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I sit in my sister’s dining room, looking down over the luxuriant greenery of the barranca (ravine) opposite, and listening to sound of rolling thunder over the vast sprawling metropolis that is Mexico City. I first arrived here in a train down from New York in 1958,...
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Alistair Cooke was born in 1908 and had a Commonwealth Fellowship in 1932. He went back to America in 1937, became a US citizen and lived in New York until his death in 2004. Every week, for nearly sixty years, his Letter from America on BBC radio would address a...
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The death of Tessa Harding on 30 December 2024 was an infinitely sad day for the Harkness class of 93-4. Her knowledge, wisdom and experience had contributed so much to the dynamics of the group. But her passing was also suffused with great warmth and affection. For...
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My late father and I were both Harkness Fellows. Since this seems to be unique, or almost unique, in the history of the Fellowships, I thought it might be worth a few words on how it came about. My father, Neilson Voyne Smith, read modern and medieval languages at...
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Behind the scenes, a small group of former Harkness Fellows and associates keep the Harkness Fellows Association alive, seeking ways to keep the network of fellows engaged and connected. Over the years this has included the production of newsletters, though the format...
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The Fellowships have a lifetime impact for each individual Harkness Fellow. Many tell us that their time in the US was a life changing experience. But how was it for the youngsters who accompanied their parent Harkness Fellow to live in the USA for anything from a few...
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I have kindly been invited by the Chair of the Association to contribute a short piece on the Pilgrim Trust in response to the feature in the last newsletter by William Wilson during which he commended the generosity of Edward Harkness in setting up the Trust, and...
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If you’re not a philosopher, you can be forgiven for never having heard of him, but within philosophy Derek Parfit is widely regarded as one of the most important moral philosophers of the past century. Some go further, claiming he was the most important moral...
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I was lucky enough to have been able to spend a year in the USA on a Harkness Fellowship. I was based at the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, and visited 25 States while researching and writing a book on ‘Making Environmental...
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There is something special about the way British explorers have responded to the desert environment of North Africa and the Middle East: Richard Burton, TE Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Wilfred Thesiger and Harry Philby all fell under its spell. I felt its power on my very...
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Edward Harkness would have been proud of Chris who died on December 7th, 2021 aged 85. Chris was an exceptional man who took full advantage of the opportunity that his Harkness Fellowship gave him to study business at the Harvard Business School and to return to the...
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Let us hope that the world will take seriously the complete cessation of carbon based atmospheric warming gases by mid-century. To do so in thirty years’ time means embarking on a colossal shift of fuelling industry and transport, heating buildings, and selecting...
