The former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. is the inaugural winner of this new award, which recognizes outstanding service and leadership.
Over the next month leading up to UMB’s commencement on May 18, The Elm will feature stories on the ceremony’s student speaker and honorees. For more information, go to UMB’s Commencement 2023 website. Read about all the honorees at this link.
Norman R. Augustine, MSE, the former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., the nation’s largest defense contractor, is the inaugural recipient of the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) President’s Distinguished Gold Medal, presented to a deserving individual who has provided outstanding service and leadership to UMB and beyond. Augustine also was named UMB’s inaugural President’s Distinguished Scholar in 2019.
Augustine has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in business and government, receiving many accolades including the National Medal of Technology, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Department of Defense’s highest civilian decoration, the Distinguished Service Medal, five times.
He also has chaired several notable commissions, including the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program in 1990 and the National Academies’ “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” committee in 2005 — one of the first groups to sound the alarm on the United States’ slipping competitiveness in science, technology, engineering, and math.
“Throughout Norm Augustine’s career, he has shown what it means to be a leader,” said UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS. “He is receiving UMB’s inaugural President’s Distinguished Gold Medal in honor of his exemplary service to the nation and service to UMB. I am proud to honor him at this year’s commencement.”
A Colorado native, Augustine began his career in 1958 at Douglas Aircraft Co. in California, where he worked as a research engineer, program manager, and chief engineer. He left Douglas in 1965 to serve in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as assistant director of defense research and engineering before joining LTV Missiles and Space Co. in 1970 as vice president.
Before joining Martin Marietta Corp., he was assistant secretary of the Army (research and development) from 1973 to 1975 and undersecretary from 1975 to 1977. He also was a professor at Princeton, his alma mater, from 1997 to 1999, and is the co-author of “The Defense Revolution” and “Shakespeare in Charge” and author of “Augustine’s Laws” and “Augustine’s Travels.”
Augustine has served on the boards of Black & Decker and Procter & Gamble, and has led groups ranging from the American Red Cross to the National Academy of Engineering to the Boy Scouts of America. Closer to home, he has been a regent of the University System of Maryland (USM) and chaired the Maryland Economic Development and Business Climate Commission, whose 2015 report offered 32 recommendations for making Maryland friendlier to business.
Augustine has delivered over 1,500 speeches and lectures, holds 35 honorary degrees, and was selected by Who’s Who in America and the Library of Congress as one of “Fifty Great Americans” on the occasion of Who’s Who’s 50th anniversary.
An avid outdoors enthusiast who has trekked around the world to 130 countries, including dogsledding in the Arctic, exploring volcanoes in Antarctica, canoeing the Boundary Waters of Canada, and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, Augustine has stood on both the North and South poles of the Earth.