Page 16 - The Bell Tower - Fall 2014

Honorary Degree
Dr. David Hackett Fischer is a University Professor and the Earl Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts. His major works have tackled everything from large macroeconomic and cultural trends to narrative histories of significant events, to explorations of historiography.
A Pulitzer-prize winning historian for Washington’s Crossing (2005), he is renowned as one of America’s most gifted and creative historians and also well-known for Albion’s Seed.
UMFK paid special tribute to Fischer in 2014, the year of the Congrès mondial acadien (World Acadian Congress). In the summer, as people of Acadian descent from around the world assembled in the St. John Valley to celebrate their heritage, his authoritative biography, Champlain’s Dream: The Visionary Adventurer Who Made a New World in Canada (2008), was a touchstone to their ancestral roots. The biography received the recognition of excellence award in the 2009 Cundill Prize in History at Quebec’s McGill University and led to his 2009 induction into “L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the Minister of Culture of France at the highest rank of Commandeur.
His most recent book published is Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States.
Fischer received an A.B. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He is an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and Trustee Emeritus at the College of Atlantic.
Fischer likes to be thought of as a teacher and a storyteller.
Distinguished Service
George R. Dumond, from Fort Kent, was honored with the University’s Distinguished Service Award for his many years of service to the campus community, local community, and to our Country.
Dumond was raised in New Canada, Maine. He graduated from Community High School in Fort Kent and then enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving during the Vietnam War. George attended a technical college, then graduated from the Non- Commissioned Officer’s School in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Dumond is a registered Representative with the National Association of Securities Dealers, earning his Series 7 General Securities license from The Dearborn Financial Institute, and has been serving the community as a registered Investment Advisor. Currently, Dumond works for The Prudential Insurance Company.
He was an event organizer for the 2004 and 2011 International World Cup Biathlon, which were held in Fort Kent at the 10th Mountain Ski Center. He served on the UMFK Foundation and was honored as Fort Kent “Citizen of the Year” in 2006.
Dumond served as president for the Maine’s World Acadian Congress Regional Coordinating Committee and as International co-president for the 2014 World Acadian Congress.
14 | The Bell Tower