2019 Distinguished Graduate Award Medal Ceremony

The 2019 Distinguished Graduates are: Dr. J. Phillip London, Class of 1959; Admiral Robert J. Natter, USN (Ret.), Class of 1967; Colonel Walter P. Havenstein, USMCR (Ret.), Class of 1971; Admiral Robert F. Willard, USN (Ret.), Class of 1973; and Captain Wendy B. Lawrence, USN (Ret.) , Class of 1981.

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:

"To develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government."

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