50th Reunion Service Award

5OTH REUNION Outstanding Service Award

DEBORAH SEHL COONS ’72, MBA, FORMER TRUSTEE

Honors one member of the 50th reunion class (Class of 1972) who has demonstrated outstanding service to the College.

Deb Sehl Coons arrived on Skidmore’s Union Avenue campus in 1968, armed with an electric typewriter and ready for intellectual challenge. Like her peers nationwide, her campus experience was intertwined with political and societal tumult roiling the country. During the student strike of 1970, she helped operate a ham radio station at Union College that kept strikers informed across the country. Sharing those formative years created a special bond between Deb and her classmates.

“At Skidmore, I learned to be both thoughtful and critical, to honor my values and commitments and, as President Palamountain said at our Convocation, ‘to develop the qualities of mind that are hallmarks of an educated person — the lifelong gift of joyful learning.’”

This prolific alumna volunteer has been helping Skidmore fulfill that promise in ways large and small for over three decades.

After graduating with a double major in theater and music, Deb earned an MBA at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her liberal arts foundation and critical thinking skills fueled a successful career as a financial analyst and strategist. She continues to provide consulting services to an array of nonprofits.

As her professional life grew, Deb nurtured her Skidmore connections; she has served the class and the College in an extensive array of volunteer positions.

A longtime class agent and Reunion planner, Deb signed on as class fund chair in the early 1990s. She followed up with a term as class president, concurrently joining the Reunion Giving Program Advisory Committee. Deb deepened her involvement as a member of the Friends of the Presidents Committee and was elected vice president of annual giving on the Alumni Association Board of Directors in 1998. As her term ended, Deb continued as a member of the Alumni Awards Committee and a regional alumni group president. She returned to the board as an alumna trustee and president in 2005. Her expertise and wise council benefited the Advancement and Communication, Infrastructure, Strategic Planning, Student Life, and Trusteeship committees.

Deb’s comprehensive support of the College includes service as class gift planning chair and member of the Legacy Society Advisor Council and Palamountain Honorary Committee. She has also been an influential voice on the Young Alumni Task Force, Friends of Skidmore Athletics Committee, and alumni board Nominating Committee. Deb has served as an alumni admissions contact since 2017.

Deb and her husband, Phil, remain enthusiastic and thoughtful participants in myriad College events, alumni gatherings, and faculty webinars.

Today she celebrates her 50th Reunion as class historian. Few volunteers can match Deb’s extraordinary capacity to juggle multiple hats — so effectively for so long.

She is sustained by the enduring relationships with classmates and fellow volunteers; she’s especially proud of the Class of 1972. “Like many others, I’ve been able to use my professional skills to advance Skidmore priorities. I am inspired and energized by the Skidmore women and men who do the same.”

At Skidmore, I learned to be both thoughtful and critical, to honor my values and commitments and, as President Palamountain said at our Convocation, ‘to develop the qualities of mind that are hallmarks of an educated person — the lifelong gift of joyful learning.’

— Deborah Sehl Coons ’72