2015 Alumni Achievement Awards

Knox celebrated the 178th anniversary of its founding with the presentation of Alumni Achievement Awards at the 2015 Founders Day Convocation on Friday, February 20, in the Muelder Room, Seymour Library.

Receiving 2015 awards were Bryan Quinn '00, environmentalist; Indira S. Somani '92, director and professor of media, journalism, and film; and James N. Doyle '44, businessman and professor of business (accepted by his son Jim Doyle '70).

2015 Recipients 

James N. Doyle '44
Citation presented by John Spittell, Professor of Business and Management

James Doyle grew up in Galesburg, Illinois, started his college career at Knox, and then left to go fight in the U.S. Army’s 84th “Railsplitters” infantry division. As a lieutenant, he fought in the Battle of the Siegfried Line, was wounded twice, and received the Bronze Star for his service. Jim returned to Knox to finish his degree in 1946, and then went on to earn an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern.

Jim’s career ran the gamut from general management to management consulting and education. He started his business career with Armour and Company. It was here that he helped coin the slogan “Round the Clock Protection” for Dial deodorant soap as part of its initial launch. Dial rolled out nationally in 1949, and in time became the leading deodorant soap brand in the U.S. Jim was the first non-family president of Watkins Products Inc. and was also president of Sarah Coventry International; a principal in A.T. Kearney International, a management consulting firm; and co-founder and director of R.A. Schoeneberger & Associates Ltd.

After retiring, Jim taught at St. John Fisher College in Rochester and most recently at Simon School of Business at University of Rochester. An executive professor of business administration, he lectured in several areas, including marketing, general management, and entrepreneurship. During his time at Simon School, Jim oversaw the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Internship Program, which matched second-year MBA students with local startup or entrepreneurial companies. In addition to Simon School, he taught at Alfred University, Richmond College in London, and the Kensington, England, campus of Huron University.

Following his second “retirement” in 2008, at the age of 86, Simon School honored him by endowing an entrepreneurship professorship in his name. According to Dean Mark Zupan, “Jim Doyle helped to build the Simon School Entrepreneurship concentration into one of our most popular areas of study. Many Simon alumni who were mentored and taught by Jim have gone on to start successful businesses. This professorship honors his commitment to entrepreneurial education at Simon and will allow us to dedicate a full professor to the teaching of this ever important discipline.”

Jim’s ties to Knox College run deep. The Doyle legacy includes his wife, Alice Dorick Doyle '45, his mother, sister, and his son, Jim Doyle ’70, who is here this evening to accept the award on his father’s behalf.

Editor’s Note: James Doyle peacefully ended 92 years of a rich, fulfilling life on March 22, 2015, surrounded by his family.

Bryan Quinn '00
Citation presented by Lance Factor, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

Bryan Quinn graduated from Knox College in 2000 and went on to serve in the Peace Corps as an agroforestry volunteer in Malawi. For the two years he spent there, he lived in an agrarian community on the edge of a disappearing forest. His work involved the creation and development of the Chimaliro Forest Co-Management Project, the promotion of agroforestry practices in surrounding villages, and the development of five acres of permaculture demonstration gardens. Bryan raised funds and oversaw the construction of Kakwale Primary School.

After leaving the Peace Corps, he earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was the two-time winner of the Athena Award of Excellence. Bryan went on to work as an environmental consultant but found that his vision -- a vision rooted in environmental ethics -- required a more entrepreneurial approach.

In 2005, he founded One Nature, a design-build company that provides internationally recognized design, planning, and scientific consulting services. There, he has become a leader in a new and exciting trend that creates “green” solutions to landscape problems. Many of his company’s projects involve remaking the Brooklyn streetscape into a refreshing and park-like atmosphere, including the development of a master plan for an urban estuary, creating public parks, restoring a stream front using native plants, and reclaiming contaminated landscapes.

In addition to the time he devotes to One Nature, Brian is an adjunct teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design, the New School of Social Engagement, and Pratt Institute.  He serves as vice chairman of the board for the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

Bryan has returned to Knox as a guest speaker in environmental ethics. His approach and his success in merging landscape design and ecology in practical and exceedingly lovely applications is stunning and award-winning.

Indira S. Somani '92
Citation presented by Robin Metz, Director of Knox's Program in Creative Writing

Indira Somani graduated from Knox in 1992 with an independent major in Media, Race and Gender. She went on to earn a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. from the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park.

Indira had a long and successful career as a television news producer before joining academia. She worked for 10 years at regional stations in the Midwest before moving to the East Coast, where she worked at WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., and CNBC. She has also been a leader of the South Asian Journalists Association, where she received multiple awards for her coverage of South Asians in North America.

In her academic career, Indira has taught at Washington and Lee University and American University’s School of Communication and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film at Howard University. She studies the effects of satellite television on the Indian diaspora, specifically the generation of the Asian Indians who migrated to the U.S. between 1960 and 1972, and their media habits. Her work has been published in the International Communication Research Journal, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and the Asian Journal of Communication. For the fall of 2011, she was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship to study the Western influence of Indian programming in India.

Indira is also an award-winning independent producer and director of documentaries examining how Asian Indians maintain and preserve their cultural identity. Her documentary, Crossing Lines, recounts her struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father. The film has won numerous awards, including a Gracie Allen Award for “Outstanding Documentary-Short Format” from American Women in Radio & Television. Crossing Lines has been screened at both national and international film festivals, broadcast on PBS, and distributed to more than 100 university libraries in the U.S. through New Day Films. Since its release, the documentary has become part of the curriculum in college courses as a tool to teach about intercultural communication, India, Hinduism, bi-cultural upbringing in the U.S., father-daughter relationships, and more. 

Previous Alumni Achievement Award Recipients