The Award for Excellence in Alumni Education was established in 2003. It is presented annually by the Committee on Academic Programs for Alumni (CAPA) to an individual or group that has made an outstanding contribution to alumni education at Princeton. Special emphasis is placed on length of service and/or substantial contributions to the overall advancement of educational programs for alumni.
The Committee on Academic Programs for Alumni recognizes William Howarth, Professor Emeritus, for his outstanding contributions to alumni education at Princeton.
Considered one of today’s foremost authorities on the works and life of Henry David Thoreau, Professor Howarth produced such important studies as Walking With Thoreau. From 1972 to 1980 he served as editor in chief of the 25-volume Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, published by Princeton University Press. In his over 40 years at Princeton, Professor Howarth’s research progressed naturally from American romanticism through literary nonfiction and has most recently landed in the area of environmental humanities.
But his contributions to the Princeton Community clearly have not been relegated to the undergraduate and graduate classroom. As Thoreau advised wisely: "Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it." Luckily, knowing how passionate Professor Howarth is about his research interests, the Office of the Alumni Association heeded Thoreau’s sage advice and put Professor Howarth to work—sans monetary compensation—time and time again.
Over the years, he has spoken on his work and experiences at the University to alumni in 36 of Princeton’s regional associations throughout the U.S., from L.A. to Vancouver, Minneapolis to Tucson, Cambridge to Orlando. Additionally, he led the academic component of nearly two dozen educational travel programs under the auspices of Princeton Journeys or the former Alumni College program, in such diverse locations as New Zealand and Tanzania, New Mexico and New England.
When it was suggested that Princeton Journeys Study Leaders should be free to vary the presentation styles used throughout the trip, Will immediately began work to supplement his formal lecture presentations with nightly preceptorial discussions based on short reading assignments. This model, not always tackled by our Study Leaders given the massive amount of preparation required, was immediately embraced by alumni travelers.
According to Michael Pepper ’71, the 2007 Princeton Journeys trip he took with his daughters to Tanzania was greatly enhanced by Will’s thoughtful preparation of daily readings and precepts: "I really enjoyed…Will’s leadership and active participation with the group. [His] commitment to spending time with each group member was tremendous and really engaged my entire family. The breadth of topics we covered was stimulating and gave great meaning to the trip." Other travelers concurred. The nightly precepts and his colorful readers have now become signature elements of Will Howarth-led Journeys.
Thoreau also advised: "Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate." While this may be true—and we hope that Professor Howarth does indeed think highly of the scope of his service to the University and its community—on behalf of Princetonians all over the globe, we want to express publically our thanks. In recognition of his continued years of service to the Princeton alumni community, CAPA is pleased to present Professor William Howarth with the 2009 CAPA Award for Excellence in Alumni Education.
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