PHILADELPHIA --- James S. Riepe, vice chairman of T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., a Baltimore-based investment management company, will become chairman of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, effective June 18, 1999, according to an announcement by P. Roy Vagelos, M.D., retired chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc., who has been chairman of the Penn trustees since 1994 and a trustee since 1988.

Mr. Riepe (W'65, WG'67) is a graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

"This will be a marvelous transition," Dr. Vagelos said, adding that "in addition to being one of the leading executives in the investment management industry, he has been an exceptional member of our board in a variety of ways for many years."

Dr. Vagelos said that Mr. Riepe was first elected to a five-year term on the board as an Alumni Trustee on Jan. 1, 1990. He began a second five-year term as a Term Trustee on Jan. 1, 1995.

"We are enormously grateful to Dr. Vagelos and the Nominating Committee who have ensured in this transition that we will continue to have extraordinary board leadership," said University President Judith Rodin, adding that she and the officers of the University "are very, very much looking forward to working with Jim Riepe in his new role as chairman."

Mr. Riepe has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania since 1993. He is the current chairman of the Trustee Standing Committee on Audit and Compliance and of the Investment Board, and he is a member of the committees on Budget and Finance, External Affairs and Student Life.

Mr. Riepe also is a member of the Undergraduate Financial Aid Committee and the Agenda for Excellence Council.

He was a member of the Trustee Board of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and its executive committee from 1993 to 1996.

As vice chairman of T. Rowe Price, Mr. Riepe serves on its management committee that has oversight for one of the nation's leading providers of no-load mutual funds, managing nearly $150 billion for individuals and institutions.

Mr. Riepe is a member of the board of governors of the National Association of Securities Dealers. He is former chairman of the board of governors and a member of the executive committee of the Investment Company Institute, the national trade association for the $5 trillion mutual fund industry.

Mr. Riepe also is a director of the Baltimore Equitable Society, past chairman and a trustee of the Baltimore Museum of Art and past president of the board of trustees of Gilman School.

Mr. Riepe previously served as a member of the General Alumni Society Board at Penn and its executive committee and on the Athletics Advisory Board. He also served as the first chairman of the Alumni Council on Admissions and was a former member of the President's Council.

The James and Gail Riepe Scholarship Fund was established at Penn in 1989 to assist undergraduate students from the Baltimore area.

As a student, Mr. Riepe was a member of The Sphinx Society, captain of the varsity football team and a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity.

His wife, Gail Petty Riepe, is a 1968 graduate of the College for Women at Penn. His son, James S. Riepe, Jr., is a 1998 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences.