Exeter, NH (October 14, 2009)—On Tuesday, October 13, 2009, Phillips Exeter Academy honored Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach (class of 1939; parent of Christopher ’67 and John ’68), former attorney general and undersecretary during the Johnson Administration, with the John Phillips Award. The award recognizes and honors an Exeter graduate whose life and contributions to the welfare of community, country and humanity exemplify the nobility of character and usefulness to humanity that John Phillips sought to promote in establishing the Academy.

A distinguished lawyer and law professor, Katzenbach held a pivotal role in ending racial segregation during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and was a key participant in many critical decisions of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies.

Katzenbach was born in New Jersey in 1922, the newest addition to a family immersed in public service. His father was the state’s attorney general; his mother, the first female president of the N.J. Board of Education; his uncle, a Supreme Court justice. He was destined to serve his country.

After graduating from Exeter, he attended two years at Princeton University before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Two years later, in 1943, Katzenbach’s bomber was shot down over North Africa, where he was held for two years as a prisoner of war. Upon repatriation, he graduated from Princeton and enrolled in Yale Law School, and served as editor-in-chief and graduated cum laude in 1947. Katzenbach was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and for two years, studied at Oxford University. 

He returned to the U.S. and spent more than 10 years practicing law in New Jersey, and teaching law at Yale University and the University of Chicago. In 1960, Katzenbach was asked to head up the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. Serving under the leadership of President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Katzenbach negotiated and secured the release of Cuban-exile prisoners captured during the Bay of Pigs invasion. He also served as an Academy trustee.

In 1962, during his most challenging assignments with the desegregation of the South, Katzenbach was dispatched to the all-white University of Mississippi to uphold a federal court order allowing two African-American students to attend school. Following his order to use tear gas to disperse the angry crowd, Katzenbach led the students past then-Governor George Wallace—who vowed to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to prevent this#into the building to enroll.

Katzenbach describes his proudest achievement as the drafting and securing passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. Following the assassination of President Kennedy, then-President Johnson asked him to serve as attorney general when he began crafting the bill. One year later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965—outlawing discriminatory voter-registration practices and allowing African-Americans to vote for the first time—became law. Following President Johnson’s later request to serve as undersecretary of state to focus on the Vietnam War, Katzenbach left government in 1969, and returned to working in corporate and private law. From 1969 to 1986, he served as general counsel at IBM and later became a partner with a law firm in New Jersey.

During the Academy’s citation assembly, Katzenbach was given an award which read, “ . . . throughout your life, you have stood for the cause of freedom and pursued justice for every American. As an institution dedicated to opening its own school doors to ‘youth from every quarter,’ we recognize you as a person who embodies the pursuit of knowledge with a deep concern for the welfare of humanity. Today, it is our honor to present you with the 2009 John Phillips Award.”

For more information, please call Julie K. Hall at 603-777-3536. For more information on other events, visit the Academy’s community calendar, or contact the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at 603-777-4309, or visit the Academy website at Phillips Exeter Academy. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call 603-777-4330.

Read the John Phillips Award citation honoring Katzenbach...

See a list of previous John Phillips Award honorees...