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Portrait of Former Dean Unveiled at Moritz College of Law

Portrait of Dean Willianms will hang in the reading room of the Moritz Law Library

September 30, 2002

 

The portrait of former Ohio State University Moritz College of Law dean, Gregory H. Williams, was unveiled during a ceremony on Friday, September 27, in the Saxbe Auditorium of Drinko Hall on the campus of The Ohio State University. The portrait was presented in recognition of Williams' eight years of leadership at the law school and will ultimately join the likenesses of former law deans in the reading room of the Moritz Law Library.

Highlighting his special accomplishments during his tenure at the college were Ohio State Interim President Ed Jennings, former Moritz National Council President Honorable Carla Moore ’77, Alumni Society President Jeffrey Sutton ’90, Moritz Law Professor Jim Brudney, and Moritz College Dean Nancy Rogers. A reception in the student lounge followed the program and portrait presentation.

Williams came to Ohio State in 1993 from The University of Iowa, where he served as associate vice president of academic affairs, overseeing international programs, diversity efforts, student retention, and matters of academic discipline. He left Ohio State in 2001 to become the 11th president of the City College of the City University of New Work (CUNY).

At Ohio State, he hired nearly 40 percent of the current faculty and raised nearly $57 million, funding 50 endowed scholarships, six endowed chairs, and three professorships. He was instrumental in securing the largest single gift to the university, a $30 million donation from Michael E. Moritz ’61 in 2001.

He is the author of Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He was Black (Dutton), a widely acclaimed autobiography that received the 1995 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

The portrait was painted by artist Richard Whitney, a New Hampshire resident who has been called "one of the best living artists of our generation" by Abbot Williams Vose, a well-known authority on American painting. Whitney’s work is in more than 500 private and public collections throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Harvard University, Dartmouth College, the Pentagon, Anchorage Museum of Art, and the statehouses of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Since 1891, the Moritz College of Law has played a leading role in the legal profession through countless contributions made by alumni and faculty. Graduates of the school reside in all 50 states and 20 other countries and include justices of the Ohio Supreme Court, current and former U.S. Senators and Representatives, managing partners in law firms of all sizes, chief executive officers of Fortune 500 corporations, and attorneys with non-profit organizations and public interest law firms.

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