Bill Durden ’71 Honored for His International Achievements

Bill Durden

Bill Durden ’71 returned to campus in November for the Clark Forum event "Presidential Dialogues: Lessons in Leadership." Photo by Dan Loh.

Johns Hopkins University awards Dickinson’s former president its Global Achievement Award

by Tony Moore

Bill Durden ’71, Dickinson's president from 1999 to 2013, was recently honored by another of his alma maters, Johns Hopkins University, with its Global Achievement Award.

This prestigious award, bestowed by Hopkins’ Alumni Association, honors graduates who “epitomize the Johns Hopkins tradition of excellence and bring credit to the university in the international arena through their professional achievements or humanitarian service.”

“I am honored to receive this recognition from Johns Hopkins University, an institution that I respect highly and one that certainly has abundant graduates across the university who are globally engaged and from whom it could choose,” says Durden, who received both a master’s and a doctorate degree from the university.

Durden is currently a joint-appointment professor at Hopkins’s School of Education and serves as the president of the International University Alliance, after serving previously as its chief global engagement officer. He also has been dean of the UK’s School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Bath Spa University.

“Of course, I attribute Dickinson—another institution that I respect highly—with contributing significantly to my receiving this award,” Durden says, who will be celebrated at an Oct. 7 dinner. “It was the Dickinson faculty who encouraged me not only to study in Freiburg for a year as a student but also urged me to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship. The Dickinson global mindset and lifestyle implanted itself in me early and never left—to my great benefit professionally and personally.” 

Learn more about the scholarship Durden established at Dickinson with his wife, Elke.

TAKE THE NEXT STEPS 

Published May 9, 2022