Liana Gertsch

’80

Liana dedicated her professional life to promoting educational reform for children worldwide. She began her career with the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Oxfam in the Netherlands before moving closer to regions where she could have the most impact. Liana spent five years at Save the Children in Bangladesh as Chief of Party and another year in Malawi as Director of Programme Development and Quality.

Shruti Ganguly

’00

Shruti’s artistic journey is a remarkable testament to her creative brilliance and dedication to her craft. A graduate of prestigious institutions such as Northwestern University where she got her Bachelor’s, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she got her MFA in Film and the Stern School of Business for her MBA, Shruti has carved out a distinguished career, making films that have premiered at world-renowned festivals.

Yuka Makino

’88

Dr. Yuka Makino, a luminary in international development, has been honored as a Distinguished Alumna of Woodstock School. Her journey showcases a commitment to facilitating positive change around the world in a variety of areas including natural resources management, rural development, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk management. 

Radhika Jain

’99

Radhika Jain, an alumna of the Woodstock School class of ’99, receives Woodstock School’s first-ever Outstanding Young Alumni Award for her exceptional contributions to health economics. Currently an Assistant Professor of Health Economics at the Global Business School for Health, University College London, and an invited researcher at JPAL South Asia, Radhika’s impact extends globally. 

David Rugh

’66

David is a celebrated wildlife biologist specializing in marine mammals. Over his 34-year career with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, David earned forty awards, bonuses, and certificates. He also received volunteer recognition for stewarding protected properties and continues as a local mentor and community leader. David was born in Landour Community Hospital, and his father Donald Rugh was Headmaster at Woodstock from 1953-63.

Daphne Wysham

’79

Daphne is a lifelong environmentalist and policy analyst with a record of launching pioneering climate campaigns and turning research, climate science, and communications into transformative action. She has authored and co-authored scores of publications and has been at the forefront of ground-breaking research and activism that have effectively led to worldwide reductions in investment in fossil fuels.

Glenn Conrad

’68

A 1968 graduate of Woodstock, Glenn arrived in India as a one-year-old child whose parents – dad a doctor and mom a nurse – began their service at Dhamtary Christian Hospital in the middle of rural Madhya Pradesh. They served under Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, having formerly started a hospital in rural Ethiopia shortly after the end of WWII. From the onset Glenn was exposed to meaningful and fulfilling voluntary service.

Stephen Alter

’74

Stephen Alter is an established author, a naturalist and conservationist, and was the founding director of the Mussoorie Mountain Festival. He has a long-standing association with Woodstock School, and we are proud to have him as the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award, 2020

David J. Schoonmaker ’62

David started several companies that served the health care industry. His product and process improvements were a benefit to both his customers and competitors, accounting for the rapid growth of his technologies and the high value placed on his companies.

Frederick S. Downs Jr. (Rick) ’79

After studying law at the University of Virginia Rick took a job at an international law firm in New York City where he practiced Corporate Law for six years. In 1992, Rick left the practice of law to start an investment firm with which he is still involved today.

Rahulbhai N. Amin

’71

Rahul is the chairman and managing director of the Jyoti group. In 1997 Rahul became managing director of Jyoti Ltd, a company that makes equipment for India’s water and power sectors. He holds an M.S. from the University of Baroda and a Master of Engineering from Cornell University.

Jeet Singh

’81

After co-founding one of the first computer software design companies in e-commerce, Art Technology Group (ATG), Jeet sold his interest in 2003 and shifted his attention to other pursuits, including setting up the Winterline Foundation as a major arm for his philanthropy.

James Taylor

’51

James has made significant contributions to realising Woodstock’s ideal of education for a world of difference. As a recognised and accomplished journalist, writer, and teacher, he strives to demonstrate how a vision of sustainable growth with peace can unite people around the globe.

Dr. Shobha Arole ’78

Shobha Arole has been honoured for her outstanding contribution to serving people in extreme poverty and improving rural healthcare in Maharashtra, India.

Jagdish Sagar ’61

Jagdish Sagar has served in many prominent positions in the Indian Civil Service, dealing with, among other things, law and order, tax administration, personnel, and development and planning, including responsibility for the power sector.

Philip DeVol ’66

Philip DeVol graduated from Woodstock School in 1966, and has been training and consulting on poverty issues since 1997.

Tom Alter

’68

Tom Alter has been a well-known face to Indian movie-goers for more than three decades. In addition to acting in Hindi films, Tom has exhibited talent in theatre, in sports and in literature.

