Pitt Board of Trustees Nominating Committee Advances Three Candidates for Election as Emeritus Trustees

PITTBURGH-The Nominating Committee of the University of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees today nominated three Pitt alumni-Steven C. Beering, J. Roger Glunt, and Dick Thornburgh-as candidates for election as emeritus trustees of the board. The full board will vote on the nominations at its Oct. 31 meeting.

Beering is president emeritus and professor of pharmacology at Purdue University-where he was president from 1983 until 2000, when he retired from that position-and he also is professor of medicine at Indiana University. Prior to becoming president of Purdue, he served for a decade as dean of medicine and director of the Indiana University Medical Center. Since 2002, he has been a member of the National Science Board (NSB), the governing board of the National Science Foundation, and has served as NSB chair since 2006. The NSB also serves as the national science policy advisor to the President of the United States.

Beering has held numerous other prestigious national offices, including chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of American Universities and former regent of the National Library of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine.

Beering was elected a Pitt trustee in 2000 and served until June 2008. During his tenure, he was a member of the Executive Committee, chaired the Health Sciences Committee, and served on the Academic Affairs/Libraries Committee, the Institutional Advancement Committee, and the Ad Hoc Risk and Compliance Committee. He was chair of the School of Medicine Board of Visitors and a member of the Graduate School of Public Health visiting board at Pitt. He also established the Beering Scholarship Fund in the Pitt School of Medicine.

Beering earned both his Bachelor of Science and medical degrees at Pitt, in 1954 and 1958, respectively. He has received eight honorary degrees, including the Doctor of Science degree from Pitt in 1998, when he delivered the University's commencement address. Beering received the Philip S. Hench Distinguished Alumnus Award from Pitt's Medical Alumni Association in 1983 and the Pitt Bicentennial Medallion of Distinction in 1987. Pitt named him a Distinguished Alumni Fellow in 1996 and a Legacy Laureate in 2002, and he is an honoree in the Pitt Alumni Hall Legacy Gallery. In recognition of and appreciation for his service on Pitt's Board of Trustees, Beering was awarded the Trustee Medallion earlier this year.

Glunt is president of both Glunt Development Company Inc. and Jayar Construction Company Inc. and vice president of Pitt Properties Real Estate Inc. He also serves as a trustee of the National Housing Endowment, the philanthropic arm of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), and served as chair of the endowment for eight years. Glunt also served as president of the Builders Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh (BAMP), the Pennsylvania Builders Association (PBA), and the NAHB. In addition, he was a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh and a board member of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, where he chaired the Project Review Committee.

Glunt earned the Bachelor of Business Administration degree at Pitt in 1960. He has been actively involved in the life of the University for more than two decades, having served as an alumni trustee from 1997 to 2005 and as past president, director emeritus, and life member of the Pitt Alumni Association. He currently serves as a community representative to the Institutional Advancement and Student Affairs committees of the board; chair of the School of Nursing Board of Visitors and of the Nursing Advisory Committee for the University's $2 billion Building Our Future Together capital campaign; as a member of the School of Information Sciences visiting board; and as a University Director of the UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside board. In recognition of and appreciation for his service on Pitt's Board of Trustees, Glunt was awarded the Trustee Medallion in 2005, and he was named a Distinguished Alumni Fellow in 2006.

Glunt established the Nancy Glunt Hoffman Memorial Fund to honor his sister, a 1963 alumnus of Pitt's School of Nursing who waged a courageous battle with cancer, and to help position the University as a model in oncology nursing. He was named the Pitt Alumni Association Volunteer of the Year for 2000, and he received the Honorary Alumni Award from the Pitt School of Nursing in 2002 and the Alumni of Distinction Award from the Pitt Band Council in 2003.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education gave Glunt the 2004 Robert L. Payton Award for Voluntary Service. Also in 2004, he received the Hearthstone Builder Lifetime Public Service Award. He has been inducted into the National Housing Hall of Fame and was named Builder of the Year both by BAMP and, twice, by PBA.

Thornburgh, currently of counsel with the law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP, served as the Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987 and, from 1988 to 1991, as Attorney General of the United States under two Presidents, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He was, in 1992-93, the highest-ranking American at the United Nations as Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management. Thornburgh was a founding member of the National Organization on Disability and played a major role in the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In 1998, Thornburgh donated to the University a comprehensive collection of documents, thousands of photographs, and many hours of audio and video recordings that encompass his career to create the Dick Thornburgh Archive Collection. That collection is now housed in the Pitt Hillman Library's Dick Thornburgh Room, which was dedicated in 2007, the same year that the Dick Thornburg Forum in Law and Public Policy was established to provide programs and activities based on his papers, contributions, and interests.

During his two terms as governor, Thornburgh served as an Ex Officio Trustee of the University, and he rejoined the board in 2000 after his election as a trustee, serving until June 2008. He was a member of the Academic Affairs/Libraries, Health Sciences, and Student Affairs committees of the board. He also served on the Boards of Visitors for the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the School of Law, and he continues to serve on the University Library System visiting board.

His disability advocacy earned him the 2001 George Bush Medal, and he and his wife, Ginny, received the Henry B. Betts Award from the American Association of People with Disabilities in 2003. With funds from the latter award, the Thornburghs helped establish Pitt's Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy.

Thornburgh, who graduated from Pitt's School of Law in 1957, has received honorary degrees more than 30 colleges and universities, including the Doctor of Public Service degree from Pitt in 1984. He is a 2000 Legacy Laureate, a Legacy Gallery honoree, and a 2006 Distinguished Alumni Fellow at Pitt. This year, Dick and Ginny Thornburgh were inducted into Pitt's Cathedral of Learning Society, and he received the Trustee Medallion in recognition of and appreciation for his service to Pitt's Board of Trustees.

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10/16/08/tmw