As the trustees are aware, IU Vice President Emeritus and Professor Emeritus Patrick O'Meara died last week in Bloomington.
For many decades, Patrick represented IU with extraordinary grace, intelligence, professionalism, and collegiality, and helped elevate IU's global reputation to remarkable new heights.
He was one of the principal contributors to building and expanding IU's international engagement and presence through record-breaking study abroad programs and through partnerships he fostered with universities around the world.
Patrick was also an outstanding scholar in the areas of international development, comparative politics, and African politics. He taught and mentored hundreds of students, many of whom are now faculty members and administrators at top universities across the nation and around the world.
In 2007, I appointed Patrick as IU's first-ever vice president for international affairs. Among his many other accomplishments in that role, he led the effort to establish one of the nation's first international strategic plans at any college or university.
Patrick received a number of IU awards, including the President's Medal for Excellence, which I had the pleasure of presenting to him in 2011 at the inaugural Patrick O'Meara International Lecture. This lecture series is—and will continue to be—a fitting way to honor all that Patrick gave to IU, and to his students, colleagues, and friends over the years.
Patrick was one of the kindest, wisest, and most genuine scholars our university has ever produced. On behalf of all of us at IU, I want to once again send our deepest condolences to his family, friends, former colleagues and others whose lives he touched and enriched.
As sadness over the sudden passing of Patrick O’Meara on March 30th spreads around the world, those of us who are part of his Indiana University family are still in shock... Read more
The Global Center would not have been established without the support, guidance, and encouragement of Patrick O’Meara, and it would not be the award-winning center it consistently is without him... Read more