Dr. James Gabriel Campbell ’65

Gabriel Campbell has spent almost his whole life in the Himalaya. Born at Landour Community Hospital, Mussoorie, he followed his father, uncle and aunts in attending Woodstock School from Upper Kindergarten to graduation (with a couple of years in the US).

Margaret Loehlin Shafer ’56

Margaret Loehlin Shafer is an outstanding example of Woodstock’s Distinguished Alumni. Margaret attended Woodstock School as the daughter of missionaries serving the Presbyterian Church in the Punjab.

Ashoke Chatterjee

’51

Ashoke Chatterjee’s distinguished career as a public servant and professional communicator has sat comfortably with his widely recognised voluntary philanthropic contributions.

Chris Anderson

’74

Chris Anderson was born in Pakistan in 1957. His parents were medical missionaries and he spent most of his childhood in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. He attended Woodstock until eighth grade and went on to public school in England.

Dr. Bob Fleming Jr

’54

Bob Fleming Jr is recognised in his field as a pre-eminent Himalayan naturalist and natural history educator. His lifetime has been spent studying, understanding and spreading an appreciation for nature. His deep love for the natural world is rooted in his upbringing in Nepal and India.

TZ Chu

’52

TZ Chu has been recognised for his pioneering work in analytical instrumentation, his facility as an early practitioner of global business strategy for smaller companies, his leadership in promoting diversity in management as a role model, and as an industry leader.

Dr. Dorothy Irene Riddle ’60

Dorothy Riddle was born in the United States. She accompanied her parents to China after World War II, learned Chinese, and was ready to start school when the Communist takeover of the country forced the departure of all foreigners.

Bhavenesh Kumari Patiala ’50

Bhavenesh Kumari Patiala has had a ground-breaking career as a woman lawyer in India. A member of the royal family of Patiala, she excelled in a career that was closed to women and to those of her lineage.

Dr. Robert E. Scott

’62

Robert Scott is a nationally renowned teacher and scholar in the fields of contracts, commercial law, and bankruptcy. He has co-authored five books on contracts and commercial transactions and is the author of more than three dozen scholarly articles.

Dr. Ashok Frank Mayadas ’57

Frank Mayadas has been elected to the Woodstock School Distinguished Alumni Roll for his extraordinary leadership in the business sector and for his widely recognised work as Program Officer at the Sloan Foundation.

Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer ’70

Mark Kenoyer has been elected to the Woodstock School Distinguished Alumni Roll for his pioneering work on the anthropology of the Indus Valley, which has completely revised previously accepted theories of the beginning of civilisation in the Indian Peninsula.

Dr. Richard Brown

’58

Dick Brown has been recognised for his lifelong commitment to advancing political and economic development around the world. He graduated from Woodstock School in 1958 and received his BA in Political Science from Muskingum College, Ohio.

Gerry Williams

’42

Gerry Williams has been recognised for excellence in his field, his original research on ceramic techniques called wet fire and photo resist, and his contributions to the art of wheel-thrown and slab-built pottery both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Marty Alter Chen ’60

Marty Alter Chen has been recognised for her work with poor rural women in South Asia, especially for her efforts in illuminating the plight of widows through books such as Perpetual Mourning: Widowhood in Rural India.

Nayantara Pandit Sahgal ’43

Nayantara Sahgal has been elected to the Distinguished Alumni Roll in recognition of her lifetime achievement as a writer of elegantly crafted works of both fiction and non-fiction.

Dr. Carl E. Taylor

’32

Carl Taylor dedicated his life’s work to advancing the healthcare of people throughout the world, building on the principle of health equity. Born in the Indian Himalaya as the son of medical missionaries, he attended Woodstock throughout his adolescence.

Rev. Robert C. Alter

’43

Throughout his life, and through half of Woodstock’s first 150 years, Bob Alter maintained a unique relationship with both Woodstock School and the people of the Garhwal.

Dr. Robert B. Griffiths ’52

Throughout his career, Robert Griffiths has dedicated himself to forming a lasting link between theory and reality. Born in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, in 1937 to Presbyterian missionaries, he attended Woodstock from fourth standard to tenth.

Dr. Frederick S. Downs ’49

Fred Downs has spent his life in service to the Church and to theological education in India. He was born of missionary parents at Tura, Meghalaya, in 1932. A member of the Class of 1949, he attended Woodstock from 1946 to 1948.

Hukam Singh Yadav

’38

Brigadier Hukam Singh Yadav has devoted his life to service in the Indian Army. Born in Agra in 1921, he came to Woodstock in 1935. At the age of 18, he took the Federal Public Service Commission Examination and was one of fifteen cadets admitted into the Indian Military Academy.