Former Fed chairman to receive honorary degree

Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve System from 1979-87, will visit the UD campus on Monday, April 30, for two special events, both open to the public. During the morning, he will deliver the 2001 Hutchinson Lecture, and during the afternoon, he will be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University.

Volcker will deliver the Hutchinson Lecture on "Globalization and the World of Finance" at 11 a.m. in Mitchell Hall. His talk will be followed by a panel discussion with Edward G. Boehne, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia from 1981 until his retirement last year; U.S. Rep. Michael Castle; and Anthony M. Santomero, current president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

At 4 p.m. in Mitchell Hall, Volcker will be awarded an honorary degree and will give a talk on "The Role of Public Service in an Increasingly Privatized World." A reception will be held after the ceremony in the Chaplin Tyler Atrium of MBNA America Hall.

Volcker served as under secretary for monetary affairs of the U.S. Treasury from 1969-74 and as president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1975-79, when he was appointed chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. During his tenure as chairman, he is credited with the leading role in ending a period of high and rising inflation and restoring a base for sustained growth. He retired in 1987 and was succeeded by the current chairman, Alan Greenspan.

Volcker is Frederick H. Schultz Professor Emeritus of International Economic Policy at Princeton University and is the coauthor of Changing Fortunes: The World's Money and the Threat to American Leadership.

Currently, he serves as director of, or consultant to, a number of corporations and nonprofit organizations. He is the North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission, chairman of the Board of Trustees of International House and co-chairman of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps. He also is a director of the Prudential Insurance Co. and an overseer of TIAA-CREF, the leading private retirement system in the United States.

A native of Cape May, N.J., Volcker earned his bachelor's degree at Princeton University and a master's degree in political economy and government at the Harvard University Graduate School of Public Administration. He attended the London School of Economics as a postgraduate student.

The Hutchinson Lecture series was established in 1990 to honor the distinguished career of Harry D. Hutchinson, professor emeritus of economics at UD, who retired in 1989 after 30 years of teaching. His textbook, Money, Banking and the U.S. Economy, has served as the foundation for many students' introduction to financial institutions.