T Callaghan ’65 & A Farrar Walsh ’96

Gilmour Academy presented its 2011 “Alumni of the Year Awards” to Tom Callaghan ’65, a local attorney and advocate for improved health care, and Amy Farrar Walsh ’96, a former talent/news booker for “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The award honors Gilmour graduates who have distinguished themselves in their personal lives and careers and who have demonstrated leadership and service to the school.

 

Callaghan spent more than 30 years in private law practice. Committed to improving health care, Callaghan was a trustee of Mt. Sinai Medical Center before it closed in 1997. He is a past trustee of the Cleveland Clinic Myeloma Foundation. Since 2001, he has traveled around the country providing support and encouragement to patients and families confronting multiple myeloma. Also, as former Chairman of Laurelwood Hospital, where he served for 20 years, Callaghan steadfastly led efforts to improve the quality and scope of behavioral health care services in the region.

 

A 1965 Gilmour alumnus, Callaghan graduated magna cum laude and received a bachelor of art in English and economics from Boston College, where his son, Brendan, is also a graduate. He returned to Cleveland after graduation and taught physical education at St. Clare School and coached Freshman and Junior Varsity football at Gilmour. In 1973, Callaghan earned a juris doctor from Cornell Law School. Over the years, he has been a loyal Gilmour supporter. Callaghan currently is a Gilmour trustee and has been active with PROMISE AND RENEWAL: The Capital and Endowment Campaign for Gilmour Academy, co-chaired the Class of 1965’s Annual Fund Committee and was inducted into Gilmour Academy’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.

 

After graduating from Gilmour in 1996, Amy Farrar Walsh earned a bachelor of art in communications from Miami University. She began her career in the media field as an intern at CNN’s “Late Edition” with Wolf Blitzer in Washington, D.C. From there, she went to work on the program “Crossfire” as a researcher. In 2003, Walsh moved to Chicago to work for “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She spent the past eight years booking authors and other distinguished guests for the show, including former President and First Lady George and Laura Bush and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

 

With the last episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” having aired last May, Walsh accepted a position booking speakers for October’s “Chicago Ideas Week.” It is a week-long event with over 200 speakers from around the world. She also is focusing on her daughter, Ainsley, born in Sept. 2010 to Walsh and her husband, Mike, an associate partner with the Chicago design firm PSA Partners.