Dr. Rabinowitz, McDaniel ’74 was known as the “Indiana Jones of wildlife protection” by TIME, and he gave a voice to the world’s wild cats, according to a tribute by Panthera Corporation, a charitable organization devoted to preserving big cats and their ecosystems around the globe. Among his life career, he studied jaguars, clouded leopards, Asiatic leopards, tigers, Sumatran rhinos, bears, leopard cats, raccoons, and civets.

Excerpted from an August 2018 press release by Panthera after Brother Alan Rabinowitz entered the Fraternity’s Chapter Grand.

The board and staff of Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, mourn the loss of its co-founder and one of the world’s most visionary and widely admired wild cat scientists, Dr. Alan Robert Rabinowitz, who died August 2018 after a journey with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Panthera CEO and President, Dr. Fred Launay, stated, “The conservation community has lost a legend. Alan was a fearless and outspoken champion for the conservation of our planet’s iconic wild cats and wild places. As a lifelong voice for the voiceless, he changed the fate of tigers, jaguars and other at-risk species by placing their protection on the agendas of world leaders from Asia to Latin America for the very first time.”

Launay continued, “Inspiring a generation of young scientists, the boldness and passion with which Alan approached conservation was captivating and contagious. While we are devastated by his passing, we are comforted by the fact that his extraordinary legacy of advocacy for the most vulnerable creatures will live on in his legion of students and followers.”

Panthera Chairman and Co-Founder, Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, stated, “For those who became part of his astonishing and inspiring journey to save the big cats and their ecosystems, the impact of experiencing the intellectual and animal spirits that defined Alan Rabinowitz was, not unlike the moment one sees a big cat in the wild, simply unforgettable.”

“Through the young people whose talents he galvanized and mentored, standing upon Alan’s broad shoulders and implementing his vision, the trajectory of cat conservation that Panthera has succeeded in changing for the good will endure and indeed thrive.”

In a career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Rabinowitz was, above all, a protector and global advocate for wild cats and other threatened wildlife, the diminishing lands in which they roam, and the often-impoverished people living near these cats and other wildlife.

Among a lengthy seminal list, some of his crowning conservation achievements are the conceptualization and implementation of Panthera’s Jaguar Corridor Initiative, an unprecedented effort to connect and protect jaguars from Mexico to Argentina, and the establishment of the world’s first jaguar sanctuary in Belize. Forever in awe of the magnificence of the tiger – the world’s largest cat – Dr. Rabinowitz achieved victory after victory for the species, including the creation of the largest tiger reserve, the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve, in northern Myanmar.

Prior to co-founding the Panthera Corporation, Rabinowitz served as the executive director of the Science and Exploration Division for the Wildlife Conservation Society, where he worked for nearly 30 years. He authored seven books about big cats over his lifetime.

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Professor William J. Harvey was born October 20, 1932. He graduated from the Eldon High School, in Eldon, Missouri. He was president of his senior class and selected as the best all-around student in those four years. He was runner-up for Missouri Governor of Boys State in 1949. He ranked No. 1 in state solo vocal music. He received widely recognized basketball honors. Later, in a 50-team basketball tournament in the U.S. Navy, he was a co-captain of the championship team and selected as the tournament MVP.

He graduated from the University of Missouri. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta social fraternity. After graduation, he entered the U.S. Navy and served in Korea and Indochina.

He was one of the youngest Navy officers in the Pacific fleet to be given combat and task force functional command of an Essex Class aircraft carrier, during which Navy fighters and bombers were launched and recovered.

After leaving active duty in the Navy, he graduated from the Georgetown University School of Law with a J.D. degree. He was a member of the editorial staff of the Georgetown Law Review, in which he also published, President of the Georgetown Law School student body, and President of Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity. During part of that time, he was employed by the Antitrust Division of the U. S. Department of Justice as a special assistant to Victor Kramer, the chief of litigation.

Upon graduation he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas D. Quinn, on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. He also worked for Chief Judge Leo A. Rover, on that court. In that time, he returned to the Georgetown University School of Law and received an LL.M degree in law. Afterward, he was the law clerk to the Honorable John A. Danaher on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. During that time he also worked for the Honorable Warren E. Burger, who later became the Chief Justice of the United States.

He was a professor of law at the Washburn University Law School in Topeka, Kansas, the first president of that University’s faculty senate, and he was a lecturer at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka. While on the Washburn faculty he collaborated with his law student and friend Dr. M. Martin Halley, a cardiac surgeon, to develop the first widely used legal and medical definition for determining whether a person is legally considered dead. Their work was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and elsewhere.

In 1968, Professor Harvey joined the faculty of Indiana University at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. He formally retired from the Law School faculty in 1997 and from all professorial counseling of law students in 2002.

He was the Law School’s Dean from 1973–1979, and its first Titled Professor: the Carl M. Gray Professor of Law. He received twelve student awards as the outstanding faculty professor of the year, during the years when such awards were made. For ten years he was a member of Indiana University’s Rhodes and Marshall Scholarship Committee.

