Distinguished Alumni Award


Norman B. Coleman 76JD

2004 Achievement Award

Norm B. Coleman, 76JD, knows how to accomplish change through action. Even as a University of Iowa law student, the Brooklyn, New York, native was honing the leadership skills he would need to implement local and global change throughout his professional life. These skills would inform his work in law, public policy, and politics—and eventually would help launch his career as a prominent United States senator.

Long before he was elected to this prestigious position, however, the UI graduate was busy working at the grassroots level. After finishing his undergraduate degree at New Yorks Hofstra University in 1971, Coleman arrived at the University of Iowa law school and quickly became involved in student government. He was president of the Student Bar Association and also chaired the Collegiate Associations Council, where he served with representatives from all of the UI colleges in addressing students academic concerns.

During his senior year at Iowa, Coleman received the Hancher-Finkbine Medallion in recognition of his outstanding academic and leadership achievements. He sustained this record of success after graduation, when he moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, to work in the attorney generals office. Throughout his 17-year tenure with that office, the UI lawyer served as chief prosecutor and solicitor general and tried several high-profile and difficult cases.

In 1994, Coleman shifted his leadership focus to become Saint Pauls mayor, a position that allowed him to play a visionary role in transforming the city. By forging new partnerships between business and government, the transplanted Midwesterner revitalized Minnesotas capital. He created 18,000 new jobs through more than $3 billion in new development. In addition, he secured a National Hockey League franchise; helped create a new $90 million Science Museum of Minnesota; and made public safety, school initiatives, and land renewal among his top priorities.

These accomplishments did not go unnoticed: Coleman received the United States Conference of Mayors Award of Excellence in Public/Private Partnership in 2001 and also was the recipient of a public-service award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Colemans terms as mayor reinforced his interest in government, and in 1998, he was the Republican nominee for governor, narrowly losing to Jesse Ventura. This did not dampen Colemans enthusiasm for politics, however. One year after leaving the mayors office in 2001, he was elected to the United States Senate.

In his new leadership role, Senator Coleman serves as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and also sits on the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs. He also is a member of four committees: the Committee on Foreign Relations; the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship; and the Committee on Governmental Affairs.

Though Washington, DC, is a long way from the University of Iowa campus, Senator Norm B. Coleman still uses the skills he honed as a young law student. His UI values of commitment and service continue to define the quality of his leadership.

Senator Coleman is a life member of the University of Iowa Alumni Association.


About Distinguished Alumni Awards

Since 1963, the University of Iowa has annually recognized accomplished alumni and friends with Distinguished Alumni Awards. Awards are presented in seven categories: Achievement, Service, Hickerson Recognition, Faculty, Staff, Recent Graduate, and Friend of the University.


