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Carrie Blewitt (703) 744-7816

Retired Bank of America CEO Richard Rosenberg Honored by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans
Two Massachusetts High School Scholars also Recognized during 60th Anniversary Celebration

Washington, DC – (February 27, 2007) – The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans announced that Richard M. Rosenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Bank of America (retired), will be presented with the Horatio Alger Award, and inducted as a lifetime member of the Association at its 60th anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C. in April.

The Association is equally proud to announce two student scholars from Massachusetts will join Rosenberg in Washington this spring and will be honored as Horatio Alger National Scholars. Horatio Alger scholarship recipients are students who have excelled in education and have overcome adversity. This year’s scholarship recipients from Massachusetts are Nisha M. Cirino from Boston and Adriana Lara from Greenfield.

"The 60th anniversary is a time to reflect on six decades of exceptional American achievements, and we look forward to celebrating the successes of the outstanding individuals who will be inducted as Members, and the National Scholars who represent our nation’s most ambitious youth," said Horatio Alger Association President and CEO and ARAMARK Corporation Chairman and CEO, Joseph Neubauer.

The 60th Annual Horatio Alger Awards events will take place in Washington, D.C. on April 12-14, 2007 to honor and induct the Horatio Alger Award recipients. During the events, the Horatio Alger Award winners will meet with 105 high school seniors from around the nation who were selected to receive Horatio Alger National Scholarships, each valued at $20,000. The total amount of college scholarships awarded is more than $12 million annually – an Association milestone.

The events provide an opportunity for some of the nation’s most impressive and determined young people to learn firsthand about the philosophies and experiences that helped the 2007 Horatio Alger Award recipients surmount significant obstacles to achieve successful lives.

The other new members being inducted in April are Craig R. Barrett, chairman of the board for Intel Corporation; Thomas “Tom” J. Brokaw, former anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News; Jenny and Sid Craig, co-founders of Jenny Craig International; Craig Hall, chairman and founder of Hall Financial Group; Clarence Otis, Jr., chairman and CEO of Darden Restaurants; David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group; Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks Coffee Company; Roger T. Staubach, former Dallas Cowboy and chairman and CEO of The Staubach Company; and Chris Thomas Sullivan, founder and chairman of OSI Restaurant Partners, Inc.

In preparation for the spring awards, Rosenberg recently voiced his desire to act as a role model to the high school recipients of the Horatio Alger Scholarship. He said: “To the extent that this helps other kids who find themselves in the same circumstances that I found myself growing up – and this award helps those kind of kids – it means a great deal.”

Richard Rosenberg was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. When his father became unemployed due to the Great Depression and moved to New York City, Rosenberg and his mother lived with his grandmother, and Rosenberg helped to support the small family by working a variety of odd jobs.

Rosenberg worked his way through high school and college and later joined the U.S. Navy, serving in Korea and Vietnam. He remained in the Naval Reserves, where he eventually retired with the rank of commander, but he retired to civilian life in 1959 to raise a family with wife Barbara Cohen Rosenberg.

Rosenberg took a job with Wells Fargo Bank while earning an MBA and law degree in night school. Despite his law degree, he remained at Wells Fargo as the youngest vice president in the company. After 22 years, he joined Seattle-First National Bank and Seafirst Corporation as President and COO.

In 1987, he moved to Bank of America, becoming Chairman and CEO in 1990. In his six years in that role, he led Bank of America through significant growth and acquisitions. It is now the second largest bank in the U.S.

Now retired, Rosenberg serves on several boards, including the Buck Institute for Age Research, the San Francisco Symphony, the Naval War College Foundation and the Jewish Community Foundation.

About The Horatio Alger Association
Founded in 1947, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans continues to fulfill its mission of honoring the achievements of outstanding individuals in our society who have succeeded in spite of adversity and of encouraging young people to pursue their dreams through higher education. Among the Association’s 300 members are well-known Americans including the noted poet Maya Angelou, author and broadcaster Lou Dobbs, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and television personality Oprah Winfrey.

The Horatio Alger Association offers three annual scholarship programs: the National Scholarship Program for high school seniors, various state scholarship programs and the Horatio Alger Military Veterans Scholarship Program for U.S. veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. Award winners receive financial aid counseling and internship placement assistance.

For more information about the scholarships or to find out more about the 2007 Washington events, please call (703) 684-9444 or visit www.horatioalger.org.

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