Alumnus of Merit Award 2003

The Alumnus of Merit Award is the highest honor the Alumni Association bestows on an alumnus of Whitman College. This award is given to alumni who have achieved distinction in their chosen field, or rendered outstanding service to their community, or rendered outstanding service to, and demonstrated loyal interest in, Whitman College. Members of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Overseers, and the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association are eligible three years after their last term has been served.

Mary Willis Randlet '47, premier Northwest photographer, is the recipient of the 2003 Whitman College Alumnus of Merit Award. Randlett is known for her Northwest nature photography as well as her portraits of Northwest and California poets, writers, painters and architects. Her work was featured in the 1992 publication Art In Seattle's Public Places and Roger Sales' popular 1994 Seeing Seattle.

Randlett's latest work was included in the University of Washington Press's book, Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art. The Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA), located in LaConner, Washington, featured works by twenty-one artists in a related exhibit in 2002. Randlett and Northwest artist Deloris Tarzan Ament, who chronicled the careers of Northwest artists for more than 50 years, spoke and signed books at the opening reception in January 2002.

She was honored as the first recipient of Artist Trust's Lifetime Achievement Award for Women Visual Artists, the 2001 Nancy Blankenship Pryor Award for recognition of her contributions to the literary culture of Washington State, and in 2002 she was invited to join the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects as an Honorary Member.