Reginald T. Townsend Award

In 1952, the New England Society established the Reginald T. Townsend Award, named for its 64^th 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:

1952	Wilmot Brookings Mitchell	American history scholar and Bowdoin College professor
1953	Lloyd D. Brace	Chairman of the Board, First National Bank of Boston
1954	Clare Leighton	Artist, writer and illustrator
1955	Samuel Chamberlain	Printmaker, artist, photographer and writer
1956	Joseph Nye Welch	Attorney and lead counsel for the U.S. Army for the McCarthy Hearings
1957	James G. Blaine	Alternate Delegate to the Republican National Convention from Rhode Island in 1912
1958	Herbert Ross Brown	Literary scholar and editor, The New England Quarterly
1959	Robert Cutler	U.S. Government official and the first person to serve as National Security Advisor (Eisenhower Administration)
1960	John Davis Lodge	64^th Governor of Connecticut and U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, Spain and Switzerland
1961	Robb Sagendorph	Founder and President of Yankee, Inc., publishers of The Old Farmer's Almanac
1962	Francis T. P. Plimpton	Diplomat; partner at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton and President of the New York City Bar Association
1963	Rosemary Park	American History scholar and President of Connecticut College
1963	Walter Muir Whitehill	Author, historian and the Director and Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum
1964	Douglas Horton	Protestant clergyman and advocate for inter-church relations; a founding contributor to the National Council of Churchesand the World Council of Churches
1964	Harold Jefferson Coolidge	Zoologist and a founding director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the World Wildlife Fund
1965	Paul Dudley White, MD	Cardiologist and founding member of the National Heart Institute and of the American Heart Association; President Dwight David Eisenhower’s physician
1966	Frank L. Boyden	Headmaster of Deerfield Academy
1967	Leverett Saltonstall	55^th Governor of Massachusetts and U.S. Senator
1968	Samuel Eliot Morison	Rear Admiral, U.S. Naval Reserve and American maritime historian.
1969	John Sloan Dickey	U.S. Diplomat, scholar and President of Dartmouth College
1970	Edward M. Fuller II	New England Society President
1972	Dr. Mary I. Bunting	Radcliffe College’s fifth President and responsible for fully integrating women into Harvard University
1973	Calvin Hastings Plimpton, MD	Physician and educator, President of the American University of Beirut and Amherst College, where he was responsible for admitting women
1975	John N. Cole	Author and journalist; founder an editor of Maine Times, editor The Bath-Brunswick Times and The Kennebunk Star
1976	Eric Sloane	Hudson River School landscape painter and author of illustrated works of cultural history and folklore
1977	Edward A. Weeks	Editor, The Atlantic
1978	Hon. William S. Cohen	U.S. politician, represented Maine in the House of Representatives, and served as Secretary of Defense (Clinton Administration)
1979	Brendan Gill	Author and writer for The New Yorker
1980	Walter Hoving	President and Chairman, Tiffany & Co.
1981	Louis Achincloss	Novelist, historian and essayist
1982	Hon. Kingman Brewster	President of Yale University and U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James
1983	Dr. Nathan Marsh Pusey	President of Lawrence College and 24^th President of Harvard University
1984	Moorhead C. Kennedy	U. S. Diplomat; captive during the Iranian Hostage Crisis until his freedom was negotiated by Presdient Jimmy Carter
1985	Arlene Francis	Actress, radio talk show host, and television game show panelist on Whats My Line?
1986	George Plimpton	Journalist, writer, editor and actor; founder of the literary magazine The Paris Review
1987	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
1988	William F. Buckley, Jr.	Author, commentator and journalist; founder of the political magazine National Review and host of the television show Firing Line
1989	Dominick Dunne	Novelist and investigative reporter
1990	Harrison E. Salisbury	Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; first regular New York Times correspondent in Moscow after World War II
1991	Cleveland Armory	Author; youngest editor of The Saturday Evening Post; animal rights activist; founder of Fund for Animals Fund and President of the New England Anti-vivisection Society
1992	Ruth Warrick	Film actress known for her role in Citizen Kane, and All My Children soap opera star; political activist
1993	Francis T. Vincent, Jr.	Lawyer and sports executive who served as the eighth Commisioner of Major League Baseball
1994	Joseph Verner Reed	U.S. Ambassador to Morocco; Chief of Protocol of the White House (George H.W. Bush Administration) and noted conservationist
1995	Walter Cronkite	Peabody award-winning broadcast journalist and anchorman for CBS Evening News
1996	Hon. Everett Ellis Briggs	U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Panama and Portugal; served on the National Security Council (George H.W. Bush Administration)
1997	William Charles Beutel	Broadcast journalist; ABC News anchor
1998	Charles E. Pierce, Jr.	Director of The Morgan Library and Museum for over 40 years
1999	Samuel Sachs, II	Museum Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts and The Frick Collection
2000	Anne Hawley	Director, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
2001	David McCullough	Author, narrator and historian; two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his books Truman and John Adams
2002	Charles Scribner, IV	Chairman of publishing house Charles Scribner & Sons which was founded by his great grandfather in 1846
2003	Charles Osgood	Radio (The Osgood File on CBS Radio Network) and television (CBS News Sunday Morning) commentator
2004	James M. Fowler	Author and naturalist, Emmy award-winning television host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
2005	Samuel A. Waterston	Actor, producer and director, noted for his portrayal of Jack McCoy on NBC's Law & Order
2006	Elizabeth Barlow Rogers	Urban planner, landscape architect and founding member of The Central Park Conservancy
2007	Hon. William F. Weld	68^th Governor of Massachusetts and federal prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department
2008	Hon. George E. Pataki	53^rd Governor of New York and a noted attorney
2009	Lesley Stahl	Author and television journalist, reporting for CBS on 60 Minutes
2010	Tom Chappell	Author, environmentalist and co-founder of natural care products company Tom's of Maine, and natural wool clothing company Rambler's Way
2011	Charles Kittredge	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Crane & Co.