Among his many distinguished students were Vice President and Mrs. Dan Quayle, Vice President-elect Governor Mike Pence, Governor Mitch Daniels, United States Senator Dan Coats, Honorable Dan Manion, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Honorable Margaret Robb, Indiana Court of Appeals, Honorable Cale Bradford, Indiana Court of Appeals, United States Congressman Todd Rokita, and United States Attorney Deborah Daniels.

For twenty two years, he served on the Indiana Supreme Court’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. For twenty-three years, he lectured in the Indiana Bar Review course. He lectured at the Defense Information School of the U. S. Department of Defense, and he extensively lectured in Continuing Legal Educational Programs. He was admitted to practice in Indiana, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Kansas. He was an active member of the Indiana Bar Association and its Trial Lawyers Section.

Professor Harvey wrote twenty-five volumes that were published by West Publishing Company. He also wrote over four hundred other articles and columns for the Indiana Bar Association, for law reviews, and other publications.

He was published by The Wall Street Journal, and in journals of opinion such as National Review, the American Spectator, and Chronicles. He appeared on national television in NBC’s Today Program, and as a guest on his friend William F. Buckley’s Firing Line. For several years he was a popular, regular guest speaker on the weekday radio show of Greg Garrison, a distinguished former student.

He authored legal-medical articles and comments that were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Modern Medicine, the Kansas Medical Journal, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Professor Harvey participated in major litigation in state and federal courts in Indiana and in the U. S. Supreme Court. On five occasions, the Indiana Supreme Court requested he defend it in law suits brought against that Court. He was a lead trial attorney for the successful defense of the Carmel-Clay Schools of Carmel, Indiana before Federal District Judge S. Hugh Dillin in the Indianapolis School Desegregation Case in 1973.

In defense of the State of Indiana in 1977, he wrote a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States that was granted without full briefing or oral argument, and reversed the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit which had affirmed Judge Dillin, who had ruled against Indiana and Governor Otis R. Bowen.

Professor Harvey wrote briefs in several major state and federal cases, and he worked extensively on cases with the Pacific Legal Foundation of Sacramento, California, and the Washington Legal Foundation or Washington, D.C.

He was strongly committed to the Indianapolis Legal Aid Society, and was a member of its Board of Directors for more than thirty five years.

President Reagan appointed him to be a member of the Advisory Committee on Accreditation of Colleges and Universities to the U. S. Secretary of Education, and to be Chairman of the Board of Directors of the national Legal Services Corporation.

In 1985, President Reagan selected him for nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Illinois.

In the 1996, Governor Evan Bayh of Indiana appointed him as Sagamore of the Wabash, one of the highest honors bestowed in the State of Indiana.

He was an insatiable reader with an extraordinary knowledge and understanding of law, history, philosophy, and economics. From 1956 until his death, he was a member of the United States Naval Institute. He was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Society of Descendents of Washington’s Army at Valley Forge.

Professor Harvey was also an outstanding amateur golfer. He was the medalist and then runner-up in the Missouri State Amateur Golf Championship. He won several amateur tournaments. For a time, he held the course record on two courses and his home course in Missouri. He was a member of the Country Club of Indianapolis, and later the Meridian Hills Country Club of Indianapolis.

Howard Rusk was a prominent physician and founder of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. He was considered to be the founder of rehabilitation medicine. Born in Brookfield, Missouri, Rusk was active in the Health for Peace movement in the 1950s and supported US efforts to participate more in rehabilitation medicine in international affairs. He was the first recipient of the Pacem in Terris award of the Pope John Paul II Center of Prayer and Study for Peace.

William Clifford Roberts, M.D., M.A.C.C. is an American physician specializing in cardiac pathology. He is a Master of the American College of Cardiology, a leading cardiovascular pathologist, and the current editor of both the American Journal of Cardiology and the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings.

Andrew Warren Sledd was an American theologian, university professor and university president. A native of Virginia, he was the son of a prominent Methodist minister, and was himself ordained as a minister after earning his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree. He later earned a second master’s degree and his doctorate.

After teaching for several years, Sledd was chosen to be the last president of the University of Florida at Lake City, from 1904 to 1905, and the first president of the modern University of Florida (first known as the “University of the State of Florida”), from 1905 to 1909. He was also president of Southern University from 1910 to 1914, and later became a professor and an influential biblical scholar at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology from 1914 to 1939.

Sledd first gained national recognition after he wrote a 1902 magazine article advocating better legal and social treatment of African-Americans. He is also prominently remembered for his role in founding the modern University of Florida, his scholarly analysis of biblical texts as literature, his call for an end to racial violence, and his influence on a generation of Methodist seminary students, scholars and ministers.

Elden T. Smith was appointed the eleventh president in Ohio Wesleyan history (1962-1968) during which time residential buildings significantly expanded – Smith, Welch and Lucy Hayes dormitories were built.

