Director of the FBI James Comey, law entrepreneur Gary LeClair and the leader of a multi-million dollar research project, Joyce House Shields, will all receive the W&M Alumni Medallion during Charter Day Weekend.
The Medallion is given to alumni who have exhibited outstanding career success and a dedication to community service and William & Mary.
James Comey
Comey is probably most known for his role as the current director of the FBI, his help prosecuting the Gambino crime family, his lead in the Martha Stewart investigation and his challenge to the White House over domestic wiretapping during the Bush Administration. Although he has been involved in plenty of high-profile legal trials, he also taught Sunday school each week and cared for a foster child.
Comey has also served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the deputy chief of the Criminal Division. During his time at Richmond’s U.S. Attorney’s office, Comey took the lead on a program called Project Exile that effectively knocked the homicide rate to an all-time low by shifting prosecutions from state to federal court.
He served as the U.S. Deputy Attorney General under President George W. Bush, during which time he was the second-highest ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice.
He has returned several times to speak at W&M in the past: during the 2003 and 2009 Opening Convocations and at the 2008 Charter Day Ceremony. Comey also served on the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors from 2008 to 2012.
Gary LeClair
LeClair came to W&M to play football as an option quarterback who had never been south of New Jersey before his first visit to campus. He chose the college because it would enable him to play football, a choice that may not be as frivolous as it sounds.
“Without that football scholarship, my parents couldn’t afford to pay for me to go,” he said in a news release. “My relatives didn’t go to college. My dad didn’t go to college and my mom never finished high school.”
Though he came from humble beginnings, LeClair has been successful in his career, starting a securities and venture capital legal boutique firm with his colleague Dennis Ryan called LeClairRyan. Since its founding, LeClairRyan has grown from two men in an office in Richmond to 350 full-time lawyers and more than 300 contract attorneys in 17 cities across the nation.
Joyce House Shields
Shields is a Newport News native with an identical twin who started her career collecting for Red Cross and selling Girl Scout cookies. Both the girls knew immediately they wanted to go to W&M because of visits they made to campus during Sunday drives.
After W&M, Joyce House Shields went to graduate school in Delaware and started work for the U.S. Army, earning her Ph.D. along the way from University of Maryland. Shields soon became the Army’s the director of manpower and personnel research.
She worked for 19 years for the Army before a 23-year position at Hay Group, a globe-wide management firm. During her time at Hay Group, she worked with Fortune 500 companies and served as the senior leader and owner.
Shields later became involved in the College’s Lord Botetourt Auction, served on the William & Mary Foundation Board and co-chaired her 45th and 50th class reunions. She has also served on the board of the Mason School of Business for more than 10 years.
