Colin Powell Receives President's Award
Gen. Colin L. Powell, ’58, USA ret. received the President’s Award at the Fourth Annual Presidential Award Dinner, held May 8 at Pier 60 in the Chelsea Piers entertainment complex on the Hudson River. Over 400 City College alumni, friends, faculty and students were on hand to salute General Powell, whom President Williams called one of CCNY’s most distinguished graduates of all time. For the third consecutive year, the gala raised over $1 million.
General Powell, who was born in Harlem and raised in the South Bronx and went on to become the first African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State, spoke movingly of his alma mater and what it had done for him. He also discussed the work of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies, which he founded “to bring a diverse student body together with practitioners, analysts, and faculty experts to consider real world public policy issues.”
Bridging the generations, President Williams spoke about the accomplishments of today’s City College students and faculty and thanked all of the alumni co-chairs for the event, who are listed below, for their support, in particular Josh Weston, who provided a $100,000 challenge gift. This year, City College students received two Goldwater Scholarships and a Fulbright and Soros Scholarship. CCNY faculty received two NSF CAREER Awards for a total of 14, ranking the college first among public institutions in New York State.
In addition, President Williams announced The Campaign for The City College of New York had just passed $200 million. This was also acknowledged the following day in a full-page advertisement in The New York Times celebrating the College’s most dedicated supporters.
Television journalist and talk show hostess Barbara Walters, a member of the Powell Center Advisory Council, was a surprise guest speaker. Ms. Walters shared reminiscences of her first interview with General Powell, expressed admiration for the many CCNY student prize winners at the gala and paid tribute to City College’s mission.
Lev Sviridov, CCNY’s 2005 Rhodes Scholar, who flew in from Oxford, England, where he is working toward his PhD in chemistry, served as master of ceremonies along with Cory Ip ’08, a Powell Fellow who is earning a second undergraduate degree in engineering after graduating from Harvard University.
Honorary Co-Chairs
Joseph H. Flom, Partner, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP
Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, The City University of New York
Jack Rudin, Chairman, Rudin Management Company, Inc.
Sy Sternberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, New York Life Insurance Company
Josh H. Weston, Honorary Chairman, Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Dinner Co-Chairs
Nancy and Frank Avellino,
Maurice Barbash, Barbash Associates, Inc.
Robert B. Catell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KeySpan
Martin Cohen, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Cohen & Steers, Inc.
Alfonso D’Elia, Vice President, Design & Standards, JP Morgan Chase
Fulvio V. Dobrinch, Managing Partner, Galileo Asset Management LLC
Terence A. Elkes, Principal and Co-Owner, Apollo Partners LLC
Joseph L. Fleischer, FAIA, Partner, Polshek Partnership Architects\
Barry H. Garfinkel, Of Counsel, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP
Anne and Arbold Gumowitz
Craig L. Platt
Frank J. Sciame Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sciame Construction
Sam Spata, AIA, Director Management + Operations, HOK International Ltd.
Gen. Colin L. Powell, ’58, USA ret. received the President’s Award at the Fourth Annual Presidential Award Dinner, held May 8 at Pier 60 in the Chelsea Piers entertainment complex on the Hudson River. Over 400 City College alumni, friends, faculty and students were on hand to salute General Powell, whom President Williams called one of CCNY’s most distinguished graduates of all time. For the third consecutive year, the gala raised over $1 million.
General Powell, who was born in Harlem and raised in the South Bronx and went on to become the first African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State, spoke movingly of his alma mater and what it had done for him. He also discussed the work of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies, which he founded “to bring a diverse student body together with practitioners, analysts, and faculty experts to consider real world public policy issues.”
Bridging the generations, President Williams spoke about the accomplishments of today’s City College students and faculty and thanked all of the alumni co-chairs for the event, who are listed below, for their support, in particular Josh Weston, who provided a $100,000 challenge gift. This year, City College students received two Goldwater Scholarships and a Fulbright and Soros Scholarship. CCNY faculty received two NSF CAREER Awards for a total of 14, ranking the college first among public institutions in New York State.
In addition, President Williams announced The Campaign for The City College of New York had just passed $200 million. This was also acknowledged the following day in a full-page advertisement in The New York Times celebrating the College’s most dedicated supporters.
Television journalist and talk show hostess Barbara Walters, a member of the Powell Center Advisory Council, was a surprise guest speaker. Ms. Walters shared reminiscences of her first interview with General Powell, expressed admiration for the many CCNY student prize winners at the gala and paid tribute to City College’s mission.
Lev Sviridov, CCNY’s 2005 Rhodes Scholar, who flew in from Oxford, England, where he is working toward his PhD in chemistry, served as master of ceremonies along with Cory Ip ’08, a Powell Fellow who is earning a second undergraduate degree in engineering after graduating from Harvard University.
Honorary Co-Chairs
Joseph H. Flom, Partner, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP
Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, The City University of New York
Jack Rudin, Chairman, Rudin Management Company, Inc.
Sy Sternberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, New York Life Insurance Company
Josh H. Weston, Honorary Chairman, Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Dinner Co-Chairs
Nancy and Frank Avellino,
Maurice Barbash, Barbash Associates, Inc.
Robert B. Catell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KeySpan
Martin Cohen, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Cohen & Steers, Inc.
Alfonso D’Elia, Vice President, Design & Standards, JP Morgan Chase
Fulvio V. Dobrinch, Managing Partner, Galileo Asset Management LLC
Terence A. Elkes, Principal and Co-Owner, Apollo Partners LLC
Joseph L. Fleischer, FAIA, Partner, Polshek Partnership Architects\
Barry H. Garfinkel, Of Counsel, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP
Anne and Arbold Gumowitz
Craig L. Platt
Frank J. Sciame Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sciame Construction
Sam Spata, AIA, Director Management + Operations, HOK International Ltd.
