CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. – Colin G. Campbell, Colonial Williamsburg’s president and chief executive officer, received the Chautauqua Institution President’s Medal, recognizing his contributions to the unique educational center’s mission of lifelong learning.
Campbell received the medal Monday. He is only the 29th recipient of the award, first issued in 1974 as the Centennial Medal to honor individuals who reflect Chautauqua’s spirit and purpose and who give back to the organization through their energies and resources.
[brightcove videoID=3692533858001 playerID=2893748186001 height=315 width=560]
Campbell was introduced to Chautauqua when he lectured there in 2006. Three years later, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Chautauqua partnered to present programs that examined the vision of our nation’s founders and their concept of liberty in relation to slavery and religion.
James A. Pardo Jr., chairman of the Chautauqua Institution’s Board of Trustees, presented the award on behalf of organization President Tom Becker, who was unable to attend the ceremony but reflected beforehand on Campbell’s legacy.
“As evidenced by the three major elements of his career — 21 years at Wesleyan, 12 years at Rockefeller Brothers, 14 years with Colonial Williamsburg — Colin Campbell plays the long game. His work at these institutions was not about short-term, personal gratification but about long-term sustainability, and a devotion and sincere depth of understanding of their mission and values,” Becker said.
“I admire in particular his work for Colonial Williamsburg, where, at his best and most expressive, he has led a vital institution in preserving its singular history while promoting and pursuing active, mutually beneficial relationships with other organizations such as Chautauqua,” Becker added. “Colin has spent his career in the genuine pursuits of public service, and he has done so passionately, intelligently, soulfully, effectively.”
Previous Centennial Medal honorees include Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, biologist E.O. Wilson, and retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice and former Colonial Williamsburg trustee Sandra Day O’Connor.
The ceremony coincided with Campbell’s keynote address at the weeklong conference “The Egyptian Experience.”
[brightcove videoID=3697504426001 playerID=2893748186001 height=315 width=560]
Campbell visited Chautauqua’s 750-acre lakeside campus for the first time some eight years ago to deliver an address on citizenship.
“I knew of Chautauqua’s reputation, its educational mission and its commitment to public discourse from early in my Wesleyan years,” Campbell said. “But only after participating in one of its programs did I appreciate what a remarkable place it is and realize the potential for a promising collaboration with Colonial Williamsburg.”
“Chautauqua explores the best in human values — the same values that informed the American concept of citizenship,” Campbell added, “an ideal that Colonial Williamsburg exists to further as well.”
Three years after Campbell’s first visit, the partnership was realized when Chautauqua hosted a co-sponsored weeklong event titled “The History of Liberty,” which featured conversations with McCullough and other top scholars and government figures, and presentations by Colonial Williamsburg’s historical actor-interpreters. Most recently – in February – Colonial Williamsburg hosted a co-sponsored event called “Turning Worlds Upside Down: Liberty and Democracy in Revolutionary Times.”
“I am deeply grateful to Tom Becker and the entire Chautauqua community for this signal honor,” Campbell said. “I consider it a testament to the rich partnership fostered by our two institutions, which have so much in common, especially our shared commitment to seeking ‘a more perfect union.’ ”
In January, Campbell announced plans to retire after 14 years leading Colonial Williamsburg through the tourism and economic challenges that followed both 9/11 and the great recession of 2009. He directed an investment of $220 million to modernize hospitality facilities and oversaw expansion of programming to include interactive street theater and new media that leverage mobile devices and other digital technology.
The former president of Wesleyan University and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Campbell was elected to Colonial Williamsburg’s Board of Trustees in 1989 and served as its chairman for a decade beginning in 1998.
Mitchell B. Reiss, a former senior U.S. diplomat and now president of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, has been appointed to succeed Campbell as president and CEO in October.
Established in 1874 as a summer educational camp for Sunday school teachers, Chautauqua quickly evolved into a non-denominational experiment in vacation learning and the center of a national adult education movement that continued through the early 20th century.
Today, Chautauqua hosts nine-week summer seasons of roughly 2,200 varied educational, artistic, religious and recreational programs – reflecting the four key areas of its mission — that attract more than 100,000 guests each year, about 7,500 of whom reside on its campus at a time.
The President’s Medal reflects the Centennial Medal design of H. Richard Duhme, first director of Chautauqua’s School for Sculptors. One side bears images representing education, religion, arts and crafts, music and drama, and nature and recreation. The other depicts Chautauqua’s Miller Bell Tower, named for founding benefactor Lewis Miller.
Leave a Reply