James McCormick ’69, M.Eng. ’70, an influential business leader, philanthropist and longtime supporter of education initiatives at Cornell and nationally, received the Cornell Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award during a celebration event on March 7 in Duffield Hall.

Much of the event focused on the impact of McCormick’s endowment of Cornell Engineering’s James McCormick Family Teaching Excellence Institute (MTEI), which has advanced the culture in the college around undergraduate teaching. For 15 years, the institute, led by Kathryn Dimiduk ’79, who McCormick refers to as a source of “uncommon common sense,” has developed a wide array of supports and tools for engineering faculty. The assistance it provides includes personalized teaching tips based on student feedback, workshops for new professors, course and curriculum redesigns, and classroom reconfigurations to accommodate active learning.

Credit: Charissa King-O’Brien/Cornell Engineering

President Martha E. Pollack thanked McCormick during her remarks for bringing the institute “from concept to reality, and supporting it with passion and dedication,” adding that “Jim’s decades of involvement as an alumni leader and his focus on the core priority of excellence in teaching have helped to ensure that Cornell Engineering prepares our students for lives and careers of innovation and impact.”

McCormick has served as a strategic adviser and advocate for higher standards in engineering instruction to four Cornell Engineering deans. He has also endowed multiple faculty positions at Cornell and supported the development of what is now the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering.

McCormick is a member of the Engineering Campaign Committee and an emeritus member of the Engineering College Council (ECC). He has also served on the Biomedical Engineering Advisory Council, the Cornell University Council and several other university committees.

“For me personally, Jim has been a trusted adviser and confidant without equal,” said Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, who added that McCormick’s support for MTEI has not just improved the college’s culture of teaching, but has helped Cornell Engineering attract talented faculty with a passion for engineering education. “Jim embodies, in my view, all that is great about Cornell engineers. He’s thoughtful, innovative, a coalition builder, a leader and above all, is solutions-oriented.”

The celebration featured an interview and a conversation with McCormick, who detailed his career path. He graduated with honors and began to utilize his Cornell-derived skills first at Bell Labs and later at McKinsey Consulting. These experiences gave him the confidence and inspiration to form First Manhattan Consulting Group in 1980.

McCormick’s interest in education philanthropy, he said, partly stems from his undergraduate experience, when he encountered two courses where professor instruction fell far short of his expectations. Alongside his peers, he recognized the potential for these courses to be taught more effectively, prompting him to question whether there was a mechanism in place to identify and rectify such issues.

“That lived with me until I joined the ECC,” said McCormick, who pitched the value of teaching-excellence initiatives to the council after witnessing results from similar initiatives as a national board member of Teach for America. “You can learn more about how to teach effectively, and if you can, it’s going to increase impact and good for everyone involved, from professors to students.”

When asked about a professor who inspired him, McCormick cited Richard Conway, an engineer, computer scientist, professor emeritus of manufacturing management and – coincidentally – Dimiduk’s father.

McCormick recalled quickly bonding with Dimiduk – who has a Ph.D. in applied physics and brought to Cornell more than 19 years of college teaching experience – over their shared passion for both education and their alma mater.

McCormick credited Dimiduk with the institute’s success, noting that it had enabled what he called “a three-way win,” improving the educational experience for students, enhancing professional satisfaction among the faculty, and elevating the college’s reputation for teaching excellence.

Underscoring these achievements, the ceremony showcased testimonials from professors who have benefitted from the teaching institute, including remarks from Susan Daniel, the William C. Hooey Director of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Daniel described feeling intimidated about instructing her first undergraduate course when she joined Cornell in 2007. “I was not a natural. I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I knew something had to change…and then Kathy Dimiduk arrived on campus.”

After a year of working with Dimiduk, Daniel won a teaching award from the regional chapter of the American Society of Engineering Education. According to Daniel, she was just as excited as Dimiduk when the institute – originally called the Teaching Excellence Institute when it launched in 2008 – was endowed by McCormick in 2013.

“We hugged each other because we knew at that moment that this is going to change the course of teaching excellence at Cornell and the college, and help countless faculty members thereafter,” Daniel said. “Our students would be better for it, and society would be better served by delivering not just engineers to the workplace, but engineers with verve.”

During his remarks, McCormick thanked several people in attendance, including his wife Marsha McCormick ’70, and his son, James McCormick Jr. ’05, M.Eng. ’06.

Syl Kacapyr is associate director of marketing and communications for Cornell Engineering.