It must be the climate, but from the Nobel Prize to Olympic
gold, the Old Dominion has produced its share of high
achievers. Whether it is Staunton-born Woodrow Wilson,
Tidewater native William Styron, or lesser knowns, such
as Norfolk native and 1964 Olympic relay swimmer H. Thompson
Mann or UVa graduate and author Edward P. Jones, the Commonwealth’s
contribution to intellectual and athletic achievement
is quite impressive.
The Nobel Prize is perhaps the best known award for intellectual
achievement. The first Virginian to be so honored was
Wilson, U.S. president from 1913 – 1921. He was
awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in
setting up the League of Nations at the end of World War
I – a bittersweet accomplishment when he was unable
to get the U.S. Senate to ratify the Covenant of the League.
Wilson was not present at the award ceremony (which was
actually held a year late in December 1920 due to the
final days of World War I). But, his words in a telegram
read at the ceremony seem prescient; the peace he valiantly
fought for lasted only two decades. He praised the Prize’s
founder, Alfred Nobel, on setting up a continuing award.
“If, there were but one such prize, or if this were
to be the last, I could not of course accept it. For mankind
has not yet been rid of the unspeakable horror of war.”
In recent years Virginians have won the Nobel Prize for
less controversial achievements. In fact, in 2002, the
state boasted two laureates – Vernon L. Smith, professor
of economics and law at George Mason University in Fairfax
and John Fenn, a professor of chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth
University in Richmond.
Smith shared his Nobel Prize in Economics with a Princeton
professor. Both were pioneers in an area called behavioral
economics. Smith is credited with inventing the field
of experimental economics. He developed a way to test
economic theories in a laboratory, using subjects motivated
by cash – often his students. Fenn’s accomplishments
are a bit more esoteric. He shared the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry with two others for his work in developing methods
of analyzing macromolecules, such as proteins, using mass
spectrometry. We won’t even try to explain.
The Pulitzer is another prize won by many Virginians.
Ellen Glasgow was among early winners of the award in
fiction. She was awarded the Pulitzer in 1942 for In
Our Life. In an essay in The Washington Post
(“‘Woman Within’: An Unlikely Rebel
of the Privileged South,” November 29, 2003 ), critic
Jonathan Yardley praises her powerful satire of the Richmond
society to which she was born. “She was unsparing
in her criticism of the South’s tendency to sentimentalize
itself and its past.”
Twenty-six years later, Tidewater’s William Styron
won the 1968 Pulitzer in fiction for The
Confessions of Nat Turner, a novel that would
later stir controversy as black authors questioned Styron’s
characterization of the slave rebellion leader.
Just last year Edward P. Jones, raised just across the
border in D.C., but a UVa graduate, received the Pulitzer
Prize for his novel, The
Known World, a poignant study of slavery in antebellum
Virginia. Other prominent Pulitzer winners include: William
Cabell Bruce of Charlotte County, an historian who won
in 1918; Willa Cather, who was born in Back Creek Valley
near Winchester, and won in 1923; Virginius Dabney, an
historian and editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
who won in 1948; and Russell Baker, a Loudoun County native,
who won in 1979 and 1983.
While the Nobel and Pulitzer are perhaps the most familiar
prizes, Virginia has also produced some MacArthur “genius”
award-winners. Janine Jagger, a U.Va. epidemiologist,
won the $500,000 fellowship in 2002 for her work in protecting
health-care workers from the transmission of blood-borne
diseases. She and her colleagues proved that it was the
design of sharp medical devices, rather than how they
were used, that was most related to injury risk. A year
earlier, another UVa researcher, physical chemist Brooks
Pate, won similar recognition from the MacArthur Foundation
for his work in high-energy chemistry.
Last but not least are Old Dominion athletes who have
garnered honors and medals. Basketball’s Moses Malone
was a league Most Valuable Player in 1983 and hails from
Petersburg. We’ve got several football Hall of Famers,
including Bill Dudley from Bluefield; Willie Lanier from
Clover; Fran Tarkington from Richmond; and Lawrence Taylor
from Williamsburg. Sam Snead, who won numerous golf titles,
was a Hot Springs native. Richmond’s Arthur Ashe
was a Wimbledon champion.
Then there are the Olympians. In addition to H. Thompson
Mann of Norfolk, who won the gold medal in the 400-meter
relay backstroke in 1964, there are numerous Virginians
who won gold medals in sports ranging from canoeing (Frank
Benjamin Havens, Arlington, 1952) to 100-meter hurdles
(Benita P. Fitzgerald, Dale City, 1984) to boxing (Norvel
Layfayette Lee, Eagle Rock, 1952).
Woodrow Wilson once said, “No man [and of course,
woman] that does not see visions will ever realize
any high hope or undertake any high enterprise.”
In the Old Dominion, we seem to have nurtured many such
visionaries!
February 28, 2005
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