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Alan R. Griffith ’64, vice chairman of the Bank of New York, is the new chair of Lafayette’s Board of Trustees.
A trustee since 1994, Griffith began his term as chair July 1 (2001), succeeding Lawrence J. Ramer ’50, president of Ramer Equities, Los Angeles, Calif., who retired from the board after 26 years of service, the last nine as chair.
In addition, four alumni have been elected to the board. They are William J. Raver ’68 of Darien, Conn.; Jeffrey Feather ’65 of Bethlehem, Pa.; J. Peter Simon ’75 of Green Village, N.J.; and Joseph T. Cox ’68 of Haverford, Pa. Each was elected in May to serve a five-year term beginning July 1.
Raver is managing director at Verizon Investment Management Corp., Stamford, Conn. Feather is chairman and CEO of SunGard Pentamation, Bethlehem, Pa. Simon is executive director of William E. Simon & Sons, Morristown, N.J. Cox is headmaster of the Haverford School, Haverford, Pa.
Ramer, who has been elected to emeritus status, was recognized for his service to the board and the College at Lafayette’s 166th Commencement May 19. Also honored was another outgoing trustee, Wilbur W. Oaks ’51, who received the Lafayette Medal for Distinguished Service. Oaks is professor of medicine at MCP Hahnemann Medical School, Philadelphia, Pa.
Griffith was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at commencement. He was the recipient of Lafayette’s George T. Woodring ’19 Volunteer of the Year Award in 1999. Griffith has served as vice chair of the board’s committees on financial policy and athletics and student affairs.
He has been vice chairman of both The Bank of New York and The Bank of New York Company, Inc., since December 1994. He is also a director of the bank and the company and a member of the bank’s senior planning committee. He served as the bank’s president and the company’s senior executive vice president from 1990 to 1994. Griffith is responsible for the company’s international banking sector.
Beginning his career in 1964 as a management trainee with the Empire Trust Company, Griffith joined The Bank of New York when Empire Trust was acquired in 1966. He was elected senior vice president in 1982, the year in which he organized the communications, entertainment, and publishing division, which has been one of the fastest-growing areas of the bank’s corporate banking business. The division is recognized as a leader in lending to the cable television industry, broadcasting companies, newspaper and magazine publishers, and the entertainment industry.
In 1985, Griffith was elected executive vice president and named head of the special industries sector. He was appointed to the steering committee of the bank in 1986 and was elected senior executive vice president in 1988. In 1989, in addition to his other responsibilities, he was named the bank’s chief credit policy officer. He was elected senior executive vice president of The Bank of New York Company in June 1990.
Griffith is a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Association and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in government and law at Lafayette and an MBA at Baruch College of the City University of New York.
Raver develops investment policy and directs investment activities for the externally managed public holdings of the $85 billion benefit asset pool of Verizon Communications Corp., the nation’s largest telecommunications firm. Raver has more than 25 years of capital markets experience. He has served as vice president and treasurer of Cadbury Schweppes, Inc. and as senior vice president and treasurer of Young & Rubicam, Inc. He is a member of the editorial board of Investment Policy Magazine, of the board of directors of Norwalk Hospital, and of several investment advisory boards.
Among other volunteer positions for Lafayette, Raver was Alumni Association president from 1999-2000 and a member of the Lafayette Leadership Campaign Steering Committee (1997-2001), the Alumni Council Executive Committee (1996-2000), the All-College Committee on Selectivity (1999-2000) and the Trustee Subcommittee for Endowment Investments (1993-99). He is a member of the Marquis Society.
Raver holds an MBA in international business from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of arts degree in international affairs from Lafayette.
Feather founded SunGard Pentamation as Pentamation Enterprises in 1969 with another Lafayette graduate, David Bloys ’61. The firm provides total system solutions to the K-12 education and local government markets and networking expertise to the private sector. It was acquired by SunGard Data Systems in 1999.
He has been a board member of Keystone Savings Bank and president of the board of Lehigh Valley Industrial Parks, Inc. He also serves as a board member of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Lehigh Valley Partnership, a group of local business people organized to mobilize private-sector resources.
An alumni trustee from 1995-2000, Feather concludes service this year in positions within three groups supporting the Lafayette Leadership Campaign: the Campaign Cabinet, the Campaign Executive Committee, and the Campaign Steering Committee, which he has served as vice chair. He has been a member of a number of other Lafayette committees and belongs to the Marquis Society.
Feather earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from Lafayette.
Simon founded William E. Simon & Sons, a private investment firm and merchant bank, with his father, the late William E. Simon, former United States Secretary of the Treasury and a 1952 Lafayette graduate, and brother, William E. Simon Jr. He leads the New Jersey office and is co-chairman of the firm and its investment group. Simon started his career in 1975 at Kidder Peabody, where he became managing director of convertibles marketing.
He is co-chairman of the William E. Simon Foundation, which offers financial assistance to students, schools, and social welfare organizations. Simon is also chairman of the Advisory Committee of the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, the Morristown Memorial Hospital Health Foundation Board of Trustees, and the Covenant House New Jersey Board of Directors.
He is married to Janet Mauriello Simon ’75, who graduated from Lafayette as a double major in art and history.
Simon earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology at Lafayette. He is a board associate for 2000-02 and an alumni phonathon volunteer. He also is a member of the Marquis Society. Simon has been a member of the Lafayette Leadership Council (1994-97) and the President’s Advisory Board (1999-2000), vice chairman of the New Jersey Regional Campaign (spring 1999), and an alumni admissions representative.
Cox has been headmaster of the Haverford School since 1998. Previously, he taught English at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served in the Army for 20 years, rising to the rank of colonel. He received two Bronze Stars and a Legion of Merit award and was named a battalion commander.
Cox earned a Ph.D. in 19th-century American literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He graduated from Lafayette with a bachelor of arts degree in English.
He is the father of Marquis Scholar Ashley Cox ’03, an A.B. engineering major.
Oaks was a Lafayette alumni trustee from 1996-2001, including service on the Development and Alumni Affairs Committee from 1999-2001 and the Athletics and Student Affairs Committee from 1996-99. He was a board associate from 1995-96 and 1982-85, and president of the Alumni Association from 1994-1996 and the Maroon Club in 1992.
Other positions have included vice chair of the Philadelphia Regional Chapter Executive Committee (1999-2001), alumni admissions representative (1989-2000), and member of the NCAA Self-Study Steering Committee, Alumni Council Executive Committee (1997-99), and Presidential Search Committee (1993), among other positions of service to the College. Lafayette honored Oaks with the Danny Hatch Sports Award in 1983.
Oaks is a professor of medicine at MCP Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia, Pa., where his primary research interest is hypertension. As a physician, he specialized in internal medicine.
He is the father of three Lafayette graduates, Susan Tapson ’78, Cynthia Linville ’80, and Sally Lou ’84.