The 1981 Awardees

Donald J. Donahue
(1926-2007)

AB 1947
Greenwich, CT

Donald Donahue, former chairman of the Georgetown University Board of Directors, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Meadowlands Hilton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, on October 10, 1981.

Donahue held a number of executive positions in his career, a 26 year career which led to him becoming including president of American Metal Climax, Inc. as well as chief financial officer and vice chairman of the Continental Group, the holding company for the Continental Can Company. The award program noted Donahue's accomplishment as being named the first lay chair of its Board of Directors, noting that "During this transitory period in current higher education, his leadership and skills will be greatly taxed, yet the University is supremely confident that under his direction the Board will pursue an unerring course toward cementing Georgetown's position among the world's most respected universities."

In 1985, Donahue retired as chairman and chief executive of Continental, and later became chairman of the board of the Magma Copper Company. He died in 2002 at the age of 76.

Dr. Wilfred Dudley DDS
(1920-1983)

AB 1945, DDS 1949
Washington, DC

Wilfred Dudley, a former chairman of the department of pedodontics at the School of Dentistry, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Meadowlands Hilton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, on October 10, 1981.
Dr. Dudley practiced dentistry in the Washington area for 50 years following his DDS degree in 1949. he was a past president of the Washington D.C. Dental Society and a longtime professor in the School of Dentistry. He died in 2002 at the age of 83.

George R. Houston Jr.
(1939-2008)

BSBA 1961, Honorary degree 1982
Washington, DC

George R. Houston, a professor at Georgetown from 1961 to 1994, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Meadowlands Hilton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, on October 10, 1981. Houston was the first alumnus of what is now the McDonough School of business to have received the award.

A seventh generation Washingtonian, Houston graduated from the School of Business Administration in 1961 and served as an adjunct accounting professor while pursuing his CPA. Houston's accounting acumen attracted Georgetown's attention, who named the 29 year old Houston the university's treasurer in 1970, and its vice president of financial affairs in 1974.

Houston took the first steps to modernizing Georgetown's arcane accounting practices, and moved the management of the endowment from the treasurer's office to a professional staff. In his 24 years in the role, the endowment grew from $19 million in 1974 to over $370 million 20 years later.

During his years as a university executive, Houston never gave up on his role as a teacher, and once said that if he had to choose between the two roles, he would teach. Houston taught introductory Accounting courses for 34 years, and was regularly cited as one of the school's most popular professors. Houston would memorize his class lists to know students by sight the first day they walked in the door, and would make sure that freshman not only received a strong acumen in the subject, but would learn the fight song and alma mater as well.

In 1994, Houston journeyed north to Emmitsburg, MD to Mt. St. Mary's, where he served as its president for nine years. Houston's business experience helped stabilize the college financially and he led the school on a successful endowment campaign. In his retirement speech, Houston laid out five characteristics of leadership: one who sees the whole enterprise, an organization's main spokesperson, an organization's conscience, the only one who will take care of him or herself, and one who knows when to leave. "Don't wear out your welcome," he said.

George Houston died in 2008 at the age of 68.

Angelo A. Mastrangelo
(1931-2003)

BSS 1953, LLB 1955
Roseland, NJ

Angelo A. Mastrangelo, an attorney and alumni volunteer, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Meadowlands Hilton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, on October 10, 1981.

Raised in Cliffside Park, NJ, Mastrangelo was an active Georgetown student, serving as President of the Yard in 1953. Following law school, Mastrangelo served as an attorney in northern new Jersey for over 40 years, specializing in real estate law. He was an active member of the Alumni Admissions Program, the Georgetown Club of new York, and served as the president of the Georgetown Club of Northern New Jersey which hosted this year's awards.

Angelo Mastrangelo died in 2003 at the age of 82.

John G. McGoldrick

JD 1961
New York, NY

John G. McGoldrick, an attorney and alumni volunteer, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Meadowlands Hilton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, on October 10, 1981.

Following his Georgetown degree in 1961, McGoldrick practiced law for five decades, and at the time of the awards was the counsel to New York Governor Hugh Carey. A former board member of the Georgetown Club of New York, he served on the Board of Governors of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from 1970 to 1973 and was subsequently selected to the University's Board of Directors.

John J. Powers Jr.
(1913-1994)

AB 1934, Honorary degree 1966

New York, NY

John J. ("Jack") Powers, former chief executive officer of Pfizer Corporation, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Meadowlands Hilton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, on October 10, 1981.

Powers grew up in New York, where his father was a vice president at Charles Pfizer & Company, a New York-based pharmaceutical company. Powers earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown in 1934 and a law degree from Yale before joining the company in 1941 as the firm's first attorney.

"Powers played a vital part in steering the Company through the maze of government regulations and in the purchase of real estate as the Brooklyn plant expanded into mass production of antibiotics," read a company release. "In 1945, Powers was named assistant [to the president] soon thereafter, as senior vice president, he turned his attention to international trade and the organization of Pfizer's overseas activities... the company's development into a major multinational business is reflected in the fact that international sales had grown to $223 million by the end of 1964, almost 50 percent of Pfizer's total sales."

Powers was president and CEO of Pfizer from 1965 to 1971, chairman of its board of directors from 1968 through 1972, and later served on the Georgetown University Board of Directors. His family endowed a scholarship to the McDonough School of Business which serves as the John J. Powers Jr. Chair In Finance.

Jack Powers died in 1994 at the age of 81.

Dr. Joseph A, Riggs, MD
(1934-2019)

AB 1955, MD 1959
Voorhees, NJ

Dr. Joseph Riggs, former president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Meadowlands Hilton Hotel in East Rutherford, NJ, on October 10, 1981.

Born and raised in Hammonton, NJ, Dr. Riggs was a distinguished physician in the field of obstetrics. He served on numerous local and state medical boards, and previously served on the board of trustees of the American Medical Association, the President of the Camden County Medical Society, and president of the Medical Society of New Jersey. A member of the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners, he received the Outstanding Physician of New Jersey award by the New Jersey Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Riggs' support of Georgetown was without peer. One of the founding members of the Alumni Admissions Program, he helped found the Georgetown Club of Southern New Jersey and served on numerous University committees to improve alumni interaction with the school. He first joined the Alumni Association Board of Governors in 1966 and was an active volunteer with that group for over a half-century. He served as president of the Alumni Association from 1984 to 1986 and was an active member of its Alumni Senate until his death in 2019 at the age of 85.