Holy Cross Recognizes Alumni for Outstanding Professional Achievements and Service

WORCESTER, Mass. – Four graduates of the College of the Holy Cross — including an assistant U.S. district attorney combating organized crime in New York . . . an esteemed physician and leader at Tufts-New England Medical Center . . . a former football standout who has devoted his career to ensuring that the poor have quality dental care . . . and an internationally-recognized authority on arms control and nonproliferation policy — will all receive a Sanctae Crucis Award, the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College on an alumnus or alumna.

The 10th annual presentation of the awards will take place on May 4 at the College.

This year’s recipients are:

Mark J. Doherty, D.M.D, ’70 Of the 5,000 dentists practicing across Massachusetts, fewer than 800 treat Medicaid patients — Doherty is one of them. He founded the Oral Health Clinic which he administers at the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, and created Commonwealth Mobile Oral Health Services (CMOHS), the first portable dental program in Massachusetts in 1981. His vision was to create a “dental home” for children with underserved dental needs due to lack of Mass Health providers, transportation problems, incarceration or residential status. CMOHS currently serves more than 50 Department of Youth Service (DYS) facilities, 55 Department of Social Service (DSS) and Special program Residential Facilities, 20 public elementary schools, and 60 Head Start programs throughout the state of Massachusetts. Following his graduation from Holy Cross with a degree in sociology, he received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974. In addition to his work in dentistry, Doherty is an exceptional athlete. He was a football star and captain of the lacrosse team at Holy Cross. He won the New England Golden Gloves boxing championship in his senior year, and won the 1987 New England Sports Achievement Award.

He lives in Lakeville, Mass.

John T. Harrington, M.D. ’58 Harrington has been a part of the Nephrology Division at Tufts-NEMC since his fellowship training under Drs. William B. Schwartz and Jerome P. Kassirer in the mid-1960s. Now dean emeritus and professor of medicine at TUSM, Harrington focuses on outpatient care, in-patient consultation and medical education of nephrology fellows, internal medicine house staff and medical students. In December 2005, he completed 28 years as a founding co-editor of the Nephrology Forum, which had been published monthly in Kidney International, the journal of the International Society of Nephrology. His intellectual interests remain the broad field of clinical nephrology and specifically the arcane world of acid-base, fluid and electrolyte disturbances. After receiving his bachelor of arts degree in classics (magna cum laude) in 1958, he went on to receive his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine, and did his internship and residency at North Carolina Memorial Hospital. Harrington began his association with Tufts-New England in 1965, subsequently serving as director of the Dialysis Unit and as chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine. In 1996, he was appointed dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, a position he held until 2002. Four of his six children are also Holy Cross graduates.

He lives in West Roxbury, Mass.

Paul F. Walker ’68 For more than 25 years, Paul Walker has been a leading expert in international security, arms control, and nonproliferation policy. A former senior professional staff member of the Armed Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, Walker has lectured and published widely, most recently on the demilitarization of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). For more than 10 years, he has been  associated with Global Green USA — the U.S. affiliate of Green Cross International, an environmental organization founded by Mikhail Gorbachev — where he is responsible for the direction and management of Global Green USA’s international “Legacy of the Cold War” program. He holds a Ph.D. in political science and defense studies from M.I.T.; an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies; a Russian Honors Certificate from the Defense Language Institute of the West Coast; and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is a Vietnam-era Army veteran. He is also former acting director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Holy Cross.

He lives in Cambridge, Mass.

Timothy J. Treanor ’89 (Outstanding Young Alumnus) Treanor has dedicated his career to public service, currently leading the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to combat organized crime in and around New York City and supervising an elite unit of 15 prosecutors. He has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney since 1999. During his tenure as a federal prosecutor, he also worked as part of the Justice Department’s efforts to combat terrorism in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack in 2001, conducting numerous terrorism financing investigations. He graduated from Holy Cross with a major in history and art history; but before he enrolled at Fordham Law School (where he graduated in 1995 at the top of his class and was an editor of the Fordham Law Review), he worked with homeless street children in South Africa. He founded, and raised funding for, a residential community reintegration program for older street children preparing to enter the workforce. The program continues today serving the neediest population in South Africa.

He lives in Pleasantville, NY.

ABOUT THE SANCTAE CRUCIS AWARDS: The Sanctae Crucis Awards were established in 1998 to recognize the distinguished achievements of alumni. “The primary goals of the Sanctae Crucis Awards are to honor outstanding alumni and in so doing recognize and celebrate the distinctive mission of Holy Cross,” says Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president, who will present the awards to recipients. The Holy Cross mission statement is the foundation for the awards program, which honors alumni who are leaders in business, professional or civic life, who live by the highest intellectual and ethical standards, and who are committed to the service of faith and promotion of justice. Past recipients have included: John Higgins ’76, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Sun-Times; Paul La Camera ’64, general manager WBUR Radio in Boston; Peter J. O’Connor ’63, founder and executive director of the Fair Share Housing Development Corporation; and Joyce O’Shaughnessy ’78, a leading breast cancer researcher and practitioner.