Richard G. Darman ’60 (1943 – 2008)

Under President Nixon, Darman served as an assistant to Elliot Richardson, a 1937 Rivers alumnus, at the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare, Defense and Justice, and he was President Ford's assistant secretary of commerce.

As President Reagan's deputy secretary of the Treasury, Darman won the Treasury's highest award - the Alexander Hamilton Medal- in recognition of his contributions to the 1986 tax reform, the 1985 Plaza Accord and the 1987 Louvre Accord. He has also received honorary doctoral degrees in the sciences, business and law.

Darman said the Rivers Alumni Excellence Award held special significance.

"Rivers required me to sample a much wider range of activities than most schools would have done - and then supported me in these diverse pursuits. I doubt I would have had the courage and confidence to pursue careers in three very different domains - government, business and academe - if it had not been for the strong, early encouragement I gained from Rivers teachers and coaches.

“So I was especially honored to have this opportunity to return to the Rivers community and share in Rivers’ increasing success," he added.

A 1964 Harvard alumnus and 1967 graduate of the Harvard Business School, Darman was a lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1977 to 1980 and was a longtime member of the Overseers' Visiting Committee.

He was a public service professor at the School of Government. In recognition of his out­ standing teaching and distinguished public service, Darman received Harvard 's 1999 Carballo Award. He was a partner at The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm with headquarters in Washington, D.C.; a director of several corporations; and a trustee of The Council for Excellence in Government and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.