Awards honoring outstanding leadership and service to the College will be presented May 31, 2014, during Reunion Convocation. Read about the other award recipients.
Mike Poor, a member of the class of 1964, and who, with his wife Loel, established the philanthropic Forest Foundation, has been selected by the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees to receive one of three 2014 Common Good Awards.
Mike Poor ’64
Established in 1994 on the occasion of the Bowdoin College Bicentennial, the Common Good Award honors those alumni who have demonstrated an extraordinary, profound and sustained commitment to the common good, in the interest of society, with conspicuous disregard for personal gain in wealth or status.
Poor, of Boxford, Mass., became president of family-owned Sunburst Fruit Juices in 1969 and served as CEO of its successor company, NORBEV, which was later sold to American Beverage Corp. in 1999.
The Forest Foundation, founded in 1993, supports and provides start-up funds to new and emerging non-profit organizations in the Boston area and annually provides paid community service internships and leadership development opportunities for more than 45 undergraduate college students.
An economics major at Bowdoin, Poor went on to earn his MBA at Boston University. His service to the College includes involvement and dedicated leadership in the McKeen Center for the Common Good.
He was an honorary member of the 45th Reunion Gift Committee and on the Fundraising Committee for the Watson Fitness Center.
Poor’s daughter Tiffany Lynch, is a member of the Class of 1988. Daughter Sara Parker is a member of the Class of 1995. Daughter Elizabeth Alofsin graduated URI ’90. His brother-in-law, Dave Fitts ’64 is a trustee of the Forest Foundation.
Common Good Award recipients personify the idea of the common good as set forth by Bowdoin’s first president, Joseph McKeen. In his inaugural address on September 2, 1802, McKeen reminded his audience, “It ought always to be remembered that literary institutions are founded and endowed for the common good and not for private advantage of those who resort to them for education. It is not that they may be able to pass through life in an easy and reputable manner, but that their mental powers may be cultivated and improved for the benefit of society.”
The Common Good Awards will be presented Saturday, May 31, 2014 during Reunion Convocation.
Registration for Reunion 2014 (May 29-June 1) opens in March.
