Exeter, NH (October 12, 2007)—On Tuesday, October 9, 2007, Phillips Exeter Academy honored Ken Bacon (Phillips Exeter Class of 1962), president of Refugees International, 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.

Since 2001, as leader of Refugees International, or R.I., Bacon has advocated for 35-million people worldwide who have been displaced by war and humanitarian crises—generating life-saving assistance and protection for the less fortunate. During Bacon’s tenure, R.I. has played a critical role in turning the world’s attention toward humanitarian crises in Darfur, Afghanistan, Angola and Uganda, among others. One of its top priorities is to mitigate the growing refugee crisis in Iraq.

Soon after Bacon entered Phillips Exeter Academy in 1959, he joined the student newspaper, The Exonian, as its business manager. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College in 1966, and advanced degrees in journalism and business from Columbia University, he took a summer job at The Wall Street Journal. Thus began a 25-year career as a reporter, editor and columnist.   
 
From 1994–2001, Bacon served in the Department of Defense as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, advising top officials on public affairs strategy and serving as Pentagon spokesman. In 1999, on a government trip to the Balkans, he visited a refugee camp and was struck by the large number of displaced persons. After successful efforts to shelter, feed and repatriate almost a million Kosovars, Bacon contemplated serving similar needs of displaced populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan and Sudan. In 2001, he began as head of Refugees International.  

Refugees International was founded in 1979 in response to the Cambodian refugee crisis, as a “global voice for the world’s dispossessed.” R.I.’s small staff of trained field officers makes direct contact with refugee groups around the world. They observe and analyze the issues specific to each region, act as witnesses to often unrecognized suffering and injustice, and advocate through multiple channels for specific solutions to be enacted by governments and humanitarian organizations.

Currently, Bacon serves on the board for Population Action International, and is a member of the council on Foreign Relations and International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has published articles and op-ed pieces on peacekeeping, displacement and other topics in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Newsday, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, World Policy Journal and The Guardian.

A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on our website at http://www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events_1325.aspx. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call (603) 777-4330. To learn more about upcoming events at Exeter, check the News & Events section of the website.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, students come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds. The diverse student body comes from approximately 45 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and 23 foreign countries.