BETHEL – Gould Academy Dean of Faculty Mac Davis announces that teacher Doug Alford is this year’s recipient of the Philip C. Rau Teacher Development Award.

Each year the award is given to a classroom teacher at Gould who personifies the characteristics that animated the late Philip Rau ’86 during his short, but successful teaching career.

Rau was a student at Gould Academy from 1984 until his graduation in June 1986. During those two years he made significant academic progress and personal growth and was significantly influenced by teachers who served as role models.

During his undergraduate and postgraduate work at Lake Forest College and Emory University, and as he began his teaching career, he became aware of the influence of his high school teachers and found himself adopting many of their techniques.

These methods, matched with his ebullient spirit and commitment, served Rau and his students well and led to an early appointment as chairman of the nine-person History Department at Norcross High School.

A teenage gunman shot Rau during an armed robbery on the evening of April 24, 1999, and he died early the following morning.

The award is endowed by a fund set up by Rau’s mother and stepfather, Karen and Howard Gopen of Palo Alto, Calif., and provides funding during the summer for faculty professional development opportunities. Alford will use the grant to continue his master’s degree work in Spanish at Middlebury College.