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The Alumni Citation Award recognizes contributions to society through professional, civic and philanthropic work. Since graduating from Mansfield in 1972 with a B.A. in communications, Dick Kropp has dedicated himself to finding ways to improve learning in the workplace and to improve the quality of work life across a wide spectrum of organizations. Dick earned a master’s and a doctorate from Boston University in human resource development and did post doctoral work in industrial and organizational psychology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
One of the most significant accomplishments in his career was the creation of the first workplace-based high school in the country. The goal of the high school was to provide employees with the opportunity to earn their high school degrees at work. Since then he has worked in the field of adult literacy, community education, and health education.
During his time with Wang Labs, a high-tech firm based in Lowell, Massachusetts, he relearned an important lesson – a lesson he had first learned at Mansfield – from the firm’s founder, Dr. An Wang: “Give back to the community more than you take.”
Today Dick works as executive director of education for Cape Cod Healthcare and is an associate professor of human resources at Boston University and strives to follow the lesson of community service.