The Distinguished Alumni Award, established in 1983, is the highest award given by the Duke Alumni Association. It is presented to alumni who have made significant contributions in their own fields, in service to the university, or for the betterment of humanity. From nominations made by alumni, faculty members, trustees, administrators, and students, the Duke Alumni Association has selected Raymond D. Nasher '43 as the recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award.
As an undergraduate, Ray majored in economics, became president of the Men's Student Government Association, and was a tennis standout. He never took an art course, but he had his own Chronicle column, in which he lobbied for greater attention to art and music on campus.
After Duke, Ray returned to his hometown of Boston and enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, concentrating on housing and urban development. Targeting Dallas as a good place to unleash his entrepreneurial energies, he got his start as a developer of low-cost housing and later of major commercial properties. A highlight was Dallas' NorthPark Center, opened in 1965, which has been widely celebrated for its array of retailers and its aesthetic qualities alike. The president of the NorthPark Development Company is Nancy Nasher, one of Ray's three daughters, a 1979 graduate of the Duke law school, and a Duke trustee.
Ray and his wife, Patsy, resolved to build a personal art collection. They had an early interest in pre-Columbian and other ethnographic arts. From that point they became avid collectors of modern sculpture. As Ray recalls, "We felt strongly that it had to be art that we wanted to live with, so the works really had to become members of the family." Focusing on such modern masters as Matisse, Moore, Giacometti, and Picasso, the Nashers collected intelligently as well as passionately. An important endorsement came in 1987, when an exhibition, titled "A Century of Modern Sculpture: The Patsy and Raymond Nasher Collection," appeared at the Dallas Museum of Art, then at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and later at museums in Madrid, Florence, and Tel Aviv. Some one hundred works by more than fifty artists were on view. Always keen on inspiring others with their interest in art, the Nashers installed sculptures at civic spaces around Dallas and lent works for exhibitions around the world.
Ray's career, as a developer and a collector alike, testify to his love of creative thinking and his respect for workmanship. Harry S. Parker III, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and formerly director of the Dallas Museum, told DukeMagazine, "One of Ray's qualities is that he likes the big idea, the big vision. I think from the very beginning, he saw an opportunity to create a big idea, which was a comprehensive, high-quality collection of modern sculpture."
Ray has had many other big ideas. One is the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. Conceived as a serene urban retreat for the enjoyment of modern art, it opened to great acclaim last October. And next October is the official opening date of Duke's own Nasher Museum. Ray has been the museum's guiding force and chief patron. He is giving Duke not just a spectacular building, designed by internationally renowned architect Rafael Vinoly, but also a symbolic statement about the arts as being at the core of a great university.
We are pleased to present the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award to an avid builder and an arts visionary, Raymond D. Nasher