Pitt’s Board Thanks the Late William S. Dietrich

From far left, Chancellor Nordenberg; Trustee Sam Zacharias; N. John Cooper, Pitt’s Bettye J. and Ralph E. Bailey Dean of Arts and Sciences; Edward J. Grefenstette, chief investment officer, The Dietrich Charitable Trusts; Richard F. Berdik, CFO, The Dietrich Charitable Trusts; Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Patricia E. Beeson; Trustee Eva Tansky Blum; and Board Chair Stephen R. Tritch.

During its Oct. 28 meeting, Pitt’s Board of Trustees honored the late William S. Dietrich II with a moment of silence—and then a standing ovation—following the approval of a Board resolution changing the name of Pitt’s largest school to the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, in honor of Mr. Dietrich’s father. Prior to his death on Oct. 6, William Dietrich—a Pitt alumnus, trustee, and former Board chair, as well as a well-known and highly respected business leader—gave the largest single gift to Pitt in its 225-year history, a $125 million fund. Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg unveiled for the Board a prototype for two large wall plaques being made in honor of Kenneth P. Dietrich as well as a framed copy of the resolution naming William Dietrich a Pitt Legacy Laureate. The two completed wall plaques will be mounted in the Cathedral of Learning, one on the first floor opposite the Croghan-Schenley Room, and the other prominently displayed on the ninth floor, the home of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.