Nelda and Richard Pedersen Courtyard Inaugurated

On February 14, 2012, faculty, staff and friends gathered at AUC to honor the memory of Richard “Dick” Pedersen, former AUC President (1977-1990), and attend the inauguration of the Nelda and Richard Pedersen Courtyard on the New Cairo campus. Members of the AUC community remembered, with fondness, the man who is largely responsible for the AUC known throughout the world. As Chairman of the Board of Trustees Richard Bartlett suggested, Dick Pedersen led a truly transformative era in the University’s history.

Without Dick Pedersen’s vision and determination – the need for a Rare Books Library, the benefit of professional programs including, computer science, business and mass communications – AUC would not be the premiere university we know today. As Tom Barlett, AUC Trustee and former President of the University (1963-1969) stated,“…because the impact of what he had done, through his personal leadership…was such that it really started the trajectory that is now what we think of as AUC.”

Dick Pedersen joined AUC as the University’s seventh, and longest serving, president (after Charles Watson, AUC’s inaugural president), following a distinguished career as a United States diplomat. Just before the ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially inaugurate the courtyard, Tom Bartlett stressed that he was “delighted we are doing this today and memorializing a remarkable, creative...decisive and very effective president.”

Photo caption: Former AUC President Tom Bartlett gives memorial remarks at the inauguration of the Nelda and Richard Pedersen Courtyard

To read Pedersen's obituary published in The New York Times, please click here.

To view a slide show of the Nelda and Richard Pedersen Courtyard inauguration, please click here.

To view a slide show of Richard Pedersen during his tenure at AUC, please click here.

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