HAVERFORD, Pa. — Bob Hasson ’83 was presented with the Lawrence Forman ’60 Award Saturday evening in the Swan Multi-Purpose Room. Hasson became the 16th Haverford College alumnus to receive this honor.
The Forman Award— which was first presented in 1991 to Harris David ’90, a basketball teammate of Forman’s—recognizes an alumnus whose athletic career in college and subsequent devotion to serving society was reminiscent of Forman.
At Haverford Hasson was a four-year letterwinner for the cross country and track & field teams. He was part of two Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) cross country and two MAC track & field championship teams.
After graduating from Haverford Hasson started out as a teacher and as the head coach of the cross country and track teams at St. James High School in Chester, Pa. Hasson’s squads were strong during the late 1980s and early 1990s, winning numerous Philadelphia Catholic League and Delaware County championships. During his tenure, Hasson earned a law degree from Temple University.
Shifting gears in 1993, Hasson went into the ministry with the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, a Catholic congregation of priests and brothers. In 1998, he decided to leave the ministry prior to his ordination.
One year later Hasson moved to Washington, D.C., becoming a paralegal for the environmental enforcement section of the United States Department of Justice. In 2002 he returned to Philadelphia as a staff attorney for the United States Environmental Protection.
In 2005 He returned to Haverford to work with mentor Tom Donnelly as an assistant coach for the men’s cross country and track & field teams. Since 2005 the track & field team has won 10 Centennial Conference titles (five indoor, five outdoor) and the cross country team has earned four conference titles, four NCAA regional crowns and the 2010 NCAA national championship.
A former teammate, Joe Schwartz ’83, passed away from Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) and each year Hasson helps with the memorial 3K run/walk in Schwartz's honor to raise funds for ALS research. Since the event’s beginning in 2007, the run/walk has raised approximately $14,500.
Lawrence Forman ’60 is highly regarded as one of the most graceful and versatile athletes in Haverford’s long athletic history. Forman was the second Haverford basketball player to score 1,000 career points, leading the Fords to wins over Delaware and Navy in his last two years with the program. He went on after Haverford to a career in social service, including relief work overseas. Forman met an untimely death in Thailand, fatally injured in a fall from a building which was being ravaged by fire.