Founders Day To Feature Catharine Stimpson, Gideon Hawley Awards

Catharine R. Stimpson, director of the fellows division of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, will give the address during the College's Founders Day convocation on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 11:30 a.m. in Memorial Chapel.

Described in a newspaper headline as "the keeper of creativity's safety net," Stimpson oversees the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur fellowships, also known as the "genius awards." Each year, the program rewards a group of accomplished individuals with unsolicited gifts of $150,000 to $350,000 (plus health coverage) over five years. Fellows possess, in the MacArthur Foundation's view, exceptional creativity and the potential to make a significant difference in the way people think and act. They are also people whom the foundation believes could use the money to work more freely. The awards come with no strings attached.

"We can't refuse to support the cauldron of individual consciousness, or the individual who is building an institution, building an organization," she said in an interview with The Chronicle of Philanthropy. "I really take seriously individual possibilities, and we can't cut back on the safety net for creativity."

Stimpson is to receive an honorary doctor of letters degree at the convocation.

The convocation also is to include the conferral of the Gideon Hawley Teaching Awards, in which high school teachers are honored for their influence on Union College students.

The Women's Commission is hosting a reception for Stimpson from 2 to 4 p.m. in Milano Lounge. The event is open to the entire Union community.