Distinguished Alumni Awardee 2021- Glenn Conrad ’68

31 Dec Distinguished Alumni Awardee 2021- Glenn Conrad ’68

Glenn Conrad has been honoured as a Distinguished Alumnus of Woodstock School for a lifelong achievement in philanthropy and voluntary service. A 1968 graduate of Woodstock, Glenn arrived in India as a one year old child whose parents, a doctor and a nurse, began service at Dhamtary Christian Hospital in the middle of rural Madhya Pradesh. They served under the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities having first started a hospital in rural Ethiopia shortly after the end of WWII. From the onset Glenn was exposed to meaningful and fulfilling volunteer service.

After graduating from Goshen College (which included a stint as a professional musician) his first job was as an award winning reporter for a newspaper in Rexburg Idaho and ended up as the Managing Editor. Next, off to law school at American University Law School in the DC area (graduated 7th and Summa Cum Laude out of a class of 341). Upon graduation he joined the law office of Piper and Marbury. He then helped in a start-up NGO/NPO, PRISM which worked in agriculture, rural development and public health primarily in Peru and Bangladesh. After this start-up he went into business as a private consultant.

In early 1989 he served on the staff of Idaho Congressman Richard Stallings and following him another Congressman from Idaho, Larry LaRocco. He remains friends of these men to this day.

Starting in 1984 Glenn began his involvement with Woodstock through WOSA-NA, Woodstock Old Students Association-North America. Then, in the late 1980’s Glenn was recruited to the Board of Directors of the KWI (Kodai Woodstock International Foundation) and became very active in promoting the activities of Woodstock Alumni in North America through WOSA/NA which was part of KWI. In 1994 Glenn and his wife Peggy (and their two sons) joined the Staff of Woodstock School and Glenn initiated a development and public relations office for the school. This led to even greater involvement in promoting WOSA (Woodstock Old Students Association) in North America, India and around the world.

Upon his return to the US, Glenn was once again active with KWI and served on its Board at the time that KWI was successfully devolved into two separate organizations for the two schools. Glenn took over the leadership of Friends of Woodstock School in 2006 and has remained active in its success since that time. FWS has been successful in raising significant funds for Woodstock School and currently has about $6 million earmarked and designated for the advancement of the school. The groundwork for these gifts can be attributed to the efforts of Glenn to set up a meaningful process whereby alumni, staff and parents could donate to the school. He has also been involved with and served on the Boards of both WOSA and FWS, for 36 years as President, as a Board member and is currently an Emeritus Board Member (and the only one of those).

In 2000, working with another Woodstock alumnus, Jeet Singh, Glenn helped establish and became the Executive Director as well as a board member of the Winterline Foundation whose mission was to support “global citizenship through education”. Woodstock was a primary beneficiary of this foundation (to the tune of something over $2 million to date). In 2018 the name “Winterline” in that Foundation was changed to “Timberline”.

Glenn and Peggy live in Tetonia, Idaho having recently built a house and retired (such as a peripatetic and lifelong service oriented person can).

Glenn clearly demonstrates the type of world citizen Woodstock produces and who has shown himself enthusiastically dedicated throughout his career to volunteering at many levels in a significant number of institutions including Woodstock. His focus on enhancing and advancing the philanthropic objectives of others has resulted in significant funding for a variety of institutions and particularly Woodstock School.