GEM AWARD Mary Elaine Walton honored by alliance

CANFIELD -- Mary Elaine Walton received the Gavel Club's Gem of the Year Award from the Mahoning County Medical Society Alliance when the alliance and Mahoning County Medical Society held the annual international dinner meeting March 22 at Tippecanoe Country Club.
The award recognizes an alliance member who has volunteered in the group and community with distinction.
Walton moved to the Youngstown area in 1988 when her husband, Dr. Ralph G. Walton, became chairman of psychiatry for Western Reserve Care System. He has a private practice and also is chairman of psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine.
Background: She joined the alliance in 1988 and served in various roles, including publicity chairman, historian and chairman of the mother-daughter Christmas luncheon and fashion shows. Walton was president of the alliance from 1993-94 and has served on the board of directors since becoming a member.
Walton was named Woman of the Year in 1994 by the YMCA and serves on the Y-Women Committee.
A member of Youngstown Symphony Guild since 1988, she is president-elect of the guild and will be installed in May as president for the 2002-03 term. She has served on the board for two terms and was chairman of the Symphony Ball in 1994.
Walton has had a lifelong involvement with the Chautauqua Institution and has been a summer resident for many years. In 1986 she and her husband participated in the Soviet-American Conference in Riga, Latvia, and the Soviet Union through the Chautauqua Institution, State Department and Eisenhower Institute. She is a graduate of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the oldest book club in American. She a member of the Chautauqua Women's Club and is on the Chautauqua Development Fund.
She also is a member of the advisory committee for Sojourner House and a member of the American Scandinavian Heritage Foundation.
Education: Walton attended college in New York and at Kent State University, then completed studies at the University of Akron Life Span Development and Gerontology Department. She has done music therapy with the elderly. A member of Sigma Phi Omega in gerontology and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, Walton delivered the paper, "Music and Alzheimer's" at the annual conference in 1995.
The Waltons have two children.