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Reynold Levy, a distinguished figure in public service and the arts, will deliver the Commencement address on Sunday, May 19, at 10 a.m. in front of Old West on the John Dickinson campus. Levy also will receive an honorary doctorate.

 

For more than 10 years, Levy has served as president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the home of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic and The Juilliard School. His career in public service also includes leadership of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. He was an AT&T senior officer in charge of government relations; president of the AT&T Foundation; executive director of the 92nd Street YMCA, which provides programming in the arts, Jewish life and education, health, fitness and travel; and staff director of the task force on the New York City fiscal crisis.

 

Additionally, Levy has served as a consultant, volunteer and board member of numerous nonprofit organizations and companies. He currently serves on the board of overseers of the IRC; as a trustee of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Charles H. Revson Foundation; and as member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Association. He has written and spoken about philanthropy, the performing arts, humanitarian causes and nonprofit leadership and management. He has taught at the Harvard Business School, Columbia and New York universities and at The City University of New York.

 

During the 2013 Commencement ceremony, Levy will receive an honorary doctorate of public service. Honorary degrees also will be conferred on Aegean prehistorian Malcolm H. Wiener; German educator Wilfried Müller; and Dickinson alumnus, real-estate developer and philanthropist Samuel G. Rose '58.

 

Wiener will receive an honorary doctorate of archaeology. He is founder of the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP), the world's largest funder of archaeological fieldwork and research in Europe's earliest civilizations, the Minoan and Mycenaean. Thanks to support from Wiener and INSTAP, Dickinson has privileged access to Mycenae, one of the most important archaeological sites worldwide, located about 60 miles southwest of Athens. Each year, students and alumni participate in the Mycenae excavations and receive exceptional field-training and research opportunities.

 

Wiener is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has written extensively on the Eastern Mediterranean world in the Bronze Age; has published articles on economics, foreign affairs and antiquities law; and has written a column for Newsday.

 

Müller will receive an honorary doctorate of liberal education. He served as rector of the University of Bremen, Dickinson's host institution in Germany, and helped establish an agreement that gives priority consideration to Dickinson applicants who pursue master's degrees in five fields of study at the University of Bremen. In 2012, Bremen was named a University of Excellence, an honor reserved for Germany's leading institutions, and Müller was instrumental in securing the recognition and the accompanying financial reward of more than $1.2 million in research funding.

 

Rose will receieve an honorary doctorate of philanthropy. Rose and his wife, Julie Walters, recently gifted Dickinson with $6 million to construct the Durden Athletic Training Center at Biddle Field in honor of retiring president William G. Durden '71, and his wife, Dr. Elke Durden. Longtime supporters of Dickinson, Rose and Walters also recently gifted the Sam Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism, which will be presented at Commencement to a leading environmental advocate; and the Samuel G. Rose '58 scholarship for economically disadvantaged students from urban areas.

 

Rose attended Dickinson on a lacrosse scholarship and was a member of the 1958 National Championship lacrosse team—the college's first and only national-championship team—and was named an All-American lacrosse player in 1956, 1957 and 1958. His career in commercial development, primarily in the Washington-metropolitan area, spans more than four decades. He launched Greenebaum and Rose Associates in 1980 and has since personally overseen the development and management of more than 5 million square feet of office space, including a complex in Union Station that houses CNN, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Department of Education and Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

 

Rose was one of the key participants in the public-private partnership that funded the New York Avenue Metro Station and created NoMa, a vibrant growing neighborhood along Massachusetts Avenue and one of the city's hottest submarkets. In 2010, his work was recognized by the National Capital Area Chapter of the American Planning Association for best practices in urban planning.

 

Continuing a tradition established last year, President Durden will present the Rose-Walters Prize at Commencement. The annual prize of $100,000 includes a short residency during the spring semester. This year's prize will be awarded to former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

 

The first African American to head the EPA, Jackson was named one of Newsweek's Most Important People in 2010 and was featured in Time magazine's 2010 and 2011 lists of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Jackson also was listed in Essence magazine's 40 Women Who Have Influenced the World, and O Magazine recognized her for her work in protecting the nation's air, water and land from pollution that threatens human health.