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September 3, 2003 When a dozen members of the Fletcher Class of 1947, along with half a dozen spouses, got together in September 1997 for a celebration of our 50th reunion, we had big things in mind. We were the first class to hold its 50th reunion – or, as far as I know, any reunion, to coincide with the School’s Convocation in the fall, when it would not compete with graduation activities, and we were intent on trying to set a good example. As far as any of us were aware, no members of our class were now, or ever had been, multi or mega millionaires, so we couldn’t do very much for the School in that way. What we came up with was a concept of giving and devotion to the School that we put into practice and have done our best to encourage other classes to emulate – or to surpass! After we worked on our ideas for the few days of our 1997 meeting together, the notion was that if each successive 50th reunion class were to raise a reasonable sum of money, the resulting annual flow of funds would resemble the annual earnings from an endowment. So, while we couldn’t do an endowment, we could hope to be instrumental in simulating one. We set ourselves a target of $100,000 to be raised by our 55th reunion in the fall of 2002, consisting of pledges that could be paid in three years. We decided to dedicate our class gift to the memory of the 20 or so classmates, and two wives, who were with us as students and who had passed away since our days at Fletcher, and I am sure this dedication played an important role in at least some of the individual decisions to make donations. The 1997 group choice was that our gift should be used at the discretion of the Dean to support the School’s work in advancing the Craft of Diplomacy. By the time we met again five years later in September of 2002, some $113,000 had been pledged; today the amount pledged is more than $119,000. In our discussions last year, the 8 of us who were able to attend gave further thought to our gift, including whether we should raise our target and new ideas on how it should be used. We concluded that, broadly consistent with the views we had put forward five years earlier, we would like to see the money used for the creation of a new “Class of 1947 Award”, to be given annually to a Fletcher degree holder, selected by the Dean, who over a long career has advanced the ideals and purposes of the School by contributing in an outstanding manner to the craft of diplomacy and/or to the conduct of international relations in the public or the private sector. With this aim in mind, we also doubled our target to $200,000. And so we come to the ceremony today. We of the Class of 1947 are more pleased than I can put into words that Dean Bosworth has chosen Walter B. Wriston to be the first recipient of the Class of 1947 Distinguished Leadership Award. Walt Wriston, a member of the class of 1942, joined what later was called Citibank in 1946, after a year in the State Department and four years in the US Army. In his first ten years he had a variety of assignments in the bank and moved smartly up the ranks, becoming a Vice President at the tender age of 35. He joined the bank’s Overseas Division in 1956 and continued his rapid move upward, becoming head of the Overseas Division of this most international of all US banks in 1959 (at 40) and making Executive Vice President in 1960. Seven years later, he became President and Chief Executive, and three years after that also became Chairman. Walt retired in 1984, after 17 years as CEO of Citibank. During much of that time, Citibank was the largest bank in the world in point of assets, and it was certainly one of the most influential and public spirited banks of any size. Just one example that I happen to know about at fairly close range. When Mexico defaulted on its external debt in 1982, a number of other countries quickly followed, and there was a real danger of an international financial catastrophe. In that situation, Citibank under Mr. Wriston’s leadership served as the central coordinating point among the hundreds of banks all over the world that had debts outstanding to many developing countries. Arrangements were made, not to bail the banks out, but to get them to increase their loans to those developing countries that were in a financial relationship with the IMF. It took a lot of hard work and the sort of leadership that inspires confidence and a willingness to follow. Walter Wriston and his team at Citibank gave that leadership month in and month out, year in and year out. Mr. Wriston also served, and serves, on a number of business and public institutions. After retirement, he continued many interests, and published two books Accordingly, it gives me great pleasure, and is a high honor, to present the first Class of 1947 Distinguished Leadership Award to Walter B. Wriston, of the class of 1942. The citation reads as follows: “For advancing the School’s founding ideals and purposes during a lifetime of significant contributions to the American banking system and to the global economy.” |
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2002 The Fletcher School, Tufts
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