The University of Vermont’s College of Medicine has announced that Burnett S. Rawson, M.D., a 1939 graduate of the College, will receive this year’s prestigious Service to Medicine and Community Award.

Dr. Rawson, along with nine other award winners, will be honored during the Celebration of Achievements Ceremony in Burlington on Friday June 12, 2009. The Service to Medicine and Community Award is presented to alumni who have maintained a high standard of medical service and who have achieved an outstanding record of community service or assumed other significant responsibilities not directly related to medical practice.

The Vermont library community knows Dr. Rawson well as both a friend and benefactor. The Deborah Rawson Memorial Library in Underhill was built with funds received as a gift from the Rawson family in memory of their daughter Deborah, an author and journalist, researcher and art history scholar who died in 1992. “The trustees who accepted the Rawson donation voted unanimously to name the library to honor Deborah Rawson's memory. They believed the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library would serve the communities [of Jericho and Underhill] with intelligence, creativity, and courage, anchored by commitment to family and place, the qualities that Deborah Rawson exemplified throughout her life.”

In addition, Dr. Rawson is the creator and benefactor of the Winnie Belle Learned Fund, a grant program of the Vermont Public Library Foundation, named in honor of Winnie Belle Learned, a Vermonter, educator, and Dr. Rawson’s benefactress. Born in 1863 in Westford, Vermont, despite many personal hardships, Ms. Learned received her teaching certificate, and was a teacher and principal in Massachusetts for many years before returning to her native Vermont in 1911 where, with a relative, Jennie Burnett, she operated Cherry Hill Farm in Williston. In 1932, during the Depression, Ms. Learned took notice of Burnett Rawson, a distant relative, and asked his mother’s permission to take him from the family farm in Underhill so that he could study. Her generosity and vision allowed him to attend the University of Vermont and its medical school. After military service and further medical studies, Dr. Rawson practiced urology in New York for many years before retiring to his native Vermont. Dr. Rawson’s goal for the Winnie Belle Learned Fund is to help the public libraries of Vermont foster literacy, love of learning, critical analysis and intellectual exploration in their communities, particularly among children and their families.