Three to receive HAA medals

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has announced the recipients of the 2007 Harvard Medal: Phyllis Keller B.F. ’70, Carl H. Pforzheimer III A.B. ’58, M.B.A. ’63, and Richard Menschel M.B.A. ’59. First given in 1981, the principal objective of the awarding of the Harvard Medal is to recognize extraordinary service to the University. Extraordinary service can be in as many different areas of University life as can be imagined, including teaching, fundraising, administration, management, generosity, leadership, innovation, or labors in the vineyards. Interim President Derek Bok will present the medals during the annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association on the afternoon of Commencement, June 7.

For more than 20 years, Keller was a “principal custodian of quality in FAS [Faculty of Arts and Sciences],” noted an FAS dean. She was widely recognized as “tough, good-humored, terribly smart, and entirely devoted to the academic side of FAS administration,” according to HAA.

A Bunting Institute Fellow in 1969-70, Keller eventually joined the staff of the dean of FAS. Within a few years Keller became the principal academic planner and facilitator of the faculty. This position included recruitment, ad hoc committees, and aspects of curriculum and finances. She was the senior administrative right hand to three deans: Henry Rosovsky, A. Michael Spence, and Jeremy R. Knowles. From 1994 to 1997 she was senior associate dean for academic affairs of FAS.

She is also a distinguished scholar and the co-author of “Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America’s University” (2002) and author of “Getting to the Core: Curricular Reform at Harvard” (1982). Keller is a graduate of Barnard College (B.A. ’50), Columbia University (M.A. ’51), and the University of Pennsylvania (M.A. ’63, Ph.D. ’69).

As an elected director and past president of HAA, Carl H. Pforzheimer III helped transform the organization into one that is reconnecting more alumni with one another than ever before. He is currently chairman of the Committee to Nominate Overseers and Elected Directors and former chairman of the HAA Shared Interest Groups Ad Hoc Committee and the Alumni Awards Committee.

He has been a staunch advocate for sustaining the College’s financial aid policies and strengthening the University Libraries. A member of the Library Development Committee, he is also a member of the FAS Financial Aid Council. Pforzheimer has served on several University Visiting Committees, including University Resources and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He was also a member of the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) advisory board of the Program in Nonprofit Policy and Leadership. A class chair leader at the Harvard Business School (HBS) for the Non-Reunion Gift Committee and the Reunion Fund Committee, Pforzheimer served as vice president and as a member of the board of managers for the Harvard Club of New York City.

He is manager of Carl H. Pforzheimer & Co. LLC, a New York investment-banking firm established by his grandfather in 1902. He is also manager of CHIPCO Asset Management LLC and director of Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp.

Active in his community, he is a longtime board member of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, formerly serving as chairman. He is also a member of the board of trustees for the National Humanities Center, the New York Public Library, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is former president of the Scarsdale Board of Education.

According to the HAA, Richard L. Menschel is “unequalled in the breadth of his involvement across the University.” An alumnus of HBS, he has been a dedicated, longtime citizen of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). His activities at the School include serving as a current member of the Dean’s Council and the Leadership Council. He chaired the School’s Capital Campaign Committee during the last campaign and received the HSPH Volunteer Leadership Award.

Menschel’s activities at the University include past service on the Visiting Committee at HBS and its Campaign Advisory Committee. In 1994, he received the HBS Alumni Achievement Award. He is a member of the Harvard University Art Museums’ Director’s Advisory Council, as well as the Museums’ Collections Committee. He has endowed a curatorship in photography at the Fogg Art Museum. Additionally, he is a member of the Committee on University Resources and, from 1992 to 1999, he served as national co-chair of the University Campaign.

Menschel is engaged in a variety of civic activities beyond Harvard, including serving as a trustee (and chairman emeritus) of the Hospital for Special Surgery — the oldest orthopedic hospital in the country — and as board vice president and trustee of the Morgan Library and Museum. He is president and CEO of the HWG Fund, and is a member of the New York City Panel for Educational Policy (a position appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg).

In 1959, Menschel began working for Goldman Sachs and is now a senior director at the company. He is also a former board member of T. Rowe Price Group Inc.

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