Four New Directors Appointed to Board of The Friends of Nathaniel Witherell

The Friends of Nathaniel Witherell is very excited to welcome Greenwich residents David O. Brownwood, Virginia S. Gray,  Alma Rutgers, and Clifford B. Storms to its Board of Directors. The Friends support vital programs and services at The Nathaniel Witherell, and we are very luck to have such dedicated community members join our efforts.  Following are bios on our new board members so you can get to know each of them a little better.

David O. Brownwood

David O. Brownwood has served as Senior Counsel at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York since his retirement in 2003. Brownwood, who joined the law firm in 1968, was named a partner in 1973 and head of the London office in 1995. He previously practiced law in San Francisco and was a Lecturer in Law at the University of Khartoum, Sudan and at the Kenya Institute of Administration.

Active in the Greenwich community, Brownwood is currently the Secretary for The Greenwich Historical Society Board of Trustees. He was President of the Board of Trustees of Greenwich Library, and also served as President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Greenwich Country Day School.

Additional volunteer activities have included: National Chair of the Harvard Law School Fund; President and Chairman of the Board of Governors, Stanford Associates; President, Benjamin Franklin House Foundation; National Advisory Board, Outward Bound USA; and Chairman of the Executive Committee, New York Law Institute.

Brownwood received an A.B. with distinction from Stanford University and graduated from Harvard Law School with an LL.B. magna cum laude. While at Harvard he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Harvard Law Review. He served in the United States Air Force as a fighter pilot and in the Air Force Reserve and Massachusetts Air National Guard as a pilot.

Virginia S. Gray

Virginia S. Gray, LCSW, works as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist at the Center for Hope and Renewal in Greenwich, which provides individual and group psychotherapy for adults, children and families. Gray is a member of Hortulus and chairs the Finance Committee. She also volunteers as a psychotherapist, serving clients unable to afford private counseling, and at City Squash, an afterschool program to place children in private secondary schools.

Gray previously was a marketing development manager for County NatWest and as an assistant manager for Michael Carney Music in New York. She has also developed physical education programs for young children at First Church Pre-School in Old Greenwich and at First Presbyterian Pre-School in Greenwich, and was an exercise instructor and competitive athlete at Sportsplex in Stamford. In addition, she worked as a Clinical Social Worker/Therapist for Family Centers in Stamford and did field placement at Arms Acres Patient Services.

Gray earned a BA in History/Political Science from Hollins College and received her MSW with Honors from the Silver School of Social Work at New York University.

Alma Rutgers

Alma Rutgers has been a bi-weekly columnist for the Greenwich Time since 2010 and a resident of Greenwich since 1947. She is Chair of the Town’s Affirmative Action Advisory Committee and the Community Development Advisory Committee.

Rutgers has served on several Town Boards including the Board of Estimate and Taxation, the Housing Authority, the Greenwich Board of Health, and the Commission on Aging. She has also served on a variety of Selectmen’s Advisory Committees, including the Land Bank Committee, Cos Cob Power Plant Committee, Pomerance Property Planning Committee, and Senior Property Tax Relief Committee.

Her extensive service on boards of directors includes: Neighbor to Neighbor, Greenwich Kiwanis Club, Jewish Family Services of Greenwich, UJA Federation Women’s Division Board, Call A Ride, Greenwich Hadassah, Connecticut Housing Coalition, American Jewish Committee/Connecticut Chapter, League of Women Voters of Greenwich, and League of Women Voters of Connecticut. Her additional community service incudes the Greenwich United Way, Greenwich Hospital Home Hospice Program, Greenwich Adult Day Care, and New Covenant House of Hospitality.

Rutgers has been honored by numerous organizations, receiving such distinctions as the YWCA Spirit of Greenwich Award, Hands of Healing Award from the Westchester Region of Hadassah, Greenwich Hadassah Honoree, Chabad of Greenwich Honoree with husband Don Snyder (a retired NBC News Producer of the TODAY show), and Greenwich League of Women Voters Mary Award.

Rutgers graduated from Greenwich Academy, and received a B.A. from Barnard College, an M. Phil. from Columbia University, and a M.A. from Manhattanville College.

Clifford B. Storms served as vice president, senior vice president, and general counsel at Corn Products Company (later known as CPC International and, subsequently, Bestfoods), a major international food and corn refining company, until he retired in 1997. He was previously an associate with Breed, Abbott & Morgan in Manhattan, specializing in litigation and antitrust law.

Storms was president of the Association of General Counsel and Trustee of the Food and Drug Law Institute. He was also a member of the advisory committee of the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law at Columbia University, and a member of the American, New York State, and New York City Bar associations.

Following his retirement, Storms maintained an active practice as an arbitrator in the Large Complex Case Program of the American Arbitration Association and the Alternate Dispute Resolution Program of the Center for Public Resources. He also was a director of the Transportation Association of Greenwich, vice chairman of the Coastal Resources Advisory Committee of Greenwich, a driver for Meals on Wheels, and a senior warden and vestry member of St. Barnabas Church.

Storms graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College. He received his law degree from Yale Law School and was a member of the executive committee of the Yale Law School Association. A lifelong sailor, Storms has been a resident of Greenwich since 1975.