Eric Rosenthal, Class of 1981, Awarded John Phillips Award

Exeter Alumnus Eric Rosenthal ’81 accepted the Academy’s John Phillips Award for distinguished service last week for his work as founder and executive director of  an organization dedicated to ending the institutionalization of children.Rosenthal, who founded Disability Rights International in 1993, spoke to students in Assembly Tuesday about his passion for his cause, his opinions about volunteer work and his plans to use the support of the Exeter community to further his organization’s long term goals.President of the John Phillips Award Selection Committee and General Alumni Association (GAA) Mitchell Bradbury ’78 presented Rosenthal with the award Tuesday and introduced him to the PEA community.Rosenthal began his remarks by thanking the Academy for the honor and went on to detail his work with Disability Rights International. He has traveled to over forty countries, including Mexico, Ukraine and Serbia and has helped countless people in pursuit of this goal.

“He really deserved the award. In my tenure as President of the Selection Committee, I’ve never been more confident in a recipient.”

Rosenthal’s organization focuses on providing funding to struggling communities and families to help them better support themselves rather than forcing them to give up a child or relative to an institution or orphanage. Rosenthal wove several personal anecdotes into his speech, ranging from his experiences with an abused mental patient to a child who left an orphanage only to be sold into sex slavery. In a particularly poignant moment, Rosenthal teared up while discussing his daughter and her role in his life.Rosenthal was chosen as this year’s recipient in January by a twelve-person council headed by Bradbury. The committee is formed by directors of the GAA and meets each year to determine the award’s recipient. Nominees remain in consideration year after year, provided they are not selected as the recipient.Bradbury said that the committee uses Harkness discussion to narrow down their top picks and detailed the amount of information that is considered regarding each candidate. “We get a tome of maybe sixty or seventy pages of information about the nominees. Press releases, biographies, all compiled by research in Gilman House after the nominations are made,” Bradbury said.Alumni must be nominated by a member of the Exeter community to be considered for the award. “Nominations can come from anywhere. They come from faculty, staff, a person in the field who knows that they went to Exeter,” Bradbury said. “And we treat every nomination equally; we vet every single one. However, there has to be a certain level of public service to be nominated. Not just someone who did something good.”Bradbury has served as the committee’s president for the past five years, and while he has greatly enjoyed the opportunity, he said that “the selection process is hard because everybody is incredible.” However, Bradbury also cited Rosenthal’s selection as this year’s recipient as the easiest. “This year was probably the fastest decision I’ve seen in the five years that I’ve been on the committee,” Bradbury said. “It seemed timely for us to make the selection for someone who really had feet on the ground for their cause. We heard of the bravery that he exhibited in taking great personal risk, going places where people wouldn’t think to do anything or say anything to fix a problem.”The committee usually runs through three rounds of votes until a unanimous decision is reached. This year, however, the committee was in agreement after only a single round. Bradbury was quick to stand by the group’s selection and praised Rosenthal’s dedication to his cause. “I think that we absolutely made the right decision with Eric, just by virtue of seeing the person that he was up on stage,” Bradbury said. “The guy is tireless. He can get more done in several different countries than most people can at home. He really deserved the award. In my tenure as President of the Selection Committee, I’ve never been more confident in a recipient.”Rosenthal’s remarks focused mostly on his organization and its efforts to eradicate institutionalization and abuse, but he also allotted quite a bit of time to discouraging students from volunteering for orphanages and other such institutions. On the subject, Rosenthal said that he was heartened by a number of PEA students who were willing to volunteer their time, but he cautioned them to find the right places to do so. “Getting international experience is very important. Volunteering can really make a difference,” Rosenthal said. “But the question is ethical volunteering. Recognizing and protecting people’s rights. Making sure that they do that in a way that will support families and support community integration. And, unfortunately, all too often those programs have supported orphanages and segregation and ended up hurting people more than they help them.”Students were receptive to Rosenthal’s points and appreciated the opportunity to hear him speak. Upper Cady Crowley said that Rosenthal’s speech was  something unlike anything she “had seen before at the Exeter assemblies,” and lower Elizabeth Janko said that it was “refreshing to see someone win an award based off of their selflessness, rather than a level of success measured in today’s current standards.”Faculty also received Rosenthal’s address well, and his selection as this year’s recipient drew praise from Principal Lisa MacFarlane, among others. “It was incredibly inspiring to meet Mr. Rosenthal, and his wife, Ms. Ahern,” MacFarlane said. “Thousands of people around the world have had their lives changed, and millions more, not yet born, will have better lives because of their work. Their passion and clarity, and their physical courage in some very dangerous and challenging situations, set a very high standard for those of us trying to live up to the ‘great end and real business of living,’ and they epitomize Exeter’s aspirations to foster lives of ‘non sibi.’”Contributions from Jacqui Byrne