Vern Alden (2014) - Hall of Fame - Brown University Athletics

Vern Alden

Induction:
2014
Class:
1945

Vernon R. Alden '45
Paul L. Maddock '33 Award
Year Inducted: 2014

A longtime supporter of Brown Athletics, Vern Alden ’45 is an educator, businessman, philanthropist and leader in the arts and international activities community. Alden’s association with the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame goes back to 1971, when he was the keynote speaker at the first dinner. He is a staunch supporter of the Brown cross country and track & field programs, having endowed the Track & Field Coaching Chair, funded the Alden indoor track facility and the Alden Award, and sponsored the annual Alden Invitational. He was a founding director of the Brown University Sports Foundation. Alden continues to attend the cross country banquet every year. In short, Alden has been a visionary and dedicated leader of Brown Athletics for decades.

Alden is perhaps best known as an educator. He was the Associate Dean of the Harvard Business School, as well as the President of Ohio University from 1962 through 1969, where he doubled faculty and student enrollment, expanded the campus area, continued a major construction project, extended research and broadened academic programs. After Ohio, Alden was Chairman of the Boston Company and its major subsidiary, the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, from 1969 through 1978. Alden developed the Boston Company from a local financial company into a national and international organization.

An advocate for the arts, Alden is a Life Trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Museum of Science, the Children’s Museum, and the French Library and Cultural Center in Boston. Three different Massachusetts governors appointed him Chairman of the Massachusetts Council on Arts and Humanities, as he helped State appropriations to the arts grow from $125,000 to over $18 million during a 12-year tenure.

Alden is well known and revered in Japan. He was the President or Chairman of the Japan Society of Boston for over forty years, served on several Japan-related advisory councils, and served two terms as Chairman of the National Organization of Japan-American Societies.

A devoted philanthropist, Alden has established endowed funds at Brown, as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Science Museum, Ohio University, Ohio Wesleyan University, MIT, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Northfield Mount Hermon School, the Boston Public Library, and the French Library and Cultural Center in Boston. Alden was also a trustee and member of the Brown Corporation Board of Fellows.

Alden was born in Chicago, attended public schools in Illinois and Rhode Island, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown, where he ran track and cross country. He later received an MBA from the Harvard Business School. A member of the Ohio University Hall of Fame, Alden has received honorary degrees from 13 universities and colleges, including an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from Brown. He has four children, three of whom attended Brown, with his late wife, Marion, as well as three grandsons and five granddaughters.