Cosmos Club Foundation Report for 2012

Thanks to the most welcome and important generosity of Club members and friends, the Cosmos Club Foundation’s two hallmark efforts continue to thrive—the John P. McGovern Awards in Science, Literature, and Arts and Humanities, and the Cosmos Scholars program that provides grants for graduate student research conducted at area universities. The Trustees and Advisors are profoundly grateful to Joseph K.McLaughlin, the McGovern Foundation, and the Shields Foundation for their continuing and exceptional gifts to the Foundation.

The McGovern Award in Arts and Humanities was presented to Kwame Anthony Appiah, whose talk on honor, given to a large audience on January 5, has been placed on the Club website in the occasional papers series. In February, Professor Appiah was presented the National Medal in the Humanities by President Obama. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman has been selected to receive the McGovern Award in Science on November 2, 2012.

The Foundation once again supported the Cosmos Club Award financially and through participation on the Club’s Awards Committee, which selected the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Philippe de Montebello as the 2012 honoree.

The Cosmos Scholars program flourished once again under the sterling leadership provided by Trustees Joan Challinor and Priestley Toulmin and the valuable assistance of Trustee Ann Sheffield. Two area institutions were added to the list of those whose students are eligible to compete: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Johns Hopkins School of Applied International Studies. An electronic display of previous winners, their thesis or dissertation topics, and the institution at which they studies was placed next to the coatroom; it has attracted many favorable comments from Club members and guests.

A summary of the Foundation’s year-end results is shown below. As expenditures are more than twice the investment income, contributions are essential to support the program of grants-in-aid and awards.

In CY'2010, the Foundation received contributions from 279 members of the Cosmos Club and is grateful to its many donors.