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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS
January 27, 1986

[[underlined]]SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS[[/underlined]]

[[underlined]]Tributes to George H. Mahon and J. Paul Austin[[/underlined]]

The Regents and the staff of the Institution were deeply saddened with the news of the passing of the Honorable George H. Mahon on November 19, 1985, and that of J. Paul Austin on December 26, 1985.  Mr. Mahon had served as a Regent from 1964 until his retirement from the House of Representatives in 1978, during which time he had been Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee; he became the first former Regent to be designated Regent Emeritus by the Board, and he served on the Audit and Review Committee and the Personnel Committee until his death.  Mr. Austin, a graduate of Harvard University and Law School, had been the President, Chief Executive Officer, and then Chairman of the Board of the Coca-Cola Company.  He became a Regent in 1972 and was active on the Regents' Investment Policy Committee, on which he continued to serve as a Regent Emeritus after his resignation from the Board in 1983.  The Regents mourned the passing of these valued colleagues and expressed their great admiration and sympathy to the families.

[[underlined]]Report of the Executive Committee[[/underlined]]

Mr. Humelsine reported that the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents met on January 3 to discuss and approve the proposed agenda for the January 27 meeting of the Board of Regents.  It was noted that the current terms of Regents Gell-Mann and Acheson are scheduled to expire July 25, 1986 and December 22, 1986 respectively.  As the Committee had ascertained that both Regents are willing to stand for renomination and to continue their active service to the Institution for an additional term, the Committee recommended, and the Regents approved, the following motion:

VOTED that the Board of Regents renominates Murray Gell-Mann and David C. Acheson to serve additional terms for the statutory period of six years from the expiration of their current terms and requests that the Congressional members of the Board introduce and support legislation to that effect.

The Executive Committee discussed the Report of the Investment Policy Committee and took note that the Institution's holdings in Batterymarch's Trustees Commingled Fund, while measurably diminished in recent weeks, may still be perceived as inconsistent with the action taken by the Executive Committee in June 1985 to divest of the Institution's investments in American companies involved in South Africa who had not subscribed to the Sullivan Principles.  The Executive Committee anticipated that this matter would be discussed further