Two graduates of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs who have devoted their careers to public service
have been selected as the 2007 recipients of the University's top
honors for alumni.
Paul Sarbanes, a member of Princeton's class of 1954 and a five-term
U.S. senator from Maryland, has been chosen for the Woodrow Wilson
Award. Julius Coles, a 1966 graduate alumnus who had a 28-year career
with the U.S. Agency for International Development and is now president
of Africare, will be awarded the James Madison Medal.
They will receive their awards and deliver addresses on campus during Alumni Day activities on Saturday, Feb. 24.
The Wilson Award is bestowed annually upon an undergraduate alumnus or
alumna whose career embodies the call to duty in Wilson's famous
speech, "Princeton in the Nation's Service." Also a Princeton graduate,
Wilson served as president of the University and as president of the
United States.
The Madison Medal is named for the fourth president of the United
States and the person many consider Princeton's first graduate student.
Established by the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni, it is
presented each year by the University to an alumnus or alumna of the
Graduate School who has had a distinguished career, advanced the cause
of graduate education or achieved an outstanding record of public
service.
On Alumni Day, Coles will present "An Examination of the Prospects for
Africa in the New Millennium" at 9:15 a.m., and Sarbanes will speak on
"Reflections on a Life in Public Service" at 10:30 a.m. Both talks will
take place in Richardson Auditorium of Alexander Hall.
Wilson Award winner
"[Sarbanes] epitomizes 'Princeton in the Nation's Service,'" wrote one
alumnus in nominating him for the Wilson Award. "When his country
needed him, he was the right man in the right place at the right time.
He is the longest serving and much beloved senator in Maryland history.
He is an inspiration to all of us, and he proves that politics can
indeed be an honorable profession."
Sarbanes earned his A.B. from the Wilson School in 1954 and was that
year's recipient of the Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general
distinction conferred on an undergraduate. Selected for a prestigious
Rhodes Scholarship, he studied at Oxford University for three years,
then earned a law degree from Harvard University.
He practiced law in Baltimore, and began his career in government
service with election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966. He
was elected to the first of his three terms in the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1970. Sarbanes was elected to the U.S. Senate in
1976; in 2000, he made Maryland history by winning re-election to an
unprecedented fifth term. He did not seek a sixth term this fall, but
his son John, a 1984 Princeton alumnus, won election to his former
Maryland House seat.
Sarbanes is perhaps best known for his participation in the Watergate
hearings as a member of the House Judiciary Committee and for the
legislation he shepherded through the Senate banking committee to
reform the accounting industry and restore investor confidence in the
wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, signed
into law in 2002, is considered the most important securities
legislation since the original federal securities laws of the 1930s.
Sarbanes also is a senior member of the Senate foreign relations,
budget and joint economic committees. He served as a member of
Princeton's board of trustees from 2002 to 2006.
Madison medalist
Coles came to Princeton after earning a B.A. from Morehouse College. He
completed his MPA in the Wilson School in 1966, and joined the U.S.
Agency for International Development. Over the next 28 years, he saw
duty in several Asian and African countries and worked on a range of
programs, including agriculture, health care, education and HIV/AIDS
prevention.
Upon retiring from USAID in 1994 with the rank of career minister,
Coles became director of Howard University's new Ralph J. Bunche
International Affairs Center. In 1997, Morehouse College recruited
Coles for a similar project -- to help develop its Andrew Young Center
for International Affairs. He served as the center's director until
2002, when he became president of Africare.
Africare is a leading nonprofit organization specializing in aid to
Africa. Its programs address needs in the principal areas of food
security and agriculture as well as health and HIV/AIDS, reaching
families and communities in 26 countries in every major region of
sub-Saharan Africa. Since joining the organization, Coles has been
heavily involved in expanding its financial resources.
He also has remained active in Princeton activities as a longstanding
member of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni and the
Association of Black Princeton Alumni. He has been a mentor to many
Wilson School students over the years and, for the past five years, he
has served on the school's advisory council. Last year he co-chaired
the school’s 75th anniversary celebration.
"Before taking on the presidency of Africare, Julius Coles already
enjoyed several highly successful careers," said Dan Lopresti,
president of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni and chair of
the Madison Medal selection committee. "A dedicated public servant,
distinguished educator, role model in the African American community,
loyal Princeton graduate alumnus and generous mentor to current
students, Julius has had an impact that spans continents."
