University's David Rockefeller Award goes to Ted Terry

by TALLEY HENNING BROWN

Among the accolades for scholar-scientists, this year’s Convocation honored a man with a quieter but no less significant role — a volunteer. Frederick A. (“Ted”) Terry Jr., longtime trustee and chair of Rockefeller University’s Committee on Trust and Estate Gift Plans, received the 2007 David Rockefeller Award for Extraordinary Service to The Rockefeller University.
First given in 1995 to David Rockefeller, grandson of the university’s founder, the award recognizes an individual from the Rockefeller community who has an “unswerving enthusiasm for Rockefeller’s scientists and a deep concern for the progress of their research; selfless dedication to furthering the university’s mission and strengthening the institution; and an unstinting effort to enlist others to join in supporting biomedical science for the benefit of humankind.”
A graduate of Williams College and Columbia Law School, Mr. Terry is senior counsel of the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, which he joined in 1957 and where he was partner from 1965 through 1999. His involvement with Rockefeller University began in 1982, when he joined the Committee on Trust and Estate Gift Plans, a volunteer group comprising prominent attorneys, bankers, accountants and financial advisers in the trust and estate field who help to introduce professional colleagues and prospective donors to the university. Mr. Terry became chair of the committee in 1984, and with his guidance, the committee has raised more than $125 million in gifts, grants and bequests to Rockefeller. The committee is now considered the standard of excellence among similar organizations and was the model for professional advisory groups at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Philharmonic.
Mr. Terry was elected to the Rockefeller Board of Trustees in 1992. He served on the nominating committee until 2005 and currently serves on both the development committee and the technology transfer committee. In addition to his volunteer activities at Rockefeller, Mr. Terry is an honorary trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a trustee or director of the Harold K. Hochschild Foundation, the McIntosh Foundation, the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation and the Flagler Foundation.