Michael R. Eisenson, Class of 1977

For someone who doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, you certainly have a large one. You might look all business, but we know otherwise. Yes, you are a strategic thinker and attender to detail in both your professional and civic lives, but both are in service to your exceptional generosity of spirit. At the Harvard Private Capital Group and as founder and co-chairman of Charlesbank Capital Partners, you have worked to expand the capacity of institutions to advance the public good. Your soft spot for children led to your founding of the Horizons program, which provides preschool and other services to homeless children throughout Massachusetts. Your passion for global public health inspired your deep involvement with Planned Parenthood and with the work of Partners in Health in Haiti and elsewhere. No community, however, has benefited more from your dedication than Williams. As alumnus, board member, and most notably as board chair, you have applied your formidable acumen to making Williams more accessible, diverse, and sustainable, and to making Williamstown more socially and economically vibrant. So we’re not buying this all-business act. We respect the intellectual edge that has benefitted all of us at Williams, now and in generations to come, but we admire even more the rich heart that has reliably guided it.

I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree Doctor of Laws, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.

June 2, 2019