Henry J. Leir Luxembourg Program-Clark University (LLP-CU)
The LLP-CU’S goal is to contribute to Dr. h.c. Henry J. Leir's vision of the importance of education and international experience as well as to strengthen the international dimension of teaching and research at Clark University, especially through close relations with The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
The LLP-CU offers programs for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for faculty members. The LLP-CU is also engaged in working with high schools in Luxembourg.
The LLP-CU currently offers the following programs:
The May Term Program in Luxembourg (run annually for undergraduate students for a session of 4 weeks)
Summer Research Opportunities in Luxembourg (for undergraduate students for a period of 6 to 8 weeks)
A Ph.D. Research Internship in Luxembourg (1 year)
The Dual M.A. in English/American Studies in Luxembourg and at Clark University (1 year)
The Henry J. Leir Lecture Series at Clark University
Faculty Conferences/Workshops in Luxembourg
The Henry J. Leir High School Initiatives Series
(Please note that all time periods given can vary.)
LLP-CU also offers the following awards:
The Henry J. Leir Annual Lecturer Award
The Henry J. Leir Student Summer Research Scholarship
The Henry J. Leir Ph.D. Research Scholarship
The Henry J. Leir Dual M.A. Program Award
The Henry J. Leir Grade 11 Prize
Dr. h. c. Henry J. Leir (1900-1998)
Known internationally as a key industrialist, Mr. Leir was very successful in the metals and mining industry in Luxembourg before expanding to thirty-five different countries, with offices in Luxembourg City, Düsseldorf, Mexico City, New York City, London, Paris, and Tokyo, to name a few locations.
Born on 28 January 1900, in Beuthen, Germany, Mr. Leir lost his father at the age of eleven and assumed the role of pater familias for his mother and siblings. In 1933, Mr. Leir read the signs correctly and left Germany for Luxembourg; in 1938, he was again forced to flee, this time, leaving Luxembourg for the United States.
Throughout his life, Mr. Leir displayed a love of languages, literature, and the arts in part for their ability to edify. In 1937, for example, he wrote a novel under the pseudonym of Tom Palmer, La Grande Compagnie de Colonisation, which, in those troubling times, presented a vision of a world that could achieve peace through the efforts of enlightened industrialists.
Mr. Leir received many honors in his life. He was offered honorary doctorates from several universities, as well as the French Legion of Honor and Luxembourg's Order of Merit, the highest honor awarded a civilian in Luxembourg.
Mr. Leir's richly complex, humanistic, intelligent, and pragmatic approach to life provided fertile ground for his varied and extensive philanthropic activities as well. Upon selling his company in 1963, Mr. Leir established foundations that have made, and continue to make, generous gifts to hospitals, underprivileged children, Jewish institutions, and universities, among others.
Mr. Leir was a cultivated, visionary, compassionate, and generous industrialist, who did not forget the underprivileged. He was truly an astonishing individual, with a strong sense of responsibility. He even went to work on the day before he died on 15 July 1998, at the age of 98.
The Henry J. Leir Luxembourg Program-Clark University continues to flourish through provisions made by Mr. Leir. It is to commemorate this multi-faceted and extraordinary gentleman, that his foundations, The Leir Charitable Foundations, continue his philanthropic work under the leadership of the President, Arthur Hoffman, and the Vice-President, Margot Gibis. It is in this spirit that we hope to contribute to Mr. Leir's memory.
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