Monday, November 06, 2006

Alice Ilchman; Advisor to Americans for UNESCO


Alice Stone Ilchman was a member of the Advisory Council of Americans for UNESCO, sharing her great knowledge and experience in education and international affairs. She died in August at her Bronxville home from complications of pancreatic cancer. She was 71. We mourn her loss.

Dr. Ilchman was dean at Wellesley College for five years and president of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., for 17. She was appointed dean of the college and professor of economics and education at Wellesley in 1973. Dr. Ilchman was instrumental in establishing Wellesley's Center for Research on Women. Her accomplishments while she was at the helm of Sarah Lawrence from 1981 to 1998 were many. Her legacy includes two new buildings, 10 faculty chairs, three overseas programs, and stronger fiscal health.

During her tenure at Sarah Lawrence, Dr. Ilchman received an Honorary Doctorate from Mt. Holyoke College (1982), the Maternity Association Carola Warburg Rothschild Award (1991), the Maxwell "Spirit of Public Service Award" (1994), The Wellesley College Distinguished Service Award (1995), a Fulbright Honor (1996), and the Alice Ilchman Award for Public Service (1998).

She served as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs during the Carter administration for two years, with responsibility for the newly created United States Information Agency, the Fulbright program, US libraries abroad, and the international visitor program.

For 13 years, she was a member of the board of the Rockefeller Foundation. At the time of her death, she was director of the Jeannette K. Watson Fellows program, which creates paid summer internships for first-generation college students in New York City.

She had a long interest in and association with India. In 1962 and 1963, she and her husband lived in Delhi and Rajasthan, while she worked on her dissertation on rural development in India for the London School of Economics. She lived in Delhi again in 1968 and 1969. While at the University of California at Berkeley, she directed three Peace Corps training projects for India and co-taught the school's first interdisciplinary South Asian studies course.

Dr. Ilchman graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1957 and was a member of its board of trustees for 10 years. She earned her master's degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and her doctorate from the London School of Economics and Politics in 1965.

In addition to her husband and son, Dr. Ilchman leaves a daughter, Sarah, of New York City; two sisters, Nancy Dickinson of Indianapolis and Elizabeth Stone of Los Angeles; and a brother, Donald C. Stone Jr. of Oakland, Calif.

Read obituaries from:
* The Boston Globe

* Sarah Lawrence College

* The New York Times

* The Washington Post

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