Reginald T. Townsend Award
In 1952, the New England Society established the Reginald T. Townsend Award, named for its 64th President, to recognize outstanding achievement representing the finest attributes of the New England character. Award recipients have represented excellence in a wide range of fields, from the sciences, academia and letters, to politics and the arts. To date, the Award has been presented to the following individuals:
Angela and Garry Fischer
Longtime Newport, Rhode Island, residents – preservationists and philanthropists.
Robert Wolterstorff
The Susan E. Lynch Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bruce Museum
Niles Parker
Gosnell Executive Director of the Nantucket Historical Association
Ryan J. Woods
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of the New England Historic Genealogical Society
Barry Mills
Barry Mills served as the fourteenth President of Bowdoin College (2001 – 2015)
Susan Wissler
Susan Wissler joined The Mount in 2001 as Vice President and became Executive Director in 2008.
Ronald Lee Fleming, FAICP
Founder and president of The Townscape Institute, a nonprofit public interest planning organization based in Cambridge, MA.
Peter C. Sutton
Executive Director of the Bruce Museum
Ian and Shep Murray
Founders of Vineyard Vines
Ivan Sergeyevich Obolensky
Ivan Sergeyevich Obolensky is known for his support of the Soldiers’, Sailors’, Marines’, Coast Guard & Airmen’s Club. Ivan has also championed charities focused on youth including the Police Athletic League and the Children’s Blood Foundation, which he helped found.
Stephen C. White
Stephen White is President of Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea. Steve has long served as a trustee of schools and non-profits, and he currently serves as the Vice President of the International Congress of Maritime Museums.
Frederick B. Whittemore
Advisory director at Morgan Stanley, former governor and vice chairman of the American Stock Exchange, lifetime trustee of the Aspen Institute and philanthropist.
Deborah & Charles Royce
Deborah is a film editor and former actress. Charles is President & Chief Investment Officer of Royce & Associates. They are active historic preservationists and philanthropists in New York and New England.
Leigh R. Keno & Leslie B. Keno
American antiques experts
Charles Kittredge
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Crane & Co.
Tom Chappell
Author, environmentalist and co-founder of natural care products company Tom’s of Maine, and natural wool clothing company Rambler’s Way
Lesley Stahl
Author and television journalist, reporting for CBS on 60 Minutes
Hon. George E. Pataki
53rd Governor of New York and a noted attorney
Hon. William F. Weld
68th Governor of Massachusetts and federal prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department
Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
Urban planner, landscape architect and founding member of the Central Park Conservancy
Samuel A. Waterston
Actor, producer and director, noted for his portrayal of Jack McCoy on NBC’s Law & Order
James M. Fowler
Author and naturalist, Emmy award-winning television host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom
Charles Osgood
Radio (The Osgood File on CBS Radio Network) and television (CBS News Sunday Morning) commentator
Charles Scribner III
Chairman of publishing house Charles Scribner & Sons which was founded by his great-great grandfather in 1846
Anne Hawley
Director, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Samuel Sachs II
Museum Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts and The Frick Collection
Charles E. Pierce, Jr
Director of The Morgan Library and Museum for over 40 years
William Charles Beutel
Broadcast journalist; ABC News anchor
Hon. Everett Ellis Briggs
U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Panama and Portugal; served on the National Security Council (George H.W. Bush Administration)
Walter Cronkite
Peabody award-winning broadcast journalist and anchorman for CBS Evening News
Hon. Joseph Verner Reed
U.S. Ambassador to Morocco; Chief of Protocol of the White House (George H.W. Bush Administration) and noted conservationist
Francis “Fay” Vincent, Jr.
Lawyer and sports executive who served as the eighth Commissioner of Major League Baseball
Ruth Warrick
Film actress known for her role in Citizen Kane, and All My Children soap opera star; political activist
Harrison E. Salisbury
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; first regular New York Times correspondent in Moscow after World War II
Dominick Dunne
Novelist and investigative reporter
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Author, commentator and journalist; founder of the political magazine National Review and host of the television show Firing Line
Richard Purdy Wilbur
American poet; Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
George Plimpton
Journalist, writer, editor and actor; founder of the literary magazine The Paris Review
Arlene Francis
Actress, radio talk show host, and television game show panelist on What’s My Line?
Moorhead C. Kennedy
U. S. Diplomat; captive during the Iranian Hostage Crisis until his freedom was negotiated by President Jimmy Carter
Dr. Nathan Marsh Pusey
President of Lawrence College and 24th President of Harvard University
Hon. Kingman Brewster
President of Yale University and U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James
Louis Auchincloss
Novelist, historian and essayist
Walter Hoving
President and Chairman, Tiffany & Co.
Brendan Gill
Author and writer for The New Yorker
Hon. William S. Cohen
U.S. politician, represented Maine in the House of Representatives, and served as Secretary of Defense (Clinton Administration)
Edward A. Weeks
Editor, The Atlantic
Eric Sloane
Hudson River School landscape painter and author of illustrated works of cultural history and folklore.
John N. Cole
Author and journalist; founder an editor of Maine Times, editor The Bath-Brunswick Times and The Kennebunk Star.
Calvin Hastings Plimpton, MD
Physician and educator, President of the American University of Beirut and Amherst College, where he was responsible for admitting women