Tritt-Frank, McCarthy honored with UAF alumni awards

January 15, 2020

Jeff Richardson
907-474-6284

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Alumni Association has named its 2020 award recipients.

Educator and linguist Caroline Tritt-Frank is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Paul H. McCarthy, a longtime university supporter and retired UAF administrator, is the recipient of the William R. Cashen Service Award. UAF will honor Tritt-Frank and McCarthy at the upcoming Blue and Gold Celebration on Feb. 8 at the Carlson Center.

Winners of the Distinguished Alumnus Award are selected based on meritorious service on behalf of UAF, distinguished accomplishments in business and professional life, or distinguished human service in community affairs.

Tritt-Frank, the first Gwich’in woman from Arctic Village to receive a graduate degree, has spent the past 40 years translating, transcribing and teaching the Gwich’in language. A leader in the development of language-immersion curricula, she has taught or served as a principal in Arctic Village, Venetie, Circle, Fairbanks and Scammon Bay.

Tritt-Frank began her higher-education path by taking UAF correspondence courses in her family’s Arctic Village cabin, earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1990 and a master’s degree in education in 2000. That example was followed by many of her relatives, friends and former students who also earned degrees at UAF.

Winners of the William R. Cashen Service Award are selected for outstanding service to the university and its alumni association.



McCarthy retired more than two decades ago after a long career at UAF but has kept a strong connection to the university community. He is an active member of UAF booster clubs and, perhaps most notably, has volunteered as the lead photographer for all Alaska Nanooks sporting events for the past 18 years.

McCarthy moved to Alaska in 1964 to join the faculty of the university library. He eventually served both as director and interim dean of libraries and briefly as an interim vice provost. He and his wife, Lucy, live in Fairbanks. Three of their four children graduated from UAF.

The Blue and Gold Celebration will begin at 6 p.m. The event includes a social hour, dinner, an outcry auction and live music by Under Cover. UAF alumni Bill and Meadow Bailey will serve as masters of ceremonies for the event, which will also recognize the 2019 and 2020 winners of the Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service Awards.

Tickets for the event are $125. For more information or to purchase tickets, go online to https://www.uaf.edu/blueandgold/.