Flemming Heilmann Elevated to 1st Rank Knight of Dannebrog Order
Jacob A Riis Neighborhood Settlement House congratulates Chairman Emeritus Flemming Heilmann on his recent elevation to Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, 1st Rank. Her Majesty Queen Margrethe of Denmark first appointed Heilmann to the order in 1998.
Flemming served on Riis Settlement’s board for 16 years, five of them as chairman. He established the Settlement’s unique annual youth exchange program with Ribe Cathedral School of Jacob Riis’ own Danish hometown in 2006. He has drawn the attention of the Danish community to the mission and work of the organization while contributing to its development of effective programs serving the under-privileged in the inner city. “I can think of no one more deserving of this accolade than our dedicated Chairman Emeritus Flemming Heilmann. Not only is he an invaluable resource, he is a friend of Riis Settlement and the communities we serve,” said Riis’s Executive Director William T. Newlin.
Flemming Heilmann, born of Danish parents and a US citizen since 1983, has been an active member of the Danish-American community in the Tri-State area in many capacities over the past 20 years, serving as a director of both the Danish Chamber of Commerce and the Danish American Society, the latter also as chairman. He volunteered as US Representative of the Danish Olympic and Paralympic teams for the 1996 Atlanta Games. That same year, with his wife Judy, he established the annual Heilmann Graduate Scholarship program at Cornell University for outstanding students of economics at Copenhagen University. In 2001 Heilmann was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for immigrants’ who have given service to America, sanctioned by the US Congress. Flemming served for many years as trustee of the American-Scandinavian Foundation and is currently Co-Chair of the Museum of the City of New York’s “Project Jacob Riis A Riis 2014,” which encompasses the digitization of its extensive Riis archive and a major exhibition in New York and Denmark.
“I am very proud to receive this honor,” said Heilmann. “This pride reflects my deep respect for the extraordinarily high human values shared by the United States and Denmark, values which drive all that is best in our two countries….and these values are of course personified in the work and mission of Jacob Riis Settlement as it strives to help our participants become socially and economically self- sufficient citizens.”
