Four selected to receive Hanover’s top alumni honors
J. Lee Annis Jr. ’78, Beth Maxson Monnin ’83, Karl Plank ’74 and Edwin Nartey ’15 have been selected to receive Hanover College’s highest alumni honors. Annis, Monnin and Plank will be presented with the Alumni Achievement Award (AAA). Nartey will receive the Distinguished Young Alumni Award (DYA).
The AAA/DYA presentation ceremony will be held Saturday, Oct. 18, as part of Hanover’s 98th-annual Homecoming celebration. The event is scheduled for noon at the J. Graham Brown Campus Center.
The Alumni Achievement Award has been presented annually since 1960. The honor recognizes graduates who have enhanced the reputation of the College by making significant contributions to their community, state or nation through professional service, public service and/or civic activities.
J. Lee Annis Jr. ’78
Annis, an educator, historian and author, has taught history and political science at Montgomery College for 40 years. He taught classes at each of Montgomery’s three campuses and served as the main campus’ history department chair from 2011-18.
In the past two years, Annis was honored by Montgomery College and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. He was acknowledged by the college’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors for outstanding service in 2009.
He is the author of “Howard Baker: Conciliator in an Age of Crisis” and “Big Jim Eastland: The Godfather of Mississippi.” He penned “William H. ‘Bill’ Frist, M.D.: The Doctor as Leader” for “Leadership in the U.S. Senate: Herding Cats in the Modern Era.” He is currently working on a history of Hanover, slated for completion in time for the College’s 2027 bicentennial celebration.
Annis has served his community as a member of the Maryland and Montgomery County (Md.) Young Republicans, Montgomery County Redistricting Commission, and the Montgomery County (Md.) Commission on the Public Financing of Elections.
Following his Hanover graduation, Annis earned a master’s degree and doctorate at Ball State University.
He lives in Silver Spring, Md.
Beth Maxson Monnin ’83
Monnin serves as regional vice president for the Collegiate Licensing Company, a division of Learfield IMG College. She has more than 15 years of experience in the field and, for the past six years, has led the company’s Greek licensing division.
Since graduating from Hanover, Monnin has been a volunteer for Phi Mu and served two separate terms on the sorority’s governing board, including National President (2014-18) and board chair of the Phi Mu Foundation. She previously served on Hanover’s Greek Task Force and has volunteered as a member of the Rho chapter advisory council in various positions. She currently serves as Phi Mu’s national ritual coordinator.
Last year, Monnin was honored with the Outstanding Alumna Achievement for Contribution to Phi Mu Award at the organization’s biennial convention.
She resides in Minster, Ohio.
Karl Plank ’74
Plank, a religion scholar and poet, taught at Davidson College from 1982-2023 and retired as the J.W. Cannon Professor Emeritus of Religion. During his tenure, he earned Davidson’s Hunter Hamilton Teaching Award, Thomas Jefferson Award and the Boswell Family Fellowship.
He is the author of “Paul and the Irony of Affliction,” “Mother of the Wire Fence: Inside and Outside the Holocaust” and “The Fact of the Cage: Reading and Redemption in David Foster Wallace’s ‘Infinite Jest.’” He has also published works about Thomas Merton, Abraham Joshua Heschel and Hannah Arendt, among others. His literary writings have earned the Thomas Carter Prize and received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology.
Plank majored in theological studies and music at Hanover. He earned Master of Divinity and doctoral degrees at Vanderbilt University.
He resides in Cornelius, N.C.
The Distinguished Young Alumni Award has been presented annually since 2013. The honor celebrates graduates under the age of 40 and recognizes alumni who have enhanced the reputation of the College through their outstanding professional achievements, personal accomplishments or their loyal service to their alma mater.
Edwin Nartey ’15
For the past three years, Nartey has worked as an engineering manager at Google, where he leads initiatives in Google cloud infrastructure storage organization. He also serves as a strategic advisor for Seeds of Fortune, a non-profit focused on reducing barriers to wealth creation for underserved communities, and volunteers as a career coach with Management Leadership for Tomorrow.
Prior to joining Google, Nartley worked for six years in analytics and strategy for Goldman Sachs, including nearly three years as data strategy lead at Marquee, the company’s digital platform for institutional and corporate clients.
While at Hanover, Nartey studied computer science and business. He served as a member of the College’s Board of Trustees from 2020-24, where he focused on academic and institutional affairs, enrollment and student life.
Nartey lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
