International Figures to Pay Tribute to Andrew Carnegie

Topic Conferences and Events

PNNOnline (The nonprofit news and information resource)
Tuesday, August 02, 2005

International experts and commentators on world affairs will visit
Dunfermline, near Edinburgh, in October to pay tribute to the great
Scots American philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. They will be joined by
trustees and senior executives of the worldwide family of institutions
founded by Carnegie in the USA, Europe and the UK.

The visitors will be in Scotland to witness the conferring of the
Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy on six modern-day philanthropists
of international standing. The ceremony is being held in the new
Scottish Parliament building.

The experts will be taking part in an International Philanthropy
Symposium organised to celebrate the Medal Awards, previous recipients
of which include the Gates Family, the Rockefeller family and the
Sainsbury family.

This will be the first time the medals have been awarded in Scotland
where the great philanthropist and former steel magnate was born. The
Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy 2005 is being organised by the four
Scottish-based Carnegie foundations – the Carnegie Trust for the
Universities of Scotland, the Carnegie Dunfermline and Hero Fund
Trusts and the Carnegie UK Trust.

The event is also being supported by the Scottish Parliament, the
Scottish Executive, Event Scotland, Visit Scotland, the Royal Bank
of Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and Fife Council.

Carnegie gave away his fortune in 1905, the equivalent of $15 billion
dollars today.

Among the many achievements of the Carnegie family of 22 institutions
which developed from that time was the founding of approximately 2,500
public libraries across the English-speaking world. They also funded
research leading to the discovery of insulin, the Magellan and Hubble
telescopes – and even the educational television series, Sesame Street.

Projects in recent years have included extensive educational programmes
in Africa, building peace and democracy in Russia and the former Soviet
Union, China and the Middle East. They also include embryology and
cutting edge global ecology research in the US, influential commissions
of inquiry into the Third Age and Rural Community Development, as
well support for student research scholarships and Professorships at
Scottish Universities.

Following a reception hosted by Fife Council, there will be a
dedication of the proposed new joint HQ for the UK-based Carnegie
Trusts which is to be built beside Pittencrieff Park, Andrew Carnegie’s
gift to the people of Dunfermline.

The dedication of the new building will be performed by two of
Carnegie’s great grandchildren, one from Scotland and the other
from the US, linking the two parts of Andrew Carnegie’s life. The
cousins are William Thomson, CBE, Chairman of the Carnegie Medal for
Philanthropy 2005 Organising Group and Chairman of the International
Medal Selection Committee and Linda Hills from Colorado.

The further program of events for the day will include visits to the
Andrew Carnegie Birthplace and Museum and, at the Business Learning
and Conference Center at Lauder College, Vartan Gregorian, President
of the Carnegie Corporation of New York will dedicate the new Andrew
Carnegie Business School.

“We are honoured that so many distinguished and influential people
are coming to Dunfermline and to Scotland to attend the third Andrew
Carnegie Medals of Philanthropy 2005 Awards Ceremony and to take part
in the International Philanthropy Symposium,” said Mr. Thomson.

“The Andrew Carnegie Medal and the International Philanthropy Symposium
in which so many of our distinguished guests will take part provide
a great opportunity to put Scotland and the new Scottish Parliament
in the spotlight, as well as to discuss the direction in which
philanthropy should go in modern times.

“The interest which has been shown internationally in these two
events, the Symposium and the Medal ceremony itself, underlines how
significant philanthropy is in the 21st century, a hundred years after
Andrew Carnegie made his decision to devote the rest of his life and
his fortune to philanthropy.”

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