Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis recognized the achievements of five alumni and a special friend at 4 p.m. May 18 in the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building.
Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor, dean of Arts & Sciences and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, presented Distinguished Alumni Awards to five individuals who have attained distinction in their academic or professional careers and have demonstrated service to their communities and the university.
Macias also presented the Dean’s Medal to Harriet K. Switzer, Ph.D., secretary to Washington University’s board of trustees, for her support and dedication to Arts & Sciences. She is retiring from the university June 30.
The five who received the Distinguished Alumni Award are Mel F. Brown, J.D., (A.B. ’57, J.D. ’61); Alvin Rabushka, Ph.D., (A.B. ’62, M.A. ’66, Ph.D. ’68); Ronald M. Rettner (A.B. ’72); Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D., (A.B. ’67, M.A. ’69); and William Jay Smith (A.B. ’39, M.A. ’41).
After law school, Brown spent 10 years rising through corporate legal ranks. He then became skilled at financial analysis and rose to become president and chief executive officer at ITT Financial Corp.
He also served as president and chief executive officer of Deutsche Financial Services. He chairs Triad Bank, which he and friends launched a year ago in St. Louis.
A former WUSTL trustee, he is a member and past chairman of the Alumni Board of Governors. He helped found the law school’s National Council, co-chaired the school’s Building Through Strength capital campaign and has supported scholarships and many giving programs.
Rabushka is the David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank at Stanford University. He has published more than 20 books on subjects including race and ethnicity, taxation, state and local government finances, and economic development in Israel and Asia.
He helped develop the flat tax — a tax with one rate for all, requiring a postcard-size tax form instead of dozens of forms and replacing thousands of pages of regulations and instructions.
Although the United States hasn’t adopted it yet, 15 countries on three continents have implemented the flat tax based on his work, and several more are considering it.
Rettner, a political science major at WUSTL, earned master’s degrees in business administration and urban planning from Columbia University while managing his family’s real estate business.
Then he attended law school at night while working as a securities analyst for Wood Struthers & Winthrop, co-founding The Vitamin Shoppes and managing real estate.
He is president of Rettner Management Corp., a commercial real estate and investment company.
His family has made possible the Ronald Rettner Earth & Planetary Sciences Library, the Karen and Ronald Rettner Gallery in the Laboratory Sciences Building, the Morris and Marcelle Rettner Career Services Suite and two endowed scholarships.
A scholar and a media presence, sociologist Schwartz shares her research findings with academic and lay communities alike. Her inquiry focuses on what makes relationships durable and fulfilling.
The Clarence Schrag Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington, Schwartz is the author of 14 books. A large study with colleague Philip Blumstein culminated in the book “American Couples: Money, Work and Sex,” which has since been quoted in every major family textbook.
She has more than 40 scholarly articles, often appears on national television, writes columns and articles for magazines, newspapers and online sites and lectures nationally and internationally.
A prodigious poet, translator, literary critic and children’s author, Smith has produced more than 50 books, including “Army Brat,” a highly regarded memoir set between world wars, and “Laughing Time,” a collection of children’s poems.
Regarded as one of the pre-eminent translators of his time, Smith earned degrees in French and has rendered in English the work of poets writing in nine languages.
He has been a Rhodes Scholar, a wartime naval officer, a professor, an elected member of the Vermont legislature and what is now known as U.S. Poet Laureate. His papers, the Smith Collection, are housed in WUSTL’s University Libraries.
Switzer has been secretary to the board of trustees for more than 26 years. Her academic degrees are in philosophy — including her doctorate, for which she worked from French sources, from Fordham University.
A member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart from 1957 to 1980, she was headmistress of Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School, and then president of Maryville College (1970-77), where she oversaw Maryville’s successful transition from a traditional Catholic women’s college to an independent co-educational college, now Maryville University.
As secretary to the board she is responsible to the chancellor for the smooth functioning of an 80-member board and its 13 standing committees.
Editor’s note: Photos of the recipients are available upon request.