Claremont Insider: Fulbright Association Honors CGU's McGuire

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Fulbright Association Honors CGU's McGuire

CGU Image
Claremont Graduate University President Emeritus John McGuire (photo, left) will receive a Fulbright Association Lifetime Achievement Medal May 12 in Washington, D.C. CGU's website has more information on the award, including a short video interview with McGuire.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, composer Philip Glass (who performed here in Claremont at the end of February), and Scripps alumna and entrepreneur Ruth M. Owades will also be honored at the May event.

The Fulbright Association's website describes the award:

The Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal honors Fulbright alumni whose distinguished careers and civic and cultural contributions have sought to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy, and perception. Recipients of the Medal show exemplary commitments to creative leadership and liberal education.

The CGU news item gives more background on McGuire and his life's work:
Dr. Maguire was named president emeritus of Claremont Graduate University in 1998 after serving as president for 17 years. He is engaged in racial and social justice community building projects as director and senior fellow in the Institute for Democratic Renewal in the University’s School of Politics and Economics.

Dr. Maguire was a colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and is a life director of the King Center where he served in its initial year (1968-69) as chairman of the board. He also serves on the boards of Union Theological Seminary, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, and the Claremont Museum of Art. He is co-creator of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards.

After graduating from Washington and Lee University, Dr. Maguire received a Fulbright fellowship to Scotland in 1953. He graduated summa cum laude from the Yale Divinity School, then completed a Yale doctorate in theology and psychiatry.