| Charles and Monika Heimbold’s Gift to Penn Law |
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September 30, 2008
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Volume 55, No. 6
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The Penn Law School has announced a $5 million gift from Charles and Monika Heimbold to establish the Heimbold Chair in International Law.
The gift was inspired by Mr. Heimbold’s desire to give current Penn Law students the opportunity to study international law, as he had at Sweden’s Hague Academy of International Law in the summer of 1959, while he was a law student at Penn.
Mr. Heimbold served on Penn’s Board of Trustees from 1995-2003 and was a member and chairman of the Law School Overseers. He has been chair emeritus since 2001. Mr. Heimbold received a BA from Villanova University. He graduated from Penn’s Law School in 1960.
“A law school of Penn’s caliber should have such a chair,” Mr. Heimbold said. The chair is particularly important, given the School’s focus on international law, the growing number of international students at the School, and the global interests of the faculty.
Mr. Heimbold stressed that the study of international law is even more important today, when there are more legal issues associated with international treaties and organizations. He also said that maintaining peace depends on the enforcement of international law.
Mr. Heimbold served under President George W. Bush as the US ambassador to Sweden, beginning his tenure three days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Mr. Heimbold served as an ambassador until 2004. Formerly, he was chairman and CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., deputy chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a member of the Board of Directors of ExxonMobil Corp.
Mrs. Heimbold is the chair of the Heimbold Foundation. She is also a co-founder and active director of the World Childhood Foundation and a director of the American Scandinavian Foundation.
Mr. Heimbold has a strong commitment to education and has served as a Trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, Sarah Lawrence College and International House.
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