Greenhill School Announces 2023 Alumni Awards

10/5/2023

The Greenhill Alumni Board is proud to announce their 2023 Alumni Award recipients: John Eisenberg ’75 as Distinguished Alumnus and Pamela Beck Pluss ’81 as the Alumni Service Award honoree. The two graduates will be celebrated on Friday, October 13, 2023, during Homecoming evening festivities.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is designated for alumni who have achieved prominence in their field through their personal and professional endeavors. The award honors a graduate whose outstanding character, accomplishments, and service embody the characteristics and spirit of Greenhill’s mission to prepare and inspire our students to lead authentic, purposeful lives.

Established in 2020, the Alumni Service Award honors graduates for outstanding service and dedication to Greenhill School. Honorees demonstrate a strong loyalty to Greenhill, exceptional contributions of time and effort, and a personal commitment to advancing the School’s mission.

PAMELA BECK PLUSS ’81: ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD HONOREE

Pam Beck Pluss ’81 served the Greenhill community for nearly 20 years, volunteering across campus, holding leadership roles, and enhancing the arts experience for all students through the Cultural Arts Committee. 

As a student, Pam was an active artist and athlete, attending the ISAS Fine Arts Festival and playing volleyball, soccer, softball, and track. She was named the Helen Misura Award winner in 1973. Pam, whose heart is drawn to service, found an opportunity to reengage with her alma mater when her two children, Molly '13 and Henry '15, became students at Greenhill. She served as a room parent, senior class head parent representative, and Parents’ Association Parliamentarian. Following in her mother’s footsteps, in 2005 she became the Parents’ Association President, leading parent volunteers throughout the school year.

Deeply devoted to the arts and their transformative impact on students, she joined the Cultural Arts Committee in 2001, which creates opportunities for Greenhill students to experience a wide variety of engaging arts experiences both on campus and around Dallas.

In 2005, Pam was elected to the Board of Trustees, where she supported strategic board initiatives and served in leadership roles for more than five years. She also chaired the parent ISAS Fine Arts Festival host committee when the festival was held at Greenhill in 2013.

Today, Pam continues to serve the Dallas community in volunteer and leadership roles at organizations including Bridge Lacrosse, Temple Emanu-El, and Aurora Dallas.

Pam received her MBA from SMU, and she holds a BA in mathematics from Colorado College. An avid tennis and pickleball player, Pam lives in Dallas with her husband Steven. 

JOHN EISENBERG ’75: DISTINGUISED ALUMNUS

John Eisenberg ’75, author and longtime sports columnist, has written 11 best-selling books, including his most recent release Rocket Men: The Black Quarterbacks Who Revolutionized Pro Football, a history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL.

John has been writing books since 1996 about topics including the NFL’s tenuous early years, the history of the Baltimore Orioles, his experience as a young fan of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s, the tragic breakdown of the horse Barbaro, and an outrageous North-South horse race that captivated the nation in 1823.

During his years at Greenhill, John was an Evergreen newspaper staff member, athlete, and student council representative. John graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and began his journalism career at the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald in 1979. He joined the staff of The Baltimore Sun in 1984 where he won nearly two dozen writing awards over a quarter-century. In addition to the hometown Orioles, Ravens, and Terrapins, he covered major events like the World Series, the Masters, Final Four, the World Cup, Super Bowls, and the Olympics. His work for The Sun took him to 41 states and 10 countries.

John left newspapers in 2007 to focus on his books, but continued to write daily about Baltimore sports including a stint as the Ravens columnist from 2012 through 2022. He has also written for Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian Magazine, and Details, and taught an upper-level sports journalism class at Towson University.

John lives in Baltimore with his wife of 38 years, Mary Wynne Eisenberg. They have two grown children and two grandchildren.

The Greenhill Alumni Board is thrilled to honor these two alumni, and we look forward to a community celebration at Homecoming. To learn more about our honorees and to nominate an alumnus for our awards, please visit our website.

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