Christensen
Honored
 riends
and colleagues of Norman L. Christensen Jr., departing dean of the
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, are establishing
a $1-million scholarship endowment in his name that will be used to
provide scholarships for Nicholas School students.
The Christensen endowment, announced in April at a celebration for
Christensen and the school’s tenth anniversary, recognizes “his
extraordinary vision and leadership as founding dean of the Nicholas
School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and his far-reaching
influences as an inspired teacher, mentor, and friend.”
Christensen, who spearheaded the creation of the Nicholas School in
1991 and was founding dean, will step down June 30. William L. Schlesinger
Jr., James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry, will succeed him.
The scholarships will be awarded as soon as the endowment begins generating
income. Recipients are expected to be students in the school’s
professional programs, the Master of Environment Management and the
Master of Forestry.
“It is common for departing deans to be honored with a named
professorship; however, the board of visitors felt so strongly about
Norm’s devotion to the students that we decided a scholarship
endowment would be a more meaningful way to honor him,” says
Douglass F. Rohrman ’63, board chair.
At the school’s celebration, it also was announced that the executive
committee of Duke’s board of trustees approved naming the students’
reading room on the first floor of the Levine Science Research Center
the Norman L. Christensen Jr. Reading Room.
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