Outgoing Chancellor Joukowsky will become University ambassador

Artemis A. W. Joukowsky, who will step down as Brown University's chancellor June 30, 1998, will become the University's new ambassador, a role created for him by President E. Gordon Gee.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Artemis A.W. Joukowsky will become Brown University's ambassador when he steps down as chancellor June 30, 1998.

The position was created for Joukowsky by President E. Gordon Gee and his wife, Constance Bumgarner Gee, to honor the chancellor's tireless work on behalf of Brown. The announcement, made during a dinner of the Corporation of the University Friday, May 22, came as a welcomed surprise to Joukowsky.

"Universities are about much more than bricks and mortar," Gee said in making the announcement. "They are about people and relationships and the lifelong bonds that form between the place and the people.... [Art] has always recognized the greater importance of Brown's people to the enterprise of the University. His many gifts to Brown have focused on people and relationships, on the humanity at the heart of the University."

Joukowsky's new role suits him perfectly, said Alva O. Way, whom Joukowsky succeeded as chancellor in February 1997. "You are the embodiment of a Brown man born and bred, our greatest flag bearer, our most enthusiastic booster. In Providence and Petra, in New York and New Zealand, in Boston and Beijing, you are Brown's champion," Way said at the dinner.

Joukowsky most recently served Brown in the international arena earlier this month when he and Mrs. Gee traveled to China as Brown's representatives at the centennial celebration of the University of Peking.

A 1955 graduate of Brown and a University trustee since 1985, Joukowsky was elected vice chancellor in 1988 and became chancellor - the moderator of the Corporation's Board of Trustees - upon Way's retirement. He will be succeeded as chancellor on July 1 by Stephen Robert.

Joukowsky's work on behalf of Brown has followed many routes. To strengthen Brown's athletic programs, he co-founded the Brown Sports Foundation. He commissioned works of sculpture and supported improvements in public spaces, particularly in the Sciences Quadrangle. He and his wife, Martha, a Brown professor of Old World archaeology and art, received the Elwood E. Leonard Distinguished Achievement Award in recognition of their outstanding leadership and service to the University, and in 1985 they both received honorary doctorate degrees. He served as national campaign chair for Brown's largest and most successful fund-raising effort, the Campaign for the Rising Generation, which raised $534 million. In 1996, Joukowsky received the President's Medal from Vartan Gregorian, the highest honor a Brown University president may bestow.

Joukowsky developed his expertise in international business during his long tenure at the American International Group Inc. (AIG). His positions in various divisions and subsidiaries of AIG took him to many countries including Austria, Hong Kong, Thailand, Turkey, Lebanon and Italy. He also was president of the Special World Markets Division and the Socialist Countries Division at the AIG head office in New York for 10 years.