Campus Police Chief Mary Voswinkel Economic Summit collection

Perhaps no other event so represented Rice’s emerging role as a national, even international, institution, than its being chosen to host the 1990 Economic Summit of the Industrialized Nations. For three days in July heads of delegations from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, and the European Economic Community held talks at Rice, covered by thousands of journalists and communicated to the world. Rice had long hosted major world figures—General Pershing; Presidents (or presidents-to-be) Taft, Hoover, Eisenhower, Kennedy (announcing the goal of going to the moon), Johnson, Carter, Reagan; Sir Harold Wilson; Prince Philip; and the Dalai Lama suggest the range of famous visitors. But never had such an assemblage appeared at one time as during the Economic Summit. Alumni around the globe were thrilled to see on television world political leaders walking through the familiar arches of Lovett Hall.

Excerpted from Dr. John Boles' A University So Conceived: A Brief History of Rice (Revised Edition), 1997, p. 81.

Mary Voswinkel joined the Rice University Police Department in 1978 as assistant chief of police. She served as Chief of Police for 14 years before retiring in 1999. She received the 1992 Administrator of the Year Award from the university and was recognized by the Board of Trustees. She was the first female president for the Texas-New Mexico Association of Colleges and Universities.