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L.A.-based artist Charles Ray to receive CLAS Alumni Fellow award, give talks this month. Unpainted sculpture by Charles Ray, 1997, fiberglass and paint, 60x78x171 inches. Photograph by Josh White and courtesy of the Matthew Marks Gallery. Charles Ray (75BFA) was walking through the UI physics and astronomy department one day when he came across an inspiring scene. Ray, an art student whose curiosity extended far beyond the studio, hoped to hitch a ride out to the observatory for some evening stargazing. Instead, he found a group of students constructing a satellite bound for a space mission. "It just blew my mind," recalls Ray. Just as mind-blowing were the sculptures Ray was creating across the river, years before he would establish himself as one of the world's most important artists. For one physics-defying piece, he fashioned a 2,000-pound slab of concrete atop a slender tree trunk. For another, he dropped a massive wrecking ball onto a crumpled steel plate, as if Sputnik had just crashed outside the old Art Building. Charles Ray "It was such a formative experience for me," the Los Angeles-based sculptor says of his time in Iowa City. "It did something to my soul and my brain. Even though I was young, the university and my mentors gave me a great deal of independence. My curiosity was endless." A professor emeritus at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, Ray returns to campus this month to speak and receive the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' Alumni Fellow award. Rather than just waxing nostalgic about his time at Iowa, Ray has organized a three-day lecture series April 16-18 with two fellow art scholars. Iowa native Graham Harman, a philosophy professor at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, will open the series by discussing his theory of aesthetics known as object-oriented ontology. On the second day, Ray will speak about the nature of sculptural objects. And Richard Neer, an art historian at the University of Chicago, will bookend the series by lecturing on the question of provenance, or art's origin. Ray will also give a separate public lecture April 17 in Art Building West titled "My Soul is an Object." Recognized as one of the leading artists of his generation, Ray is known for his strange and enigmatic sculptures so loaded with nods to the past that they've been called "catnip for art historians." His 2014 Horse and Rider, for example, is a 10-ton solid stainless steel work in the tradition of a war memorial, but depicts the artist slouch-shouldered atop a weary nag. Ray is also famous for his wry re-imaginings of familiar objects, like the 47-foot-long replica of a red toy fire truck that he parked in front of New York's Whitney Museum of American Art for a 1993 biennial exhibition. Ray and his studio team often spend years working on a given piece, which can fetch as much as seven figures at auction. His sculptures can be found at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among other major U.S. museums. Ray is currently preparing for a retrospective show in Paris next year?one of several upcoming international exhibitions. Isabel Barbuzza, UI associate professor of sculpture, describes Ray's work as beautiful and witty, while using scale in unexpected ways. Ray's 8-foot-tall Boy with Frog?commissioned for a prominent spot in Venice, Italy, then removed after some controversy (a version now stands outside the Getty Museum in Los Angeles)?is among Barbuzza's favorites. "His sculptures have a presence you can only see when you're in front of the work," she says. "They're very moving, and to me it's interesting what happens with scale?the viewer relates to the piece in a very profound way." Steve McGuire (83MA, 90PhD), director of the School of Art and Art History, says few others have contributed more to contemporary art than Ray. "This is a big deal for us to be able to celebrate his career," McGuire says of presenting Ray with the alumni fellow award. "I think it's pretty meaningful to him, and of course it's really meaningful for our school." A Chicago native, Ray arrived at Iowa as a gifted artist but hardly a model student. Ray's dyslexia made schoolwork a chore, and his parents had sent him to military school with the hopes of straightening out his academics. It was at the UI, however, where he finally found his language in the studio and, in turn, his footing in the classroom. "Through the syntax of sculpture, I could express myself intellectually for the first time," Ray says. "That gave me a kind of confidence." Ray studied under UI art school pillars like Wallace Tomasini, Julius Schmidt, and Hans Breder. But it was his bond with Roland Brenner?a South African professor and former pupil of sculptor Anthony Caro?that proved to be the most influential. Ray still remembers his first sculpture in Brenner's class, a steel configuration with long stems and discs at the end. Its bouquet-like resemblance didn't sit well with Brenner. "That showed me you made something, but didn't want to discover something," Ray recalls Brenner telling him. "Don't ever do that in my class again." The two would become lifelong friends. Iowa City is a different place today than the 1970s, particularly the transformation of the arts campus after the flood of 2008, Ray says. Still, his visits back to campus over the years always remind him of those crisp and clear Iowa nights at the observatory and gazing out the studio window while exploring the frontiers of sculpture. "It feels like you can see right through the galaxy when you look up," Ray says. Handheld bird by Charles Ray, 2006, painted steel, 2x4x3 inches The UI is home to six pieces by Ray, all found in the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building and displayed through the university's Art on Campus program. Among them is Handheld bird, a tiny but ornate piece depicting a creature in an embryonic state. Lunchtime Lecture Series What: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences fellow Charles Ray and two guest art scholars?Graham Harman and Richard Neer?will deliver a series of public lectures this month at the UI. When, where: 12:20 p.m. April 16?18 at Art Building West, room 240, 141 N. Riverside Drive, Iowa City More information: events.uiowa.edu/26915 My Soul is an Object: Artist Talk with Charles Ray What: A public lecture by renowned sculptor and UI alumnus Charles Ray When, where: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 17, at Art Building West, room 240, 141 N. Riverside Drive, Iowa City More about Ray: charlesraysculpture.com/ Support the UI School of Art and Art History

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