Woerner Kollmorgen Award Presented, Nov. 13

November 6, 2007

Nazareth College’s School of Health and Human Services (SHHS) will present the first Woerner Kollmorgen Award for Public Service to Dr. T. Franklin Williams and his wife, Carter Catlett Williams, on Tuesday, November 13 during a luncheon from noon – 2 p.m. in the Otto A. Shults Center Forum on the Nazareth College campus. To request an interview with the recipients and/or Nazareth College faculty and staff, please call Alicia Nestle at (585) 389-2457 in the office of marketing and communications. Nazareth College is located at 4245 East Avenue, Rochester, N.Y. 14618.

“Dr. Williams’ career exemplifies the impact that can be made by an individual who possesses both a visionary mind and a compassionate heart,” says Nazareth College’s Dean of SHHS Shirley Szekeres. “His accomplishments have changed, at a national level, the way we look at and care for those who are aging.”

A distinguished teacher and researcher, Dr. Williams’ work led one peer to call him “the father of academic geriatrics in this country.” As a professor of medicine and preventive and rehabilitative medicine and medical director of Monroe Community Hospital, he led the development of the University’s program in care, teaching, and research in chronic illness and aging.

For his extensive work there, the Monroe Community Hospital Foundation is proudly named in his honor. From 1983 to 1991 he was the director of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. In 1992 he began ten years of service as scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, and has since returned to Monroe Community Hospital as Professor of Medicine Emeritus and Veterans Administration Distinguished Physician. His passion for patients has made him a prominent and powerful voice for improving health care in the Rochester area, where he and his wife live.

Commitment to the aging is also a passion of Carter Catlett Williams who graduated from Wellesley College in 1945 and earned her master of social work degree from Simmons College School of Social Work. She is a certified social worker in New York State and a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. She is a distinguished lecturer and the author of many papers, and formerly was an editor of the journal Aging and the Human Spirit.

“Mrs. Williams’ tireless work is evidence of her commitment to advancing services and care of older adults,” says Szekeres. “She is a pioneer in the transformation of nursing homes and she advocated for the banishment of physical restraints, a movement in which she became a national leader.”

Mrs. Williams is a founder of the Pioneer Network, a national organization which promotes the transformation of nursing homes into communities where relationships and individual choices are valued and used to shape traditional systems in new and life-promoting ways. Mrs. Williams’ many honors include the National Leadership Award given by the Older Women’s League in Washington, D.C., and the President’s Award of the American Society on Aging, presented jointly to Dr. and Mrs. Williams.

This award was made possible by a generous donation from Don H. Kollmorgen and Louise Woerner, who have dedicated their lives to public and community service.

Founded in 1924, Nazareth College is an independent co-educational college with a liberal arts and sciences core and strong professional programs. With more than 40 undergraduate majors and 25 areas of graduate study, the College's mission is to provide an education rooted in intellectual, ethical and aesthetic values. For more information on Nazareth College, please visit www.naz.edu.

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