August 19, 2008
AMHERST, Mass. — The members of Amherst College Board of Trustees have appointed Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and John S. Middleton, a member of the Class of 1977 and a prominent Philadelphia-area businessman, to six-year terms on the college’s board, ending June 30, 2015.
 Howard Gardner |
Gardner—also chair of the steering committee for Project Zero, an educational research group—has been honored throughout his career with several prestigious awards, including a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the University of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Award in Education and a fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He has received honorary degrees from 25 colleges and universities and was twice named one of 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world—in 2005 and 2008—by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines. He has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Education and most recently the London-based Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce as well. He serves on a number of boards—including those of the Spencer Foundation and New York’s Museum of Modern Art—and publishes regularly. The author of more than 20 books translated into 28 languages, as well as several hundred articles, he earned both his A.B. in social relations and doctorate in social psychology from Harvard.
 John S. Middleton ’77 |
Described by President Anthony W. Marx as “one of Amherst’s most dedicated graduates,” Middleton has volunteered for his alma mater for nearly 30 years, earning the college’s Medal for Eminent Service in 2004. He is the head of his family’s business and a limited partner in the Philadelphia Phillies. Outside of work, he is philanthropically involved with a number of organizations, such as the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, the Haverford School and the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias, among others. From a proud family of several Amherst graduates,he helped coordinate his class’s 10-year reunion and was a key figure in its 25th. He has served his class as president and as an associate agent, led the college’s Society of Alumni from 2001 to 2002 and hosted many Amherst events in his hometown of Philadelphia. After graduating from Amherst in 1977, he earned his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School.
The Board of Trustees of Amherst College consists of the president of the college and 20 other members: 14 term trustees elected and then appointed by the board and six alumni trustees elected by the alumni of the college. The most recently elected alumni trustee, Sarah Bloom Raskin, member of the Class of 1983 and commissioner of financial regulation for the state of Maryland, began her six-year term on the Board of Trustees in July.
Founded in 1821, Amherst is one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges, with nearly 1,700 undergraduates.