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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Frapwell receives IU President's Medal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2012

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie has presented the President's Medal for Excellence to recently retired Vice President and General Counsel Dorothy Frapwell in recognition of her more than 35 years of service to IU as a member of the university's legal staff.

The presentation was made during a special retirement reception June 5 at IU Bloomington's Musical Arts Center. The President's Medal is the highest honor an IU president can bestow.

"Through good times and difficult times, Indiana University could not have asked for a more well-prepared, wiser or more reliable and principled representative than Dottie Frapwell," McRobbie said. "Her sound judgment and steadiness under pressure have earned her tremendous respect not only among her IU colleagues, but also among members of the community and among colleagues across the nation."

Frapwell, who retired last month after serving nearly six years as IU's chief legal officer, joined the IU legal staff in 1975 as an associate university counsel. For a dozen years, beginning in 1978, she served as the IU Medical Center attorney, advising doctors and administrators on matters of patient care, ethics, hospital law and medical education.

In 1990, she was named special counsel to the president and associate university counsel. In 1994, she was named university counsel, heading an office that includes six associate attorneys in Bloomington, Ind., and Indianapolis. She was appointed vice president and general counsel in 2006.

Throughout the course of her career, Frapwell advised the trustees of IU, four university presidents and other senior IU administrators. She is continuing her service to IU as a special advisor to the next vice president and general counsel, Jacqueline A. Simmons, who will begin her new role July 1.

Frapwell holds a bachelor of science from Penn State University and a juris doctorate from the IU Maurer School of Law. She served on the Maurer School's board of visitors for 16 years and as a member of the law alumni board, culminating in a term as president in 1993. In March, she was inducted into the Maurer School of Law's Academy of Law Alumni Fellows. Induction into the academy is the highest honor the law school can bestow on its graduates.

Frapwell's newest honor, the President's Medal for Excellence, recognizes, among other criteria, distinction in public service, service to IU and extraordinary merit and achievement in the arts, humanities, sciences, education and industry. The medal itself is a reproduction in silver of the symbolic jewel of office worn by IU's president at ceremonial occasions.

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