such as contributions influencing the growth and improvement of the university and stimulating others to give their active interest and material support to the university.”
When the General Alumni Board named the award for Capen, it was “hoped that the recipients selected will be men and women who have given to the university and alumni affairs the same faith, courage, dignity, intelligence and constant effort which have characterized Dr. Capen’s administration as chancellor of the university.” Lemon noted when receiving the award that “loyalty of the alumni is a university’s greatest asset.”
The Samuel P. Capen Award continues to be the UB Alumni Association’s highest award. The award for 2010 will be presented on April 8 to Buffalo attorney and philanthropist Gordon R. Gross, JD ’55.
The University Archives holds the papers of A. Bertram Lemon: “A.B. Lemon, Dean of the School of Pharmacy Papers, 1924-1969.”
—John Edens, University Archives
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