Retiring Athletic Director Anthony Mariano, late chemistry professor Mary Hoppe and former Miss USA and U.S. Army Capt. Deshauna Barber honored
Retiring Athletic Director Anthony Mariano, the late longtime chemistry professor Mary Hoppe, and U.S. Army Capt. and 2016 Miss USA Deshauna Barber received honorary degrees Saturday during Norwich University’s Commencement at Shapiro Field House.
Mariano, who’s retiring in May after 44 years at the university and 30 as athletic director, received the Honorary Doctor of Leadership.
Mariano in 1974 received a physical education bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University, where he’d played hockey and soccer there, and later that year started graduate work at Norwich. After stints as assistant men’s soccer and assistant men’s hockey coach, Marino served as head men’s soccer coach (1978 to 1984) and head men’s ice hockey coach (1982 to 1992).
In Anthony Mariano’s 30-year athletic director tenure, the Norwich University teams won 75 conference championships and 12 national championships — four in men’s hockey, two in women’s hockey, six in women’s rugby.
Mariano’s men’s soccer teams appeared in Eastern College Athletic Conference playoffs and his men’s hockey teams appeared in eight ECAC tournaments and earned two NCAA postseason berths, the first in 1982-83, the first in school history.
In Mariano’s athletic director tenure, beginning in 1992, the Cadets won 75 conference championships and 12 national championships — four in men’s hockey, two in women’s hockey, six in women’s rugby.
In March 2018, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named Mariano Under Armour® Athletic Director of the Year. In 2001, Mariano was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame in Rome, New York, his birth city. In 2021, Norwich’s
Athletic Department renamed the Most Outstanding Senior Athlete awards the Coach Mariano Awards.
Beloved professor, advocate, mentor
Hoppe (1951-2020), posthumously received the Honorary Doctor of Chemistry.
After teaching at the University of Minnesota, Hoppe spent 39 years as a Norwich University chemistry professor. In 1992, she was elected the first vice chair of the Faculty Senate, which she’d helped establish; she also became one of the University Curriculum Committee’s longest-serving members.
Hoppe received the Homer L. Dodge Award for Teaching Excellence, four times received the Charles A. Dana Category I Grant and, in 2014, received Vermont Women in Higher Education Sister Elizabeth Candon Distinguished Service Award, presented to a woman who has worked to advance other women in higher education nationally, regionally and locally.
“If you were a student or employee during the time that Professor Hoppe was on faculty, you would have known her or would have wanted to know her,” President Mark Anarumo said in conferring the honor, which Hoppe’s sister Monica Harsnett accepted. “She was a dearly beloved community member, a mentor to many, whose presence at Norwich continues to be felt, even in her absence.”
Honored motivator
Barber, an international speaker, coach, and entrepreneur who delivered Commencement’s keynote address, received the honorary Doctor of Leadership.
Barber, who has spent 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserve, is cadet instructor at Howard University’s Bison Battalion. She was crowned Miss USA in 2016 and spent her yearlong reign pushing the government to boost support for armed forces personnel who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Barber, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Virginia State University and a Master of Science degree in computer information systems and services from the University of Maryland University College, is receiving diversity, social justice and inclusion certification at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
Barber is now president and chief executive officer of Service Women’s Action Network, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization advocating for U.S. servicewomen and veterans. She travels the world as a motivational speaker and has made it her life’s goal to encourage, inspire and strengthen the people around her.
Did you know?
Past Norwich University honorary degree recipients include U.S Army Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan ’59, who served as U.S. Army chief of staff; CIA Director William E. Colby; inventor Thomas Alva Edison, U.S. Army Gens. Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Marshall; U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren; Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and journalist Connie Chung.
EXPLORE:
READ MORE COMMENCEMENT 2022 COVERAGE:
- ‘What’s next?’ First-ever soldier crowned Miss USA has some ideas
- With diplomas in hand, 2022 Norwich University graduates express exhilaration
- From Norwich University’s network, words of wisdom for the Class of 2022
