Press Release

The Teagle Foundation Appoints Three New Directors to its Board

For immediate release

New York, NY -- The Teagle Foundation has named three distinguished academic leaders to its Board of Directors: Pauline Yu, Sol Gittleman, and Mary Patterson McPherson. They join nine other directors, on a board chaired by John Chalsty of Muirfield Capital.

The President of the Foundation, W. Robert Connor, noted that the appointments came at a time when the Foundation was reviewing all aspects of its work and looking especially closely at ways in which it can continue to strengthen education in the liberal arts. "These new directors bring a remarkable range of experience and a deep commitment to liberal education. We would be delighted to have them join our Board at any time, but considering the present moment, a time of exceptional needs and opportunities in this area, makes their presence on the board all the more valuable."

Sol Gittleman has been Professor of German at Tufts University since 1971, where he also served as Provost for twenty-one years. Gittleman is now the Alice and Nathan Gantcher University Professor, one of three current university professors at Tufts. Professor Gittleman is the author of books on German Literature, East European Jewish Literature and the American immigrant experience. He has received two Fulbright awards, the Harbison Prize of the Danforth Foundation for Outstanding Teaching, and a citation as Professor of the Year from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

Mary Patterson McPherson is the former president of Bryn Mawr College and now the Vice President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. McPherson currently serves on the board of directors of Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, JSTOR, The Philadelphia Contributionship, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. She is chair of the board of trustees at Smith College. In addition to her AB and LLD from Smith College, an MA from the University of Delaware and a PhD from Bryn Mawr College, she holds numerous honorary degrees. McPherson is also a member of The American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Pauline Yu was recently named as president of the American Council of Learned Societies. She was formerly Dean of Humanities in the College of Letters and Science and Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is on the Board of Trustees of the National Humanities Center, and is a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, the Senate of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the Advisory Board of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Professor Yu's scholarly specialization is the study of classical Chinese poetry, especially that of the High Tang in the eighth century, C.E. She is particularly well known for her books The Poetry of Wang Wei: New Translations and Commentary (Indiana University Press, 1980) and The Reading of Imagery in the Chinese Poetic Tradition (Princeton University Press, 1987).

Higher education has been a major interest of the Foundation since its establishment by Walter Teagle in 1944. In recent years, the Foundation has made grants to approximately three hundred private colleges throughout the United States.

12/10/2003