Country Day Honors Two Alums at Centennial Alumni Breakfast

As Cincinnati Country Day School celebrates its centennial, two alumni whose lives reflect the values the school has sought to instill for generations were honored during Centennial Homecoming Weekend in September.

Bennett “Ben” Lowenthal `76 received the 2026 Virtue in Action Award, and Gordon “Gibby” Wright `85 received the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award at the annual alumni breakfast. The awards are among the highest honors bestowed upon Country Day alumni.

This year’s breakfast carried added significance: September marks 100 years since Country Day first opened its doors, bringing together alumni from across the decades to celebrate the school’s history.

“The essential truth is that Country Day has survived for a hundred years precisely because we have changed,” said Head of School Rob Zimmerman `98 during his opening remarks. “But the opposite is also true. If we chase every fleeting trend, eventually there are no lasting values to which we may anchor ourselves amidst the waves of history.”

He went on to reflect on several first principles that have remained constant, pointing to the school’s longstanding emphasis on high standards, character development, a unique natural campus, and especially the close relationships between students and teachers. “These strike me not as relics of Country Day’s first century, but rather as the foundations of our second.”


A century of stewardship

The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes an alumnus for contributions to Country Day, the broader community, or through professional achievement. For Gordon Wright, the honor is intertwined with the history of the school itself.

“I was probably on this campus before I could walk,” recalled Wright during his acceptance speech.

Wright’s grandfather, Clifford Wright, was one of Country Day’s founders in 1926. His father, Gordon Wright `44, returned to Country Day as a longtime science teacher and Hall of Fame tennis coach. Gordon’s children, Maggie `19 and Jack `21, continued the family tradition as Country Day lifers.

After graduating from Country Day, Wright attended Denison University and then built a career in investment management and entrepreneurship. But it is his extensive volunteer leadership at Country Day that has made perhaps his most visible mark on the school.

After returning to Cincinnati with his wife, Susan, and enrolling their children at Country Day, Wright became involved with the Alumni Council. He later joined the Board of Trustees and chaired the master planning committee, helping lead projects that transformed the campus – from the construction of the Early Childhood Center to major renovations to the Leonard Family Athletic Center.

“It was the entire community that stepped up, and that’s what makes Country Day great:  this community,” said Wright.

For Wright, that willingness to serve was not simply an obligation created by his family’s long connection to Country Day; it was the importance of virtue in action he learned while he was a student.

“Gibby inherited a school his grandfather helped found, and his father helped shape, but rather than treating that history as a privilege, he has treated it as an obligation,” said Zimmerman. “Simply put, we would not be celebrating one hundred years if not for the selfless, generous, and dedicated support of people like Gibby, who have picked up the mantle of leadership laid down by their forefathers and carried it forward for another generation.”

A lifetime of public service

The Virtue in Action Award recognizes alumni celebrating their 50th reunion or beyond who have embodied the school’s motto through service to others. This year’s recipient, Ben Lowenthal, returned to Country Day as a member of the Class of 1976, which celebrated its 50th reunion and was acknowledged during the alumni breakfast as the newest members of the Virtue in Action Society, which is composed of alumni commemorating their 50th reunion or higher.

“The Virtue in Action Award honors alumni who have taken their abilities and put them in service to others, and that is what Ben has done,” Zimmerman said. “He has spent much of his adult life defining that motto by committing himself to public service.”

After graduating from Country Day, Lowenthal attended Yale University, earning a degree in art history. He then joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), working with farmworker communities in California’s Salinas Valley, before attending graduate school at UCLA and beginning a career with the U.S. Department of State.

Over approximately 35 years in the Foreign Service, Lowenthal served under seven presidents and 12 secretaries of state in consular, political, economic, and public diplomacy roles around the world. His assignments included Brazil, Denmark, Croatia, Turkey, Italy, Afghanistan, Finland, and Montenegro. He served as deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires, worked with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a Pearson Fellow, and led State Department efforts on a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan.

In accepting the award, Lowenthal traced his commitment to public service back to his Country Day education. He recalled teachers who challenged him intellectually and introduced him to complicated moments in American history, including periods when trust in the federal government was deeply strained. Decades later, those lessons took on new meaning through his own career in government service.

Looking ahead to future generations of Country Day graduates, Lowenthal spoke of the honor of taking the federal oath of office and expressed his hope that students who someday choose public service will have the opportunity to work alongside capable colleagues committed to serving something larger than themselves.

“To Mr. Zimmerman and my alma mater, an award dearer to me than this one, I cannot imagine.”

Pictured: Gordon Wright `85, Head of School Rob Zimmerman `98, Ben Lowenthal `76. Photo provided.