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Lionel Richie honored: 2011 Harvard Foundation Peter J. Gomes Award

By April MacIntyre Dec 2, 2011, 22:14 GMT

11/09/2011 - Lionel Richie - 45th Annual CMA Awards - Press Room - Bridgestone Arena - Nashville, TN, USA © Andrew Evans / PR Photos

Lionel Richie is the recipient of the 2011 Harvard Foundation Peter J. Gomes Award.

Distinguished singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer Lionel Richie will receive the 2011 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award from the Harvard Foundation on December 5, 2011 at Kirkland House.

Richie is a multi-award winning superstar and musical genius who has written and recorded many popular love songs. One of those songs he co-wrote was with the late Michael Jackson entitled, “We Are the World,” to benefit hunger victims in Africa, and again in 2010 for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

He is also an advocate for breast cancer research and has helped to raise funds to support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. “The students and faculty of the Harvard Foundation are pleased to present the 2011 Humanitarian Award to Mr. Lionel Richie in memory of the late Reverend Peter J. Gomes,” said Dr. S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation.

“Richie is one of our nation’s most creative musical artists, who has inspired many through his artistic and philanthropic endeavors. Reverend Gomes would be proud of the selection of the legendary musician, Lionel Richie, for this singular honor. We are honored to have him as our special guest on the Harvard campus”

The Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award was created to honor the life and work of the Reverend Peter J. Gomes, Minister in the Memorial Church and the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, who along with President Derek C. Bok founded the Harvard Foundation.

Past Harvard Foundation honorees include: Thorbjørn Jagland, head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee; actor, James Earl Jones; Chesley Sullenberger, heroic pilot; actress and AIDS research foundation advocate, Sharon Stone; and Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, among others.