UMass Lowell Honors Distinguished Alumni

04/25/2017
Lowell Sun

LOWELL -- James Costos, a native of Lowell and former U.S. ambassador to Spain and Andorra, and Norm Bazin, former UMass Lowell hockey player who returned to his alma mater to transform the team into a national powerhouse, were among eight distinguished graduates who were presented with this year's University Alumni Awards.

The honorees were selected from graduates of each of UMass Lowell's six schools and colleges, as well as the university's athletics program. One recent graduate who is already having a positive impact is also recognized.

In addition to Costos and Bazin, this year's award recipients include alumni who have had an impact in the fields of health care, technology, law and finance, and all have supported UMass Lowell and its students through scholarships, mentoring and other efforts. 

"These individuals' achievements, success and generosity represent the very best of UMass Lowell," Chancellor Jacquie Moloney said during the awards presentation, held last Thursday at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center.

Besides Bazin and Costos, the university recognized:

• Lorna Boucher '86 (Manning School of Business), a Lowell native who now lives in New York, where she is the chief marketing officer of Instinet, a global financial securities company.
• Robert Bushong '67 (Athletics), the founder of Bushong Industrials Inc. and a resident of Bluffton, S.C., who traces his love of sports back to his days playing baseball at what was then Lowell Tech., which inspired him to create a scholarship for student-athletes in the name of his former coach, Jim Stone.
• William C. Geary III '80 (Francis College of Engineering), an Andover resident who is a patent and trademark attorney with Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., in Boston. Geary grew up in Lowell and originally came to UMass Lowell to study biology and chemistry, which led him to major in plastics engineering.
• Emmanuel Lamour '05, '16 (Young Alumnus honoree), a Canton resident who is a program manager with Raytheon overseeing teams around the world. Lamour was hired by Raytheon shortly before he graduated with his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and has earned his MBA while working there.
• Russell LeClaire '67, '74 (Kennedy College of Sciences), a Plano, Texas resident who is the retired vice president of development of CA Technologies. LeClaire, who earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees in physics at UMass Lowell, worked as a staff physicist at a university in Florida before taking a position in computer systems with Texas Instruments that was the start of a 40-year career with the company, which became part of Sterling Software and then CA Technologies.
• Jerry St. Peter '89 (College of Health Sciences), the vice president and head of ophthalmic business with Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. and a resident of Plano, Texas. A Lowell native, he majored in health education at UMass Lowell and began his career in pharmaceutical sales, working his way up to executive management and corporate leadership positions in the industry, most recently at Sun Pharmaceuticals.