Rocco C. Siciliano

Rocco C. Siciliano, of Beverly Hills, California, is Chairman of the Board of the Dwight D. Eisenhower World Affairs Institute. He was the youngest Special Assistant to President Dwight Eisenhower.

Mr. Siciliano is a World War II combat decorated veteran and is very active in public service in California, where he was also the Chairman of the California Business Roundtable. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Utah and a L.L.B. from the Georgetown University Law School.

The ties that bind Rocco C. Siciliano--public servant, businessman, attorney, civic leader, and family man--to the University of Utah are strong indeed. It is no wonder, then, that he chose Utah’s flagship institution of higher learning as the home for the forum that bears his name and fosters thoughtful discourse on the many key issues facing America today.

A Salt Lake City native, Mr. Siciliano graduated from the University of Utah in 1944 with an honors degree in political science and was selected for Beehive, the highest scholastic and activity society. He earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1948. Mr. Siciliano received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Utah in 1967 and has been a member of the University’s National Advisory Council since its formation in 1968. In addition to the Siciliano Forum, he is the founder of the Rocco C. Siciliano Public Policy Internship Program in the Hinckley Institute of Politics, also in the College ofSocial and Behavioral Science, which provides financial assistance to students serving political internships in Washington, D.C.

Leadership and public service have been the hallmarks of Mr. Siciliano’s distinguished career. As a young lieutenant during World War II, Siciliano led an infantry platoon of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Italy. He received the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, and a Special Commendation Award.

A leading patron of the arts and civic affairs in California, Mr. Siciliano is a board member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (having served as President and then Chairman), and he helped found and served as Director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). He is a Trustee Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

The Forum’s inspiration comes from Mr. Siciliano’s extensive involvement in both the public and private sectors. He served in several President-appointed positions including Assistant Secretary of Labor and then Special Assistant to President Eisenhower for Personnel Management in the White House and later Under Secretary of Commerce for President Nixon. He played a leadership role in corporate Americaas Chairman of TICOR and Chairman of the California Business Roundtable. Currently, he is Chairman of the Dwight D. Eisenhower World Affairs Institute in Washington, D.C.and the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. Mr. Siciliano also serves as Co-Chairman of the California Commission on Campaign Financing and is a board member of United Television, Inc.

Ever present in Mr. Siciliano’s work and life for over 50 years is the artist Marion Stiebel Siciliano who fled Hitler’s Germany. Mrs. Siciliano’s paintings have been featured nationally and internationally as well as at the University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts. The Sicilianos have five children: Loretta, Vincent, Fred, John, and Maria as well as six grandsons and one granddaughter.