Cincinnati Country Day School recognized two alumni with its highest honors during the Indian Hill school's Centennial Homecoming Weekend in September.

Bennett "Ben" Lowenthal, Class of 1976, received the Virtue in Action Award. Gordon "Gibby" Wright, Class of 1985, received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Head of School Rob Zimmerman, himself a 1998 graduate, presented both awards at the annual alumni breakfast, according to the school's account of the ceremony. Living Magazines also covered the event.

The breakfast marked 100 years since Country Day opened in the fall of 1926 with 55 students and five faculty on roughly 20 acres on Given Road, according to the school's centennial history.

Wright's ties to the school stretch back to its founding. His grandfather, Clifford Wright, was one of Country Day's original founders. His father, Gordon Wright, Class of 1944, returned as a longtime science teacher and Hall of Fame tennis coach. Wright's own children, Maggie, Class of 2019, and Jack, Class of 2021, attended as well.

"I was probably on this campus before I could walk," Wright said during his acceptance speech.

After graduating from Denison University, Wright built a career in investment management and entrepreneurship. He later joined the school's Board of Trustees and chaired the master planning committee, helping lead construction of the Early Childhood Center and major renovations to the Leonard Family Athletic Center.

Zimmerman said Wright treated his family's long connection to the school as an obligation rather than a privilege.

The Virtue in Action Award recognizes alumni celebrating their 50th reunion or beyond who have embodied the school's motto through service. After earning an art history degree at Yale University, Lowenthal joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), working with farmworker communities in California's Salinas Valley. He then attended graduate school at UCLA before beginning a roughly 35-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service.

His assignments spanned Brazil, Denmark, Croatia, Turkey, Italy, Afghanistan, Finland and Montenegro. He served as deputy chief of mission and chargé d'affaires, worked with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a Pearson Fellow and led State Department efforts on a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan.

Lowenthal said in his acceptance speech that he could not imagine an award dearer to him.

The Class of 1976 was also acknowledged at the breakfast as the newest members of the Virtue in Action Society, a group for alumni marking their 50th reunion or higher.

Upcoming community events: Indian Hill trick-or-treat hours are set for Saturday, Oct. 31. Sycamore Township curbside leaf collection begins Tuesday, Oct. 13.