Stewart Smith served as an influential leader during his 22-year administration as President at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Marshall entered a period of stability and growth during Smith’s term from 1946 to 1968. In 1949 Smith appointed a separate dean for the graduate school allowing campus programs and building projects to flourish. Enrolment increased to 8,177 by 1968 with the addition of a dining hall (1946), a new science building (1950), dormitories (1958, 1962, 1967), gymnasium (1961), library remodeling and addition (1967), and an academic building (1968). Marshall’s greatest achievement came on March 2, 1961 when legislation granted the school university status.

The Smith Academic Center consisting of Smith Hall, the Smith Music Hall, the Communications Building and the Birke Art Gallery was completed between 1967 and 1970. It was named for former university president Stewart H. Smith and is the largest classroom building on campus.

John James Tigert, IV was an American university president, university professor and administrator, college sports coach and the U.S. Commissioner of Education.

Tigert was a native of Tennessee and the son and grandson of Methodist bishops. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he earned his master’s degree as a Rhodes Scholar. After completing his education, Tigert taught at Central College; served as the president of Kentucky Wesleyan College; and worked as a professor, sports coach and administrator at the University of Kentucky.

Tigert gained his greatest national prominence as the U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1921 to 1928, and the third president of the University of Florida, from 1928 to 1947. He is remembered as a forceful advocate for American public education, intercollegiate sports and university curriculum reform.

Maurice Townsend was named the fifth President in the history of University of West Georgia in 1975. He served until his death in 1993. During his presidency the school adopted a football program.

Dr. Thomas Kent “T.K.” Wetherell became the 13th president of Florida State University on January 6, 2003. A career educator with more than 30 years of experience in the State of Florida’s educational system, Dr. Wetherell is the only FSU president with experience in all four major divisions within higher education, having held positions in the offices of academic affairs, student services, business affairs, and college development. He has held leadership positions in two-year as well as four-year colleges, and he has served as a faculty member in both public and private institutions of higher education.

An outstanding advocate for higher education who has been called the state’s most politically astute university president, Wetherell has proven to be a leader among his peers, and he pushed successfully for universities to assess a tuition differential in an effort to make up for budget shortfalls and continue to offer high-quality education to students.

Soon after assuming the presidency, Wetherell, the first university alumnus to serve as president of Florida State, launched the innovative and ambitious Pathways of Excellence initiative that included hiring additional faculty members in interdisciplinary clusters built around academic themes, substantial investments in new facilities, and significant investments in graduate-level programs with emphasis on creating new interdisciplinary doctoral programs.

Wetherell scored a major coup in 2005 when The Florida State University lured the Applied Superconductivity Center to campus from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where it had been housed for more than two decades. The center has become the material research division of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

The most visible component of the Pathways initiative may be the $800 million worth of new construction and renovations, including state-of-the-art chemistry, biological science, psychology and medicine buildings, that have transformed the northwest corner of campus into a research quadrangle. In addition, other projects include several new research facilities, three new residence halls, dining halls, parking garages, a general classroom building and the Alumni Center.

Under Wetherell’s leadership, the university saw its students reach unprecedented national academic recognition, including three students who were named Rhodes Scholars — one of the oldest and most prestigious awards for international study. The success was in part due to the Office of National Fellowships, which guided students to win more than 40 nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships, including three Truman Scholarships, three Goldwater Scholarships, the Udall Scholarship and 22 Fulbright Fellowships, since Wetherell established it in 2005.

During Wetherell’s tenure as president, Florida State University’s College of Medicine, the nation’s first new fully accredited public allopathic medical school in the past 25 years, graduated its first class in 2005, opened six regional campuses, and established important research collaborations with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

Dr. Wetherell has been inducted into Florida State University’s Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the prestigious Moore-Stone Award, the Circle of Gold Award and the university’s Distinguished Service Award. In addition, he has also been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Flagler College.

Dr. Wetherell served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1980 to 1992, the last two years as Speaker of the House. During his tenure in the House he served as chairman of the appropriations committee and the higher education committee. The Miami Herald named him one of the Top Ten Legislative Leaders in the House each year from 1987 until 1992.

A third-generation Floridian, Dr. Wetherell was born on December 22, 1945 in Daytona Beach, Florida. He attended Port Orange Elementary School and Mainland Senior High School, where he was active in service clubs, student government and athletics. He attended Florida State University on a football scholarship and played on the 1963-67 football teams. He still holds the record for the longest kickoff return in Florida State University history. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social studies education from FSU in 1967 and 1968, respectively. He earned a doctorate in education administration from FSU in 1974.

Wetherell is married to Virginia B. Wetherell, who served as Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from 1991 to 1998 and previously served as a state legislator representing Pensacola. She currently is president of Wetherell Consulting Services. They are the parents of three children, Kent, Blakely and Page, and have two grandchildren. Wetherell’s personal interests include athletics, outdoor recreation, travel and aviation.