Former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, a member of the Denison University Class of 1954 and the Board of Trustees, as well as president of the Lugar Center and distinguished scholar at Indiana University, has received the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.
The honor, which is awarded only once every two years, recognizes those who have brought about significant lifetime achievements in international understanding, peace and security.
Previous recipients have included Bill and Melinda Gates, Doctors Without Borders, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.
The 18th recipient of the award, Lugar was honored on November 10, 2016, at the Fulbright Association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.
“Richard Lugar epitomizes Denison values, including those of service and active citizenship,” said Denison University President Adam Weinberg. “His bipartisan example and embrace of statesmanship are especially relevant lessons for us today. This honor, which commends Sen. Lugar’s lifelong work in the global realm, is incredibly well-deserved and a reminder of the necessity of international cooperation.”
Lugar is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the American Foreign Service Association Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award. Her Majesty The Queen of England bestowed upon Senator Lugar the rank of honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in honor of his work to make the world more secure from weapons of mass destruction and his commitment to the U.S.-U.K. alliance.
A Rhodes Scholar, he has given more than 30 years of public service as a representative of Indiana in the U.S. Senate, during which time he was often heralded for crossing the political aisle in order to create bipartisan collaboration. One such collaborative effort came when Lugar teamed up with Sen. Sam Nunn to create the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program in the Soviet Union. The program was so successful at reducing nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons there, that Congress expanded the program globally. Lugar is currently the president of the Lugar Center, an organization aimed at educating policy makers and the public on world issues, such as food and energy security, global development, bipartisan politics, and the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Denison’s Richard G. Lugar Program in Politics and Public Service — which affords students opportunities to explore careers in public policy and government through coursework, internships, and visits to campus by former members of Congress — is named in his honor. And the Richard G. Lugar Symposium in Public Policy at Denison, a prestigious speaker series that brings prominent public servants and opinion leaders to campus to address issues of national and international concern, was established through gifts from members of the Class of 1954 to honor their distinguished classmate.