From left to right:
Mary Gordon Baker ’77 | Laurie A. Peek ’67 | Rhett Ramsay Outten ’82 | Anne Smith Hutson ’77 |
Dolly Lockwood Lipman ’82
The 2017 Ashley Hall Outstanding Alumnae Award Winners
Mary Gordon Baker ’77 | Crandall Close Bowles ’65 Professional Achievement Award
For more than 30 years, Mary Gordon Baker has elevated the legal profession, both in the public and private sectors. Since 2015, she has served as a federal Magistrate Judge, helping administer two alternative courts. These are the BRIDGE program, which is the first federal drug court in South Carolina, and the REAL program, which is designed to reduce recidivism among high risk federal defendants who are on supervised release from federal prison. She has previously served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Charleston and was a co-editor of a project of the South Carolina Bar, entitled Pattern Jury Instructions for Federal Criminal Cases in the District of South Carolina. She has worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the criminal division and also served as Senior Litigation Counsel and as a Deputy Chief to the Criminal Division while with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While working in private practice in Columbia, she worked on the Pro Bono subcommittee of the South Carolina Bar and worked with Young Lawyers’ Division of the South Carolina Bar. She has been a frequent lecturer at the National Advocacy Institute in Columbia, South Carolina, the training facility for lawyers in the Department of Justice.
Laurie A. Peek ’67 | Martha Rivers Ingram ’53 Excellence in the Arts Award
Laura is an artist and photographer whose work straddles the line between documentary and fine art. Her photography has been characterized as “finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.” Laurie’s photographs frequently take a closer look at everyday objects and environments. Her unassuming subjects—wet leaves, watery reflections, or even something as simple as a crushed can—help us see our world afresh, transforming the mundane into the magical. She exhibited widely in the Hudson Valley and New York City metro area, including the Blue Hill Art & Cultural Center, Carriage Barn Arts Center, Edward Hopper House Art Center, Gallery 66, Garner Arts Center, Garrison Arts Center, Piermont Flywheel Gallery, Pomona Cultural Center, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Rockland Center for the Arts, Rockefeller State Park Preserve Art Gallery, and Upstream Gallery. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Brooklyn Paper, City Limits, The Progressive, Soho News, and Village Voice, as well as in film documentaries, including the 2003 Oscar-nominated Tupac-Resurrection and the 2012 Koch.
I am particularly excited to share the news that this year, we have a double hitter. We are honoring two alumnae, who both individually and often together, have devoted countless hours to volunteering and serving their communities, from presiding over boards to manning the phones. In the true spirit of service, they frequently come together as a formidable team – while each stands apart as an inspiration for all of us. And, what’s more, they both happen to be members of my very class of 1982.
Rhett Ramsay Outten ’82 | Co-recipient of the Fern Karesh Hurst ’64 Award
In both Charleston and Greenville, South Carolina, Rhett’s efforts on behalf of her community have been longstanding and legion. She was philanthropy chair of Delta Delta Delta. She has been a member of the Junior League of Greenville since 1988, serving as a nearly new shop volunteer, on the training team task force, as a Dinosauer exhibition volunteer and a sustaining member since 2000. Rhett twice served on the board of the Greenville County Museum of Art Board member, for which she chaired an antique show that raised $490,000. She was involved for several years with Meals on Wheels of Greenville County, she was both a Volunteer and Route driver.
As part of a grassroots after school outreach program from 2005-2009, Rhett provided home cooked meals twice a month and served to the at risk children in Title 1 schools who had no parental supervision. She has also volunteered for Greenville Cancer Society; the Greenville Heart Association; and served on the Parents Council of Christ Church Episcopal School. She has served on numerous boards, including those of the Governor’s Mansion Foundation; the South Carolina Arts Commission; the Gibbes Museum of Art and the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. She was president of the Ashley Hall Alumnae Association Board. What’s more, organizations have come to appreciate Rhett’s secret weapon: It’s simply impossible to say no to her!
Anne Smith Hutson ’77 | Dewar Gordon Holmes Award
Given to an Ashley Hall alumna who has given her time, insights and talents to Ashley Hall, this award honors Dewar Gordon Holmes, a member of the class of 1926. Mrs. Holmes was a faculty member, a mentor for Ashley Hall girls and the first woman to serve as a trustee (Secretary). She also played a pivotal role in the creation of the Ashley Hall Foundation.
This year’s recipient possesses all the qualities of Dewar Gordon Holmes: she is a woman of integrity, outstanding citizenship, and she has given, without reservation, decades of devoted volunteer service to Ashley Hall.
Anne performs any task that is asked of her in an effort to further the mission of our school. This was true as a student, a parent and an alumna. Her senior page in the Spiral was to be a forecast of her years of volunteerism, first as a student and again as a member of the Parents Association and the Alumnae Association. Anne co-chaired the Gala for two years, the Alumnae Capital Campaign, served as Co-Chair for the Food & Beverage Committee in 2011 and has volunteered countless years for the Phone-A-Thon.
Anne and her family have always supported Ashley Hall and she follows this tradition. Her classmates can always count on her selflessness especially as she always offers to host and/or cater her class events.
Dolly Lockwood Lipman ‘82 | Co-recipient of the Fern Karesh Hurst ’64 Award
A little about Dolly…she raises her hand, rolls up her sleeves and rises to every occasion. She has been a very active member of the Junior League since 1989 and is currently on the board of directors, and was honored with the Dee Holmes Norton Sustain Award in 2010. She chaired the Special Sales at the Nearly New Shop in Atlanta for several years, and, after moving back to Charleston in 1998, she started working on the Whale of a Sale, chairing it twice. What’s more, she is member of the Rebecca Motte DAR Chapter, and has served on the board of director there, too. As a board member of the Gibbes Museum Women’s Council, she chaired the inaugural Art of Design six years ago and was served as board president. A member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Dolly was in charge of the Sunday School program for two years and am a member of the Women’s Altar Society. She has even volunteered as a model for Wine, Women and Shoes fundraiser for the Florence Crittendon Home for two years. She has also been a member of the Ashley Hall Alumnae Board for many years—and for the past two years I have been the alumnae weekend chair.
Congratulations to this year’s Ashley Hall Outstanding Alumnae!