Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬

Navy Secretary Wins Eliot Award

Richard Danzig ’65 is first recipient of medal honoring Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬'s spiritual godfather.

December 1, 2011

National security expert Richard Danzig ’65 is the first recipient of the Thomas Lamb Eliot Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬ Graduate. His contributions to his field and commitment to public service exemplify the spirit and integrity of T.L. Eliot, who encouraged Simeon and Amanda Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬ to found the college.

Danzig served as Secretary of the Navy during the Clinton administration and is the chairman of the board for the Center for a New American Security. He serves as a trustee of the RAND Corporation and is a member of the Defense Policy Board. Danzig holds degrees in political science from Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬, a BPhil and a DPhil from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a JD from Yale Law School. He was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron White, taught at both Harvard and Stanford, and spent two years as a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he served as a senior adviser to Senator Barack Obama.

At his  during Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬'s centennial celebration, Danzig lauded the benefits of a Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬ education. “Built into the DNA of Å·ÃÀÒ»¼¶Æ¬ is . . . the gift of Western culture,” he said. “That expanded to become global culture, a richness of thought that constitutes our heritage. Through this institution we got a chance to see it and see it refracted through the prism of all the different minds of the people who were here with us.”

Tags: Alumni, Awards & Achievements, Institutional