By Kathryna Hoyman · Managing Editor
The Alumni Association will host its annual awards ceremony at 7 p.m. on Friday in Harbison Chapel, recognizing four accomplished alumni. The ceremony will present the Jack Kennedy Memorial Alumni Achievement Award to three alumni and the recently renamed David Rathburn Distinguished Service Award to one alumnus.
The Jack Kennedy Memorial Alumni Achievement Award honors alumni who have had distinctive success in their fields. The alumni receiving the Jack Kennedy Award this year are as follows:
Capt. Mae (Parham) Pouget, Medical Corps, USN, Ret.
After graduating from the college in 1982, Pouget served 26 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy. Throughout her time of service, she held many leadership positions within the Medical Corps, including heading up medical services, staff and programs. She served at hospitals and bases in the United States as well as abroad, earning various medals and honors for her work. She was deputy chief of the Navy’s Medical Corps from 2014 to 2017, overseeing 4,000 doctors.
Pouget, who was a letter-winner on the women’s basketball team during her time at the college, retired in 2021 and now lives with her husband, Lane Thurmond, in Alexandria, Va.
Jake Reid
A graduate of the college from the Class of 2005, Reid has been the president and CEO of the Major League Soccer (MLS) team Sporting Kansas City since 2018. He took on this position at 33, becoming the youngest president among MLS clubs. Reid has worked for Sporting Kansas City since 2010, helping the organization win three Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups and one MLS Cup. In 2024, Reid was the MLS Executive of the Year, receiving highest honors for business leadership.
Reid earned his bachelor’s degree from the college in marketing and continues to be active in his community, serving on the boards of several local organizations. He and his wife, Danielle, have two sons.
Dr. Ted Schaffer
Schaffer graduated from the college in 1975 and has since earned his medical degree, going on to serve in numerous leadership positions at UPMC St. Margaret Hospital, including working as the chairman of Medical Education. He has been an award-winning family physician for more than four decades, training over 500 residents and advocating for family health. He also led seven family physician groups to consolidate into one organization, Renaissance Family Practice.
During his time at the college, Schaffer was the president of his junior and senior classes and earned the Senior Man of the Year recognition.
He and his wife, Nancy (Cotton) ’76, currently live in Schaffer’s hometown, Annville, Pa., and have four children, all of whom, like their father, became family physicians.
The David Rathburn Distinguished Service Award, named after the college’s beloved late trustee chair emeritus, honors those who have shown exceptional service to Grove City College. This year’s recipient is Dr. Hans Sennholz.
Dr. Hans Sennholz
Sennholz was born in Germany in 1922 and received his first doctorate from the University of Cologne. After studying under Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises at New York University and earning his Ph.D. in 1955, he joined the faculty at Grove City College. For the next 36 years, he served as a professor of economics and the chairman of the Department of Economics.
His time at the college greatly influenced the Department of Economics, as well as thousands of students who remember him as an inspiring, motivating and challenging teacher of the Austrian School of economics. A son, Robert, and a grandson, Roland, of Sennholz and his wife, Mary, are both alumni of the college.
The presentation of these four awards will mark the 61st Alumni Association Awards Ceremony.
“As we approach the 150th anniversary of our college in 2026, these occasions to honor people, people who make us into the place we are today, is a great opportunity that I’m thankful to be able to commemorate,” Melissa MacLeod, senior director of alumni and college relations, said.
