Awards, Oct 17, 2002

The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas:

Arts. Americans for the Arts (Washington) has presented its Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy to David Rockefeller, former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank (New York), for his leadership of the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and for establishing a corporate art collection at Chase Manhattan. The Corporate Citizenship in the Arts award went to Alberto Vilar, founderof Amerindo Investment Advisors (New York), for his sponsorship of programs to support new artists and arts leaders and for his contributions to such institutions as the Metropolitan Opera (New York) and the Royal Opera House (London).

Community service. The Chicago Community Trust has presented the 2002 James Brown IV Award of Excellence for Outstanding Community Service, which carries a $50,000 prize, to Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (Chicago). HOME provides housing services — including a citywide free moving service, repair services, and a furniture-donation program — to low-income elderly people.

Conservation. The Natural Resources Council of America (Washington) has presented its Award of Honor to Denis Hayes, in recognition of a lifetime of dedicated service to conservation efforts. Mr. Hayes, president of the Bullitt Foundation (Seattle), was the national organizer of the original Earth Day in 1970.

Education. The Broad Foundation (Los Angeles) has presented its inaugural Broad Prize for Urban Education to the Houston Independent School District. The prize honors an urban school district that has demonstrated overall improvement in student achievement while closing achievement gaps across ethnic and income groups. The $500,000 award will finance scholarships for students attending college or other postsecondary training. Four finalists also received $125,000 each in scholarship funds: the Atlanta Public Schools, the Boston Public Schools, the Garden Grove Unified School District (Calif.), and the Long Beach Unified School District (Calif.)

The McGraw-Hill Companies (New York) has recognized three educators who are long-time advocates of higher standards and greater accountability with the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education. Following are the recipients, who each received $25,000:

-Libia Socorro Gil, superintendent of the Chula Vista Elementary School District (Calif.), who restructured the district’s administrative office and has emphasized accountability and high standards by developing a districtwide system for data collection.

-Dennis Littky, co-director of the Big Picture Company (Providence, R.I.), who co-founded the Met High School (Providence) to emphasize personalized learning plans, family engagement, projects in “real world” settings, and portfolio-based assessments.

-Eric Smith, superintendent of the Anne Arundel County Public Schools (Annapolis, Md.), who has created innovative programs in early-childhood education.

International. The Prince of Asturias Foundation (Oviedo, Spain) has named the recipients of the Award for Concord. The winners, the Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, musical director of Staatsoper (Berlin) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Palestinian writer and critic Edward Said, a professor of comparative literature at Columbia U. (New York), created the West-Eastern Divan, an orchestra that brings together young Jewish and Arab musicians. The award recognizes individuals whose work has contributed “to transcending national frontiers, to brotherhood between men, to the struggle against injustice, poverty, disease, or ignorance, to the defense of the heritage of mankind, or to opening up new frontiers for knowledge.”