The Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education is an annual prize given by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni to an individual who has “made an extraordinary contribution to the advancement of liberal arts education, core curricula, and the teaching of Western civilization and American history.” The award is named for the late public servant, publisher, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Philip Merrill.
Merrill was a trustee of Cornell University, the University of Maryland Foundation, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and the Aspen Institute, as well as a member of the National Council of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
Winners 2005: Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University 2006: Harvey Mansfield, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government, Harvard University 2007: Gertrude Himmelfarb, Professor Emerita, City University of New York 2008: Donald Kagan, Sterling Professor of History and Classics, Yale University 2009: KC Johnson, Professor of History, Brooklyn College 2010: Benno C. Schmidt Jr., Chairman of the Board of Trustees, City University of New York 2011: David McCullough, independent scholar 2012: Tom Rollins, founder of The Teaching Company 2013: Gary Gallagher, Professor of History, University of Virginia 2014: Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical 2015: Hank Brown, former Republican politician and U.S. Senator from Colorado who served as president of the University of Colorado system from April 2005 to January 2008. 2016: Niall Ferguson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali 2017: Robert Zimmer, President, University of Chicago 2018: Mitch Daniels, President, Purdue University 2019: José A. Cabranes, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit 2021: Dr. Gordon S. Wood, Professor of History Emeritus, Brown University 2022: John H. McWhorter, Columbia University Professor, Columbia University 2023: Alan Charles Kors, Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Pennsylvania and Cofounder of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. 2024: Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School and Past President, American Civil Liberties Union. 2025: Larry Summers, economist, former United States Secretary of the Treasury, and former president of Harvard University.
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