Please Join Us Each
October, As We Celebrate
NEEDHAM HIGH SCHOOL
Graduates Who Have Made
A Difference In The World
Winners of the George A. Dennett
NEEDHAM HIGH SCHOOL
Distinguished Career Award
2024
Rev. Robert L. Gray
Class of 1970
Chaplain, NBA Boston Celtics
Assistant Pastor, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
(AME) Church, Boston, MA
Reverend (Rev.) Robert Gray grew up in Boston and graduated in 1970 from Needham High School. He was one of the original nine students to be bussed to Needham through the METCO program in 1967. He is a 1975 graduate of Northeastern University. Rev. Gray attended the AME Ministerial Training Institute, for the five-year program. He was chosen as a Luce Fellow, receiving a three-year fellowship award to Harvard Divinity School in 1997. In 2008, Rev. Gray earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree from National University in San Diego.
Currently, Rev. Gray is the chaplain for the NBA Boston Celtics (2000-present) and is the assistant pastor at Bethel AME church in Boston. After 26 years, he retired in 2004 from the Massachusetts Probation Service, where he served as a probation officer in Dorchester District Court and the probation officer in charge of the Brookline District Court Juvenile Probation Department. He is the retired assistant chaplain for the Boston Red Sox (1996-2007), and the New England Patriots (1996-2006). Rev. Gray was with the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics each time they won a championship from 2000-2010. This is his 45th season as a professional sports chaplain, and still counting!
Rev. Gray is the published author of the young adult novel, The Wings of Courage, the published short story, Milk of Human Kindness, in the Anthology Journal, EDNA, as well as several other short stories and articles. He is also the founder of FUTURE YOU WANT NOW, specializing in life strategy and motivational speaking workshops and life coaching (futureyouwantnow.com).
Rev. Gray is married to Rev. Sabrina Gray, a retired school teacher and current college professor. They have a blended family of 8 children and 9 grandchildren, as well as 5 dogs and 2 cats, one of which only has one eye, and a hamster.
Elizabeth Hutter, Psy.D.
Class of 1985
Performance Psychologist, Principal;
New Ballet Professional Company
San Jose, CA
Dr. Hutter is President of the American Psychological Association’s Section of Performance Psychology. She also currently serves as Informational Papers Chair for the Dance/USA TaskForce on Dancer Health, works full-time as School Principal and Wellness Director of New Ballet Professional Company and PreProfessional Training in San Jose, CA, and is a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science.
After graduating from Needham High School in 1985, Dr. Hutter attended Georgetown University, where she studied psychology and English. She spent a few years in career explorations working as a paralegal, as a ballroom dance instructor, and initiating social service programs before deciding to focus on psychology—specifically achievement motivation and relational theory. While earning her doctorate in clinical psychology at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, she kept up her ballroom dancing and resumed ballet classes when she could fit it in.
After her training, Dr. Hutter worked full-time as a clinical psychologist at the North Shore Medical Center, and then served as clinical manager on the founding team of the Hunt Center for pediatric inpatient mental health. When her twin daughters were born, she worked part-time offering psychological evaluations at Emerson Hospital’s Emergency Department in Concord, MA.
She and her husband then moved with their twin toddlers to California, and less than four weeks later their third daughter was born. With her focus now on her young family during what was to be one year in California, Dr. Hutter was invited to teach ballet where she had enrolled her twin girls in classes.
That one year in California turned into 18 years! Dr. Hutter combined her interests in dance and psychology into her dream career. She is motivated to serve and advocate for mental health professionals and the performing arts communities they treat, and to further progress artists’ and companies’ career success and satisfaction through performance psychology.
Posthumous Award
Evan Schumacher
Class of 1987
Serial Entrepreneur, CEO and Founder
Boston, MA
Evan Schumacher was a visionary, serial entrepreneur who started four companies in Chicago and Boston between 1998, when he received his MBA, and 2013. He raised $80 million in funding. He had a talent for seeing the next big trend and for attracting investors, employees, and clients. Evan died in 2015 at age 46 of a rare form of cancer, cutting short an outstanding career.
Evan graduated from Needham High School in 1987. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University in 1992 and worked for companies including LA Gear and Stride Rite before graduating with a master’s in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois in 1998. That same year he founded Celarix, launching his career as an entrepreneur with a specialty in online logistics and delivery.
Celarix was acquired by Global Exchange Services, General Electric, in 2003 and Evan went on to build Everypoint, which delivered mobile applications before the advent of smartphones. His next venture, Going.com, was a Boston-based social networking site that allowed users to track popular destinations in the city and who was at them. Going.com was acquired by AOL and Evan launched his fourth startup, Open Mile which was ultimately acquired by Echo Logistics in Chicago.
Evan’s brother, David Schumacher, shared that he has been approached by many people who described how his brother had changed their lives for the better, mainly by convincing them to aim higher and have more faith in their potential. “Evan genuinely believed in people,” David said. “He was totally selfless; he went deep. He was always interested in people and how he could help them.”
Evan resided in Newton and is survived by his wife, Suzanne, son Jacob (age 12) and twin daughters Sophia and Sari (age 10).
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