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R. Douglas Sheldon, senior vice president of Columbia Artists Management, and a 1963 graduate of Hamilton College, was presented with Hamilton College's top alumni award during Reunion Weekend festivities on Saturday, June 3.

The Bell Ringer Award recognizes exceptional service to Hamilton, its alumni and the community over the course of the recipient's lifetime. It was presented to Sheldon by Bill Yeomans, president of the Hamilton Alumni Association.

In 1962, Sheldon was the first student director in the history of the Hamilton College Choir, and during the 1980s he formed the alumni reunion choir. "Thirty-eight years later you are still ardently committed not only to making music but making it happen, and you remain to this day, we are delighted to say, a musical presence on this Hill," said Yeomans in presenting the award to Sheldon.

Sheldon, a 1963 graduate of Hamilton with honors in music, has spent more than three decades in the world of classical music, managing some of the world's preeminent artists and ensembles. Among his current clients are the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, Kirov Orchestra the Boys Choir of Harlem, soloists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Nigel Kennedy and Marilyn Horne, and conductors Gerard Schwarz and Robert Kapilow. Sheldon has frequently served as speaker and panelist on business issues in the arts for national organizations such as International Society for Performing Arts Administrators, American Symphony Orchestra League and Association of Performing Arts Administrators.

While at Hamilton, Sheldon was student conductor of the Hamilton College Choir from 1960-63, and choirmaster and conductor in 1964-65. He has returned to Hamilton each year for the past 20 years to conduct the Alumni Reunion Choir. While at Brown University for graduate studies, he was assistant conductor of the Brown University -Pembroke College Glee Clubs and conductor of the Brown Freshman Glee Club.

He has served as music director and conductor of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Perth Amboy for the past 23 years, has been a conductor of the University Glee Club of New York, and will guest conduct the Orpheus Club of Philadelphia in 2001.

Sheldon graduated from Sidney Central High School in Sidney, NY, where his parents, Emma and Ray Sheldon, still reside.

Douglas Sheldon resides in Colonia, with his wife, Eileen, who is director of administration for the New Jersey State Opera Association. He has a son, R. Douglas Sheldon, Jr., a lawyer residing in Suffield, CT., and two daughters, Kirsten and Alexandra, who reside in Colonia.

In addition to the presentation of the special award, the Reunion Weekend celebration at Hamilton included special class dinners and receptions, athletic contests, classes, meetings with the college president, a parade and the annual Alumni Service of Remembrance. Approximately 2,400 alumni and their families participated in the weekend.

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