Arthur K. Wheelock, Class of 1965

You are currently renowned as curator of the National Gallery of Art’s overwhelmingly successful exhibition of the work of Jan Vermeer—which brought together many works of art never before seen in this country and that not even a government shutdown could close. We know, however, that your creative involvement with art education has been much longer and deeper. As teacher of art history at Bement School, Harvard, and now the University of Maryland, and as curator at the Fogg Art Museum and now the National Gallery, you have gained a reputation as a prolific scholar and writer of the first rank. Your five books and countless exhibition catalogues, scholarly articles, reviews, and lectures reflect your broad understanding of both the technical and aesthetic aspects of art. Your consulting advice has been sought by such organizations as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Cultural Affairs Council of The Netherlands-American Amity Trust. To your many official honors, which include the College Art Association/National Institute for Conservation’s Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation and the Dutch Government’s Knight Officer in the Order of the Orange-Nassau, your alma mater is now pleased to add its own.