S. Dillon Ripley- innovative administrator, illustrious public servant, renowned museologist, distinguished zoologist and aviculturalist, passionate conservationist, outstanding educator. Any one of his professional attainments would be sufficient to warrant recognition and acclamation. But Dillon Ripley exceeds the sum of his professional parts. Blessed with more than man’s usual quotient of vision, he has employed his various and considerable talents to broaden the mind, please the eye and quicken the pulse of residents of, and visitors to, the nation’s capital.
For two decades under Dillon Ripley’s inspired leadership, the venerable Smithsonian Institution continued to bask in the dignity and wisdom of its advancing years. Even more important, it burst forth with newfound youth. The Institution spawned major museums and galleries, an exciting, broad-based educational enterprise, joyous annual festivals, a distinguished center of scholarship and a multi- media program of information and communication. It now embraces a vast spectrum of popular and scholarly interests ranging from outer space to inner man and engages millions of adults and children in active participation, rather than simply passive observation. Happily, the Mall is still dominated by the old castle, but is no longer a mere geographical location; rather, it has become a daily focus of intellectual, artistic and historical celebration. Dillon Ripley, in short, has made a difference in the quality of life available to Americans in general, and Washingtonians in particular.
The Cosmos Club is delighted to bestow its 1988 Cosmos Club Award on one of its own, S. Dillon Ripley, a legend in his own right.
