On March 5, William Drayton ’61 will receive the Claude Moore Fuess Award for his public service. According to the Head of School’s Office, the Fuess Award is Phillips Academy’s “highest honor for lifetime achievement and distinguished contribution to social and public service.” Fuess, Phillips Academy’s tenth Head of School, led Andover through the Great Depression and World War I. After Fuess’s death in 1964, a group of his close friends and colleagues decided that “the most appropriate way of commemorating his devotion to Phillips Academy would be to establish an annual award ‘For Distinguished Contribution to the Public Service,’” according to the Head of School’s Office. Barbara Chase, Head of School, will present the honor to Drayton, who will then speak to the community at an All-School Meeting next month. Nancy Jeton, Special Assistant to the Head of School, said that Drayton “reflects Ms. Chase’s themes of ‘non sibi’ action and ‘goodness and knowledge’.” Drayton founded the Ashoka Fellows Organization, which funds 2,000 individuals to start social entrepreneurial projects to benefit the health, education or housing of an underprivileged community, according to the Ashoka website. In 2005, the U.S. News & World Report named Drayton one of “Americas 25 Best Leaders.” At Phillips Academy, Drayton wrote for The Phillipian and started the Asia Society (now known as Asian Society), which became the school’s largest student-run organization at the time, according to Jeton. Several members of the PA community, including Raj Mundra, Associate Dean of CAMD, Alana Rush, Director of Community Service, and David Chase, Director of Stewardship, brought Drayton to Mrs. Chase’s attention for the Fuess Award. The school hopes to give students a chance to speak with Drayton before and after the ceremony on March 5. Niswarth, the summer service-learning trip to Mumbai, India, worked with two Ashoka Fellows. One helped establish Akanksha, a non-governmental organization that collaborated with Andover students in India. Lily Shaffer ’10, a Niswarth participant, said, “Akanshka began with one after-school program, and eventually spread to all of Mumbai. This one organization really created a ripple effect.” According to Shaffer, lack of running water was a major concern in Mumbai, but, “with the help of Akanshka, we petitioned and obtained running water every day for eight minutes.” The other Ashoka Fellow who worked with Niswarth participants, “held leadership conferences to inspire the youth of Mumbai and bring them hope,” said Shaffer. She continued, “It was unbelievably moving for all of us.” The Ashoka Fellows Organization has spread across the globe into over 60 countries and now includes Andover parents like George Askew, father of Morgan Askew ’11. He worked as an Ashoka Fellow to “help bridge the gap between pediatricians and politicians with a program called Docs for Tots,” said Morgan Askew. The Head of School’s Office receives ongoing nominations for the Fuess Award. The Head of School then grants the award when he or she thinks the nominee is worthy of the medal. According to the Head of School’s Office, “the [Fuess Award] will help to stimulate in the students of Phillips Academy greater interest in careers in public service and a greater concern for public affairs.” “The Fuess Award recipient should be a role model for students,” said Jeton. The award has been granted eighteen times in the past forty years. Previous winners of the Fuess Award include the founder of AmeriCares, a microcredit philanthropic organization, Robert Macauley ’41, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Harlan Cleveland ’34 and most recently, Sarah Chayes ’80 for her reporting for National Public Radio during the war in Afghanistan.
