The University of Notre Dame Alumni Association will present awards to three graduates during ceremonies on campus this month.
The Rev. Anthony Lauck, C.S.C., Award, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments in the fine arts, will be presented to Charles Kleibacker, a 1943 graduate, longtime fashion designer and adjunct curator of design at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio.
Kleibacker, who earned a degree in journalism at Notre Dame and later became an advertising copywriter, realized his passion for women’s fashion in the late 1940s when he worked for the songwriter who managed singer/entertainer Hildegarde. He later served as an assistant for the head designer for Lanvin in Paris, and as an assistant designer at Nettie Rosenstein, a well-established design house on Seventh Avenue in New York. In 1960, he opened KLEIBACKER studio in New York and became known as “the master of the bias” for his signature cut in women’s clothing, which encompassed simplicity, fit and comfort. Kleibacker’s clothes were featured in Women’s Wear Daily, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Town and Country magazines, and his fashions could be purchased at Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel.
In 1986, Kleibacker closed his New York studio and turned to academia as a visiting professor and later designer-in-residence and curator at Ohio State University, where he remained on staff until 1995. In addition to his work at the Columbus Museum of Art, Kleibacker also has held teaching positions at Mount Mary College, Kent State University and Columbus College of Art and Design.
Dr. Michael Brady, a 1973 Notre Dame graduate and pediatric infectious disease physician, will receive the Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award for his service to HIV-affected families in central and southern Ohio.
Brady is the founder of Family AIDS Clinical and Educational Services (FACES), a unique and comprehensive care model, which is the first family-centered HIV program located within a children’s hospital in the United States (Nationwide Children’s Hospital). In addition to medical providers, FACES gives families access to social workers, dieticians, pharmacists, child life-specialists and mental health providers, as well as assistance with housing, legal services and emergency assistance for food, clothing and other essentials.
In recognition of his efforts in the fight against AIDS, the Ohio Department of Health presented Brady with its Directors AIDS Service Award, and FACES was recognized by the federal government as a “Model that Works.” It since has been used as a model for similar programs throughout the United States.
Currently, Brady is the chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Ohio State University and the physician-in-chief of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He also serves as the vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases.
The Rev. Robert Griffin, C.S.C., Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements in writing, will be presented to Jerry Kammer, a 1971 graduate and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who disclosed the worst case of bribe-taking in the history of the U.S. Congress, which led to the imprisonment of Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham.
Kammer got his start in journalism in 1974 as a reporter with the Navaho Times in Window Rock, Ariz. His reporting on the Navajo reservation led to a book titled “The Second Long Walk,” which chronicled a land dispute between the Navajo and Hopi tribes.
In 1986, Kammer became the Northern Mexico correspondent for The Arizona Republic, where his work on the human consequences of industrial development along the border was honored with the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. In 1998, he joined the paper’s investigative team in Phoenix and, for the next four years, covered the story of financier Charles Keating, who became the symbol of the national savings and loan scandal. For his work, Kammer received the National Headliner Award for investigative reporting, Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Reporting and the Arizona Press Club’s Don Bolles Award for investigative reporting.
Kammer became the Republic’s Washington, D.C., correspondent in 2000 and two years later joined the Copley News Service, where he specialized in covering immigration and U.S.-Mexico relations. He and three Copley colleagues authored “The Wrong Stuff,” a 2007 book about the congressional bribery scandal.
Contact: Angela Sienko, senior editor, alumni communications, 574-631-7005, asienko@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on January 16, 2009.