Riepe elected new Trustees chair

The University Board of Trustees named James Riepe, vice chairperson of the Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price investment firm and former head of the Trustees' Investment Board, as its new chairperson this summer. Riepe, 56, graduated from the Wharton School in 1965 and earned a degree from the school's MBA program two years later. He was first elected to a 5-year term as Alumni Trustee in 1990 and began serving another 5-year term as a Term Trustee in 1995. The newly elected Riepe replaces Roy Vagelos, former chief executive officer of the New Jersey-based Merck pharmaceutical and health care company, as chairperson of the Trustees. Vagelos, who had held the position since October 1994, stepped down several months shy of age 70, the required age of retirement for all Trustees. He was also designated an Emeritus Trustee at this summer's meeting. Riepe was both a member of the Trustees' Executive Committee and the chairperson of the Trustees' Audit and Compliance Committee at the time of his election. He previously had served as chairperson of the Alumni Council on Admissions and is currently a member of the Undergraduate Financial Aid Committee and the Agenda for Excellence Council. He was appointed last summer to head the Investment Board, which manages the University's endowment. He and his family have involved themselves in the University financially, as well. In 1989, the James and Gail Riepe Scholarship Fund was created to assist undergraduate students in the Baltimore area. Trustee Richard Worley, a member of the Investment Board and the Audit and Compliance Committee, was named Riepe's replacement as head of the Investment Board. Shortly before adjourning the summer's stated meeting of the Trustees, Riepe briefly addressed the other Trustees and University administrators in attendance, calling his election a "very humbling appointment." He was unavailable for comment this week. During Vagelos' nearly five years as head of the Trustees, he aggressively campaigned to increase the endowment for undergraduate financial aid, and, as evidence of his commitment to increasing research opportunities, pledged two $10 million donations to the University -- one for the creation of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the other to fund an undergraduate program in the molecular life sciences. University President Judith Rodin lauded Vagelos' accomplishments and noted that the former chairperson will not soon be forgotten. "Everywhere is your imprint and your legacy," Rodin told Vagelos at the summer meeting. And Rodin added that it had been her "privilege to work side by side with Roy Vagelos these past five years." Trustee Gloria Chisum, who was re-elected as the board's co-vice chairperson, told her fellow board members that she had "mixed emotions" while reading a resolution recognizing Vagelos' accomplishments and appointing him an Emeritus Trustee. The resolution itself praised Vagelos for his "eagerness to ignite the spark of enthusiasm in others" and saluted him for his "legendary energy." "We know that it gives him genuine joy to walk around campus and know that what is going on in the classrooms, laboratories and libraries is improving both individual lives and society," the resolution reads. But Vagelos -- who called the meeting to order and addressed the board members and administrators first -- would not take credit for the University's recent success. "The University has done exceedingly well and the progress that it has made has made the rest of us look good," Vagelos said at the time.

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