Victor Morgenstern (CHE ’64) to be honored by IIT with Alumni Service Award

The annual Alumni Awards are an IIT tradition to recognize those who made notable contributions to their communities, professions, and the university. This year, the luncheon ceremony will be held Friday, April 19, 2013 and will recognize 11 winners in eight categories.

Victor Morgenstern (CHE ’64) is this year’s recipient of the Alumni Service Award, which honors an individual who demonstrates continuous, selfless commitment to and devoted enthusiasm for the university through his or her involvement in varied areas of the university including, but not limited to, recruitment, support, service, and leadership.

Read on for more about Morgenstern and look for new winner profiles in IIT Today each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until the event.

Degrees
B.S. Chemical Engineering (’64), Illinois Institute of Technology; J.D. (’68), American University Washington College of Law

Career
Victor “Vic” Morgenstern serves as chairman of Valor Equity Partners. His highly successful investment career spans 40 years and was preceded by a career as a patent attorney. He was one of the founding principals of Harris Associates, a Chicago-based investment advisory firm and served as its president, chief executive officer, and chairman. He was also president and later chairman of The Oakmark Family of Funds.

Service to IIT
Morgenstern is an active and trusted leader at IIT. In 1994, he was elected to the IIT Board of Trustees—a role for which he was recruited by his former IIT roommate and Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity brother Ed Kaplan (ME ’65), who also served on the board. In 2008, Morgenstern was named a Life Trustee; he currently serves on the Executive Committee. Prior to his board service, he served IIT in a number of other capacities, as a member of the Board of Overseers for both IIT College of Architecture and IIT Institute of Design, including serving as chair on the COA board. The Morgenstern family has a multi-generational legacy at IIT, as Morgenstern recruited his architect daughters, Jennifer and Robyn, to serve on the COA board, and son, Judd, is an Institute of Design/IIT Stuart School of Business graduate.

Philanthropy
Morgenstern and his wife, Faye, have made generous and significant contributions to IIT, supporting or establishing programs whose benefits extended beyond campus and into the surrounding architecture community. For example, the Victor A. Morgenstern Family Visiting Chair in Architecture has allowed the College of Architecture to host world-renowned architects on campus throughout the years—to the great benefit of hundreds of students and members of the local architecture community. Additionally, the Morgensterns’ scholarship support encouraged local architecture firms to provide additional scholarships and internships for IIT students.

Student to Alumnus
While an undergraduate, Morgenstern was named IIT “Man of the Year” in 1964, a designation that reflected his active student leadership in sports, Greek life, and student government. His dedication to IIT was honored again in 2003, when he received the Collens Merit Award for outstanding commitment to the future of IIT through philanthropic contributions paired with involvement in his gift.