Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: March 18, 1997

UT System News Release

Former President Peter Flawn Named Interim Leader of U.T. Austin

Austin -- Dr. Peter T. Flawn, president of The University of Texas at Austin from 1979 to 1985, will return to leadership of the campus as interim president, U.T. System Chancellor William H. Cunningham announced Tuesday (March 18).

Flawn will serve as president ad interim while a nationwide search is conducted for a successor to President Robert M. Berdahl, who will leave in July to become chief executive officer of the Berkeley campus of the University of California. On his retirement in 1985, Flawn was named president emeritus of U.T. Austin by the Board of Regents.

"The University is indeed fortunate to be able, once again, to call on Dr. Flawn's extraordinary leadership skills," Cunningham said. "Throughout a distinguished academic career, Dr. Flawn has provided exemplary service to U.T. System institutions, and I am deeply thankful that he has agreed to serve in this new capacity.

"He is a visionary, energetic and resourceful academic leader. He has the ability to work productively with all campus constituencies, and he possesses an intimate understanding of U.T. Austin's history, mission and culture. The University could not hope to find a more suitable interim president."

Donald L. Evans, chairman of the U.T. System Board of Regents, said Flawn is an excellent choice for interim president.

"I am delighted with Chancellor Cunningham's choice, and on behalf of the Board of Regents I want to express our deep gratitude to Dr. Flawn for his willingness to accept this very important and demanding assignment," Evans said. "Dr. Flawn is uniquely qualified to serve as interim president. Under his leadership, all Texans can have confidence that the University will emerge from this period and make the transition to a new president in an excellent position to maintain and enhance its role of service to the people of our state." Flawn said: "My responsibility as interim president is to deliver to the next president a sound, well-functioning institution with its spirit and its vision undiminished -- and I hope to do that sooner rather than later.

"I shall do my best to carry forward the initiatives that President Berdahl has launched, and I plan to consult with him at an early date. I should also say that this opportunity came very unexpectedly. I am gratified by the confidence the chancellor and the Board of Regents have in me."

Flawn will be interim president until a new permanent president takes office or until Sept. 1, 1998. A committee will be appointed soon to advise the Board of Regents on the search for a new president.

Flawn has been associated with the U.T. System since 1949, when he joined U.T. Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology as a research scientist and geologist. He was director of the bureau from 1960 to 1970 and subsequently served the University as director of the Division of Natural Resources and the Environment, vice president for academic affairs, and executive vice president.

He was a professor of geological sciences from 1960 to 1970 and a professor of geological sciences and public affairs from 1970 to 1985.

From 1973 to 1977, Flawn was president of U.T. San Antonio. In 1978 he served as acting director of the U.T. Austin Marine Science Institute and acting chairman of the Department of Marine Studies. His presidency of U.T. Austin began in September 1979. Flawn, who was born Feb. 17, 1926, earned an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College in 1947, a master of science degree in geology from Yale University in 1948 and a Ph.D. in geology from Yale in 1951. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he has been active in numerous other professional and scientific associations.

He was awarded the Condecoracion de la Orden del Sol del Peru in 1984 and the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from Yale in 1985. The American Institute of Professional Geologists awarded him the Ben H. Parker Memorial Medal in 1989.

Flawn served as president of the Geological Society of America in 1978 and president of the American Geological Institute in 1988.

He served on the National Science Board from 1980 to 1986, and in 1987-88 he was chairman of the Texas National Research Laboratory Commission. He was reappointed to the commission in 1991.

Flawn is a director of the Southwest Research Institute and chaired the advisory board to the institute's Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses from 1989 to 1994. He continues as a member of the advisory board.

From 1993 to 1994, he served on the Governor's Advisory Committee on the Superconducting Super Collider.

Flawn, who is fluent in Spanish, has written six books or major reports, as well as 65 articles, mostly on geological subjects. His most recent book, A Primer for University Presidents: Managing the Modern University, was published by the University of Texas Press in 1990.

Flawn and his wife, Priscilla Pond Flawn, have two children.