The Conferring of Honorary Degrees
Lawrence M. Small
Citation Presented by Phillip J. Earenfight
Director, The Trout Gallery and Associate Professor of Art History
Lawrence M. Small, we honor you today as a distinguished leader in the private and non-profit sector, a respected servant to philanthropic and charitable organizations, and the secretary of the world's largest museum and research institution.
Our commencement speaker served Citicorp/Citibank for twenty-seven years, rising to the level of Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. During your tenure, Citicorp/Citibank became the largest banking institution in the United States. Prior to your Vice-Chairmanship, you served as the company's senior executive in charge of Commercial Banking, Information Technology, Human Resources and Worldwide Corporate Banking.
In 1991, you continued your work in the financial sector, accepting the position of President and Chief Operating Officer of Fannie Mae, the world's largest housing finance company.
After nine years of distinguished leadership at Fannie Mae, you left the world of banking and finance to assume leadership of The Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum and research complex. Your appointment as Secretary of the Smithsonian represents a new direction in leadership for the institution, one that will ensure its continued success and unparalleled service to the public.
Born in New York City, you enrolled at Brown University, where you studied Spanish literature and guitar, earning highest honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Throughout your career, your interests in culture and the arts has remained an important priority and you have served on a number of nonprofit boards including: the National Building Museum, the Spanish Reparatory Theatre, the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empress in Barcelona, the United States Holocaust Museum Council, the Joffrey Ballet, the American Women's Economic Development Corporation, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Gallery, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Brown University, Morehouse College, among several others.
In an era when museums serve as centers for education, identity, healing and inspiration we are fortunate that the nation's foremost museum complex rests in your guiding hands.
Mr. President, it is an honor to present to you Mr. Lawrence M. Small, for the honorary degree of Doctor of Arts and Sciences.
Conferring of the degree by William G. Durden
President
Lawrence M. Small, upon the recommendation of the Faculty to the Board of Trustees, and by its mandamus, I confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Arts and Sciences, with the rights, privileges, and distinction thereunto appertaining, in token of which I present you with this diploma and cause you to be invested with the hood of Dickinson College appropriate to your degree.
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