University Times

The nominating committee of the Board of Trustees last week recommended three alumni — Steven C. Beering, J. Roger Glunt and Dick Thornburgh — as candidates for election as emeritus trustees of the board. The full board will vote on the nominations Oct. 31.

• Beering is president emeritus and professor of pharmacology at Purdue and professor of medicine at Indiana University. He served as Purdue’s president from 1983 until 2000.

Since 2002, he has been a member of the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation, serving as chair since 2006.

Beering earned both his BS and medical degrees at Pitt. He established the Beering Scholarship Fund in the School of Medicine.

He received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Pitt in 1998, when he delivered the commencement address. He also received the Pitt Bicentennial Medallion of Distinction in 1987 and the Trustee Medallion earlier this year.

Beering served as a Pitt trustee 2000-2008.

• Glunt is president of Glunt Development Co. and Jayar Construction Co. and vice president of Pitt Properties Real Estate. He also is a trustee of the National Housing Endowment, the philanthropic arm of the National Association of Home Builders, serving as chair of the endowment for eight years.

Glunt earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree at Pitt. He was an alumni trustee, 1997-2005, and is past president, director emeritus and a life member of the Pitt Alumni Association.

He was awarded the Trustee Medallion in 2005, and was named a Distinguished Alumni Fellow in 2006.

Glunt established the Nancy Glunt Hoffman Memorial Fund to honor his late sister, a 1963 alumna of Pitt’s School of Nursing.

He was named the Pitt Alumni Association Volunteer of the Year for 2000, and received the Honorary Alumni Award from the School of Nursing in 2002 and the Alumni of Distinction Award from the Pitt Band Council in 2003.

• Thornburgh, now with the law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, served as Pennsylvania governor, 1979-1987, and U.S. attorney general, 1988-91. He was a founding member of the National Organization on Disability and played a major role in the enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act. He and his wife, Ginny, established Pitt’s Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy.

In 1998, he donated his personal documents, photographs and audio and video recordings to create the Dick Thornburgh Archive Collection, housed in Hillman Library’s Dick Thornburgh Room, which was dedicated in 2007.

 During his terms as governor, Thornburgh served as an ex officio trustee. He rejoined the board in 2000, serving until June 2008. 

Thornburgh, who graduated from Pitt’s School of Law, received an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Pitt in 1984.

He is a 2000 Legacy Laureate, a Legacy Gallery honoree and a 2006 Distinguished Alumni Fellow at Pitt. This year, he received the Trustee Medallion for his service to Pitt’s board.