Gloucester Alumni

By Douglas A. Moser , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times

School officials honored the top students at Gloucester High School last night with the Sawyer Medal, a traditional Gloucester award.

School Committee Chairman Jonathan Pope, Superintendent Christopher Farmer and Principal Joseph Sullivan presented the awards to 14 students in the high school lecture hall.

In addition to the Sawyer medals, the College Women's Club of Cape Ann gave Fitz Lufkin its award for the highest-achieving junior. Emily Johnson won the Harvard Prize Book for achievement as a junior.

One student, Melanie Buck, also received a letter of commendation from the College Board, the institution that administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the National Merit Scholarship test, for her scores on the NMS test.

For the Sawyer Medal, the boy and girl with top grades from each of the senior and junior classes and the top five students in the sophomore and freshman classes are selected. The rating is based on their cumulative grade-point averages from the previous year and recipients cannot have won in the past.

Samuel Sawyer, after whom the award is named, gave much of himself and his earnings toward promoting education in Gloucester.

The award is a 130-year-old tradition.

Sawyer, born in Gloucester in 1815, donated the bell and clock at City Hall, built a public library in an old home, and left more than 700 acres of land to the city - now called Ravenswood Park - after his death in 1899. Sawyer Free Library bears his name.

In his will, he left his business earnings in a foundation to bestow medals of recognition on the brightest students in Gloucester.

Sawyer Medal Winners

Class of 2007

Amelia Hurst Mallard, Erik Christian Wilhelm-Tysver

Class of 2008

Rebecca Lewis MacDougal

Paul Richard Marques

Class of 2009

Shannon Danielle Burke, Francis Frederick Freedman, Dylan Stephen Maki, Chloe Anne Rideout, Alexander Bradford Trotsky

Class of 2010

John Albert Jermyn, Amanda McLean Rumble, Abigail Rose Rogers, Andrew James Ryan, Brianna Kate Aloisio

College Women's Club of Cape Ann Award

Fitz Otis Lufkin

Harvard Prize Book

Emily Jean Johnson

Letter of Commendation - SAT/National Merit Scholarship

Melanie Ann Buck