Alumni honored for distinguished achievements

Alumni honored for distinguished achievements

BY SARAH WILLIAMS
Special to the Rice News

Five Rice University graduates have been selected to receive the
Association of Rice Alumni’s annual Distinguished Alumni Award,
presented to alumni whose professional or volunteer activities reflect
and forward the high standards and ideals of the university.

George P. Taylor Jr. ’75

Lt. Gen. George P. Taylor Jr. is the living embodiment of the phrase “an officer and a gentleman,” friends say, and his 27 years in military service are a testament to the values instilled in him while at Rice.

TAYLOR

Though Taylor recently joined PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as a managing director in its Washington federal practice, he has spent nearly the last three decades pursuing a storied and decorated career in the U.S. Air Force, including serving as Air Force surgeon general. “His stature and accomplishments in the military have been outstanding,” says friend Phillip B. Costa Sr. ’47.

After earning his medical degree and completing an internship, Taylor entered active duty in 1979 as a flight surgeon. He served in both Japan and Spain, logging more than 1,500 hours in a wide variety of military aircraft ranging from fighters to transports. He also served as a medical inspector, a hospital commander and in several senior medical staff positions in Europe and the United States.

As a physician board certified in aerospace medicine, Taylor was a key leader and strategist in the military medical response to disasters and emergencies, including the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and helped to develop the medical footprint of Air Force deployment for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Among Taylor’s most notable accomplishments is that he developed the medical recommendations to the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. In creating a new 21st century military medical footprint, his work fashioned four jointly staffed medical centers, six joint biomedical research activities and a joint educational training center. He also served as co-leader for the medical portion of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review calling for major legislative, policy, work/data process and benefit changes for the military health care system, creating a more adaptive, performance-based military