Former U.S. Senator, Richard Lugar ’54

Sen. Richard Lugar ’54 has won the prestigious 2016 Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.  The Fulbright Prize is named in honor of another illustrious Pembrokian, the late Sen. J. William Fulbright 1925.

20 Year-old Bill Fulbright as a Pembroke first year, 1925

The prize is awarded by the Fulbright Society for distinction in any field which exemplifies the ideals of Sen. Fulbright in promoting understanding and peaceful dialogue among nations, and the Fulbright scholarship program, which is the largest educational and cultural exchange program in history

The inaugural Fulbright Prize was awarded to former South African President Nelson Mandela in 1993. Other Fulbright laureates include former Pres. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Bill and Melinda Gates, Desmond Tutu, Vaclav Havel, Colin Powell, and Kofi Annan.

As many Pembrokians know, both Sen. Fulbright and Dick are giants both of modern American foreign policy and of the U.S. Senate, both having served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

At a ceremony at The George Washington University on November 10, Dick recalled his long friendship with Sen. Fulbright, a friendship initiated at Pembroke.

In 1954, I was fortunate to receive a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University.  I chose Pembroke College, where during my first year, I was the only American in attendance.  Soon after I arrived at Pembroke, my tutor in politics, the Master of Pembroke, R.B. McCallum, told me about his tutorial work with Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas.

Emboldened by Master McCallum’s Fulbright stories, I decided to write to Senator Fulbright.  He was in the midst of an embattled relationship with Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, and he shared with me his thoughts about the McCarthy era in a series of letters as our correspondence expanded.  I was deeply moved that he took the time to write to me then and during my Mayoralty and Senate careers.

In his acceptance speech, Dick particularly focused on the importance of Pembroke to both his life and to that of Sen. Fulbright.

Like Senator Fulbright, I discovered the extraordinary challenges and opportunities of international education at Pembroke College — my first trip outside of the United States.  The parameters of my imagination expanded enormously during this time, as I gained a sense of how large the world was, how many talented people there were, and how many opportunities one could embrace.

He was especially generous to me when I became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in 1985 for the first time.  He wrote: “It is an unusual coincidence that two Rhodes men from Pembroke should be Chairmen of the Committee.”   

Click here for the full text of Dick remarks.

Sen. Lugar, former Master Roger Bannister, and Sen. Fulbright at Pembroke, 1990

Dick represented Indiana in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2013 and was the longest-serving senator in Indiana history.  Prior to his Senate service, he was mayor of Indianapolis from 1968 to 1976.  He currently serves as president and chairman of the Lugar Center in Washington, DC, and as chairman of the Pembroke College Foundation.