2019 Distinguished Graduate Award: Colonel Walter P. Havenstein ’71, USMCR (Ret.)

The Distinguished Graduate Award (DGA) program started as a concept first envisioned by Rear Admiral Ronald F. Marryott, USN (Ret.), Class of 1957, when he was president and CEO of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association. Rear Admiral Robert McNitt, USN (Ret.), Class of 1938, helped develop the concept to its current structure. The Alumni Association's Board of Trustees approved the DGA proposal and in May 1998 the selection committee met under the chairmanship of Admiral Carlisle Trost, USN (Ret.), Class of 1953 to determine the nominating process. Distinguished Graduates are the embodiment of what we strive to achieve in the U.S. Naval Academy's mission.

The United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and the United States Naval Academy Foundation are two independent, not-for-profit corporations sharing a single president and CEO and operating as a fully integrated organization in support of the Naval Academy and its mission. The organization’s focus and core competencies are engagement and philanthropy in pursuit of complementary and closely aligned missions. The course set by Alumni Association founders in 1886 rings true today as the Alumni Association serves and supports the United States, the Naval Service, the Naval Academy and its alumni:

› by furthering the highest standards at the Naval Academy;

› by seeking out, informing, encouraging and assisting outstanding, qualified young men and women to pursue careers as officers through the Naval Academy;

› by initiating and sponsoring activities which perpetuate the history, traditions, memories and growth of the Naval Academy and bind alumni together in support of the highest ideals of command, citizenship and government.

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