Distinguished West Point Graduates To Be Honored During Ceremony At West Point

West Point Association of Graduates Names 2024 Distinguished Graduates Recipients

WEST POINT, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, March 4, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Media Contact: Jaye Donaldson
jaye.donaldson@wpaog.org

WEST POINT ASSOCIATION OF GRADUATES ANNOUNCES 2024 DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE AWARD RECIPIENTS

The West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) has named the 2024 recipients of the Distinguished Graduate Award. This annual award has been bestowed upon those West Point graduates whose character, distinguished service and stature draw wholesome comparison to the qualities for which West Point strives, in keeping with its motto: “Duty, Honor, Country.” The awards will be presented in a ceremony at West Point on May 21, 2024.

Wesley K. Clark ’66 – A retired four-star general who spent nearly 35 years on active duty, Clark went from receiving the Silver Star during the Vietnam War to serving as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, helping to design and execute the strategy that won NATO’s first conflict, which subsequently established an independent Kosovo. President Bill Clinton says, “[His] unique blend of intelligence, courage, and commitment has made him one of America’s finest soldiers of the 20th century.” An author of four books, Clark is a frequent commentator and analyst on national news programs and regularly works with leaders from Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Karl W. Eikenberry ’73 – U.S. Senator Jack Reed calls Ambassador Eikenberry “a soldier-statesman of the highest order.” A retired lieutenant general of the U.S. Army, Eikenberry earned a master’s degree in East Asian studies, putting him on a path that led COL E. John Gregory, Director of USMA’s Chinese academic program, to call him “one of the foremost experts on China in the United States today.” He has served as senior country director for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia; was Defense attaché for the U.S. Embassy, Beijing; and served as director for strategic planning and policy, U.S. Pacific Command. Today, Eikenberry is a distinguished senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a senior advisor to the United States Institute of Peace, and a faculty member of Schwarzman College.

Thomas P. Bostick ’78 – Commissioned as an Engineer officer, Bostick served as the 53rd Chief of Engineers during his impressive 38-year Army career. As Chief, Bostick led the recovery effort along the East Coast following Hurricane Sandy and oversaw the Corps’ completion of New Orleans’ Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Borgne Surge Barrier, the largest design-build project in the Corps’ 243-year history. “The U.S. Army repeatedly selected Tom to lead where crisis, complexity and a need for a vision were the prominent traits of an assignment,” says GEN (R) Curtis Scaparrotti, Bostick’s classmate. Bostick was instrumental in the construction of USMA’s newest barracks through the Barracks Renovation Project, and he spearheaded the initiative to interview cadets interested in the Engineer branch, which led to West Point’s current talent-based branching process.

Pat Locke ’80 – For more than 30 years, Pat Locke has been influencing America’s youth to consider West Point as part of their future. COL (R) Deb McDonald, former USMA Director of Admissions, estimates Locke’s influence to be in the “tens of thousands.” “Her success has reached legendary status,” says COL Joseph Funderburke, the senior military fellow at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies. Locke is also credited with creating the West Point Leadership Ethics and Diversity in STEM (LEADS) program, an initiative that has benefited more than 27,000 young students and has been nationally recognized by Congressman Gerry Connolly via the Congressional Record.

Jim McConville ’81 – The 40th Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA) is known for his endurance and his transformational initiatives. Endurance refers to McConville’s 42 years of service to the nation, his nearly three years as Eagle 6 in the 101st Airborne Division (longer than any other officer in history), his 39 months of combat deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his nine consecutive years on the Army Staff. Transformational initiatives speak to his joining the Army’s newly created Aviation branch in 1983 and the changes he introduced when he arrived at the Pentagon in 2014: his modern talent-management “People First” plan, the establishment of Army Futures Command, and his “Winning Matters” warfighting readiness push as CSA. The Honorable Ryan D. McCarthy, the 24th Secretary of the Army, says, “[McConville] is a generational talent, officer and leader who has lived and modeled the values that West Point exists to ingrain in its graduates: Duty, Honor, Country.”

Kathleen S. Hildreth ’83 – Hildreth is West Point’s most commercially successful woman graduate to date. A former Aviation officer, she founded M1 Support Services in 2003, which has supported the DoD in over 43 U.S. locations and in 35 foreign countries. With her entrepreneurial success and exceptional leadership, Hildreth was the first veteran named to the Forbes list of “America’s Richest Self-Made Women” in 2019 and every year since. In 2023, she was inducted into West Point’s Omar N. Bradley Lifetime Giving Society for her financial contributions to the Academy. “She is always asking how else she can help…attributes of a true servant leader,” says LTG (R) Michael Linnington, former Commandant of Cadets and current CEO of Wounded Warrior Project.

About the West Point Association of Graduates
WPAOG is among America’s oldest educational alumni associations. Founded in 1869, WPAOG has evolved into a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation dedicated to furthering the ideals and promoting the welfare of West Point, and to serving and supporting the more than 55,500 living West Point graduates. Its philanthropic pursuits maintain a Margin of Excellence for cadets attending the United States Military Academy. For more information see www.WestPointAOG.org.

About West Point
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year, co-educational, federal, liberal arts college whose mission is to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country, and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the U. S. Army. For more information, go to www.WestPoint.edu.

Jaye Donaldson
WPAOG
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