University President
University President Dave Frohnmayer’s work is drawing recognition beyond the campus community. Frohnmayer, a former Oregon Attorney General, received the Judge Learned Hand Award for lifetime achievement from the American Jewish Committee Oregon chapter in November.
The award, only the fourth of its kind to be granted by the Oregon chapter, is meant to honor individuals in the legal field for “professional excellence and contributions to the legal community,” according to a press release. The award is not faith-based.
“(Frohnmayer) has been a beacon to the community in the kind of attorney a person can aspire to be and the kind of community member a person can aspire to be,” AJC Area Executive Director Emily Georges Gottfried said.
Prior to his role as University president, Frohnmayer was a member of the state House of Representatives. As attorney general, he won six of seven cases before the US Supreme Court, “the most cases and best record of any contemporary state attorney general,” according to his Web site.
Frohnmayer’s “long list of community service” and years of public service were primary motivations behind the AJC selection committee’s decision to honor him, Gottfried said.
“I was very surprised and privileged to get it,” Frohnmayer said in a telephone interview. “It’s a long-standing award for the American Jewish Committee and it’s a very warm and wonderful experience.”
“I’m happy to say that Dave has been one of Oregon’s leading community citizens for some 30 years,” University law professor Jim Mooney said. Mooney and Frohnmayer have been colleagues since they were on the law school faculty in the 1970s.
The award luncheon was held at the Governor Hotel in Portland where Frohnmayer made his acceptance remarks on situational ethics, social deception and lessons of Machiavelli, topics which he said have a bearing on current events including abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
“Very often we are blind to the temptations and threats in our immediate social environment,” Frohnmayer said.
“This ethical life is hard work,” he said in his remarks at the luncheon, according to a transcript. “Knowing right from wrong requires diligence, self-scrutiny and looking into a very well-lit and refractive mirror.”
The American Jewish Committee is an international think-tank and advocacy organization, according to its Web site. Its mission includes strengthening the basic principles of pluralism and safeguarding the welfare and security of Jews worldwide.