Exemplary Professional and Volunteer Work Celebrated
Achievement Awards were presented to two alumnae at Reunion for “achievement and service to society that exemplifies the values and virtues set forth by the college.”
Faith Wilson LaVelle ’43 (left, in yellow hat), a Phi Beta Kappa member and Mary Lyon Scholar, went on to earn a PhD in biological sciences from Johns Hopkins University and subsequently won the distinguished Mary E. Woolley Fellowship, the Harriet Allyn Fellowship, and the Alumnae Association Medal of Honor.
A frequent speaker for the American Association of University Women and a member of Who’s Who of American Women, her research in the development of the nervous system is highly
regarded. She conducted breakthrough scientific research in the study of mammalian nervous systems and earned numerous significant grants from the U.S. Public Health Service. In addition, she was a professor of anatomy at Loyola University in Chicago.
LaVelle also has contributed considerable time, expertise, and energy to the MHC board as alumna trustee, and to the Office of Development as a member of the Leadership Donor Committee.
Judith Gedney Tobin ’48 (left, in blue hat) graduated from Mount Holyoke with a degree in zoology, earned a doctorate in medicine from Columbia in 1952, and began a distinguished career as a medical examiner in Delaware. When she started in her profession, a state Department of Health and
Human Services did not exist. She was a pioneer, making bold strides in a medical field that, during her tenure, grew exponentially in stature and significance.
She continues to work as assistant to Delaware’s chief medical examiner. For her nearly fifty years of contributions to the discipline of modern pathology, Delaware’s Division of Health and
Social Services named the southern office of the chief medical examiner building
in her honor, the Judith G. Tobin, MD Building.
Together with the demands of raising six children as a widow while working full time, Tobin served as a board member for the Boys and Girls Club of West Sussex, the Turnabout
Counseling Center, and the Delaware-American Cancer Society. She also sits on the board of directors for Children and Family First, and has been made an honorary board member at the Blood Bank of Delaware.
