Anthony Concepcion Perez '92
(Awarded 2009)

The Alumni Service Award is presented to alumni and other friends of Davidson College who have rendered and performed a high degree of service to the institution. Today we are honored to recognize Anthony Concepcion Perez of the Class of 1992.

Tony Perez, you came to Davidson in the fall of 1988 from your home in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida. To your football teammates, Phi Delta Theta and  Black Student Coalition brothers and sisters, classmates, and friends it was quickly apparent that despite your youth you brought with you a lifetime of wisdom, hard work, and compassion. Your childhood was full of challenges that most Davidson students do not face, and it is fair to say that by virtue of your experiences you began mentoring members of the Davidson family from your very first day on campus. Additionally, your energy, enthusiasm for life, and playful sense of humor have provided your friends with a lifetime of memories that they still recall with joy today.

In the years since your graduation in 1992 you have been a faithful servant of the college, and the time and support that you have offered to Davidson have been critical to the successes of several important efforts. For three years you played a key role on the Davidson Athletic Foundation Board of Directors. But it has been the countless hours of work that you have performed “under the radar” that have meant so much to so many members of the Davidson family. You have time and again offered your skills and professional experiences to the Career Services office as a career mentor, mock interviewer, and networking resource; you have time and again offered your skills and life experiences to the Admission office as a mentor, advisor, recruiter, and interviewer for applicants of color; and you have been an anchor for Davidson’s STRIDE program since its inception in 2000, developing and facilitating the pre-orientation college enrichment retreat for incoming students of color and then standing fast as their mentor years after they pass through the program.

At the age of seventeen, in your application to Davidson College, you said that “to get respect I must do the best I can.” Through your work you have demonstrated that each begets the other, and you have grown to be one of the most highly respected of Davidson’s alumni volunteers as you continually give your very best to the college. Without fail you have answered Davidson’s call, and for twenty-one years you have made it a point to forego recognition for your volunteerism. More recently you have told Davidson that the work you do is “my way of giving back to a place that has given so much to me.” Remarking on your service to the college, one staff member wrote that “there is not a better example of someone that puts service to others above self.” You do so with grace, humility, and honor.

Tony Perez, for your undying dedication to Davidson College, your selfless commitment to supporting young people at Davidson who perhaps remind you of yourself at another stage of life, and for the conspicuous disregard for attention or notoriety with which you serve your alma mater, we are proud to present you with the Alumni Service Award on this 18th day of April, 2009.