The 1991 Awardees

Jon M. Baker

BS 1964
Wellesley, MA

Jon Baker, chief executive officer of the International Planning Group, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Historical Museum of South Florida, Miami, FL, on May 4, 1991.

At the time of the award, Baker served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of International Planning Group, a wealth management firm providing services to multinational clients across a variety of asset management and insurance strategies. A S&P company overview noted that " Mr. Baker has assisted US multinational corporations in structuring and funding supplemental executive compensation and benefit methodologies for both domestic and international executives. To solve the individual and corporate needs, Mr. Baker has designed innovative trust and corporate solutions, which are frequently funded by a mix of highly competitive and cost-effective domestic and offshore life insurance products. In 1978, Mr. Baker established one of the earliest offshore life insurance companies in Bermuda to offer US-compliant life insurance to US residents. "

A former member of the Board of Regents, Baker and his wife made a $10 million gift in 2014 to the McCourt School of Public Policy to create the Baker Center for Leadership & Governance.

"Georgetown is uniquely positioned to leverage its brand, values, principles and successes to transform how policy issues are debated," said Baker.

Francis B. Brogan Jr.

BSBA 1971 JD 1974, LLM 1978
Fort Lauderdale, FL

Francis Brogan, Jr. a Fort Lauderdale, FL attorney, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Historical Museum of South Florida, Miami, FL, on May 4, 1991.

Brogan earned three degrees from the University between 1971 and 1978, and became one of South Florida's leading figures in estate planning, trusts, and fiduciary administration.

He has served as the chairman of the board of the Community Foundation of Broward County, a board member of the Florida Museum of Discovery and Science, and was named a fellow at the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

For 12 years, Brogan represented Broward and Palm Beach County as president of the Georgetown Club of Southern Florida. He served on the Board of Governors of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from 1980 to 1986 and the Board of Regents from 2008 to 2014.

William P. Frank
(1931-2024)

AB 1963
Darien, CT

William Frank, a New York based attorney, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Historical Museum of South Florida, Miami, FL, on May 4, 1991.

Raised in Bronxville, NY, Frank arrived at Georgetown from Fordham Prep, and following his graduation in 1963 returned to the Bronx for his law degree from Fordham in 1966. Following military service in Vietnam, Frank began work as an attorney, where he rose to the senior litigator at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, representing the firm for numerous multinational clients for five decades.

Frank was active across a number of directorships and trusteeships: seats on the board at Fordham University, the Gregorian University in Rome, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation, the Federal Bar Council, the Practicing Law Institute, and numerous appointments to state and national bar associations. Through it all, he remained a distinguished volunteer in Georgetown's alumni community.

A past member of Georgetown's boards of Governors, Regents and Directors, he was a former chairman of the Alumni Annual Fund, a co-founder and chairman of the Wall Street Alliance, and a trusted University advisor on each of the last three capital campaigns. The Alliance, launched in 1995, has grown to over 8,000 members and supports a scholarship fund of over $10 million for undergraduate financial aid.

William Frank died in September 2024 at the age of 83.

Dr. Stephen Jones M.D.
(1920-2002)

AB 1942, MD 1945
Rockville, MD

Dr. Stephen Jones, a Rockville, MD physician, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Historical Museum of South Florida, Miami, FL, on May 4, 1991.

Dr. Jones was born, raised, worked, and died in Rockville, and saw significant changes there over his lifetime. The Rockville of his youth was a farming community of just over 1,000 people, connected by rural roads which led Jones and his three brothers to commute nearly two hours to and from their farm to Gonzaga College High School in the District. His address was listed as "RFD No.1", a postal designation for homes that did not have a street address.

A student without peer, Jones was a pre-med and graduated first in the College class of 1942. Continuing to medical school, he was first in his medical class of 1945. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a flight surgeon, studied at the University of Vienna, and became the chief resident at Georgetown Hospital before deciding to move back to Rockville to become what was known as a "country doctor".

"In the early years of his career, Rockville was small enough for word to get around quickly that young Dr. Jones had opened his practice and was making house calls," wrote the Washington Post, who noted that he once visited 51 different patients over a single day's calls.

"To save time, he usually knocked just once on a patient's door and then let himself in. Sometimes he left the motor in his car running. But his house calls were often extended by curious neighbors who recognized his car out front and, since he was already in the neighborhood, asked him to come next door or across the street to examine someone in their families. For several years he lived near Georgetown Preparatory School on Rockville Pike, and he made it part of his routine to stop by three or four mornings a week to attend to the medical needs of boarders, staff or anyone else at the school."

For 45 years, Jones maintained a practice at the Rockville Internal Medicine Group, where he retired in 1995. In his later years he raised money for the Holy Cross Hospital and the Dorothy Day Women's Shelter. Over his career, he served Georgetown as an alumni interviewer, a member of the Medical Alumni Board, a member of the Board of Regents, and a longtime member of the Board of Governors of the Georgetown University Alumni Association.

Dr. Stephen Jones died in 2002 at the age of 82.

Sr. Kathleen A. Ross, SNJM

MA 1971
Toppenish, WA

Sister Kathleen Ross, president emerita of Heritage University, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Historical Museum of South Florida, Miami, FL, on May 4, 1991.

A member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Ross came to Georgetown following her bachelor's degree at Fort Wright College in Spokane, a Catholic school run by the sisters. Following her master's degree in non-western history from Georgetown, she returned to Fort Wright, where she served as vice president of he college and helped open a satellite campus in Toppenish, WA on the grounds of the Yakama Indian reservation. She later received a Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School .

An aging order and declining enrollment led the sisters to announce the closing of Fort Wright in 1981. Urged by local Yakama leaders not to let the satellite campus die with the school, Ross and two other women helped found Heritage University in 1982. With an initial budget of just $7,000, the tiny college has grown to serve nearly 1,100 students in the local area, 69% of them from the migrant Hispanic population that works the fields of southern Washington state. The majority of students are first generation students with no other hope of pursuing higher education within these communities. About 11 percent of students report a tribal affiliation.

Ross served as president of the school from 1982 to 2011. She received a MacArthur fellowship in 1997 and has received honorary degrees from over a dozen colleges ranging from Gonzaga to Dartmouth. She currently teaches through Heritage's Institute for Student Identity and Success.