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AHF Holds Its 20th-Annual Luncheon; Carter Receives Humanities Award

The Alabama Humanities Foundation (AHF) held its annual awards luncheon on Monday, September 14, 2009, in Birmingham at the Wynfrey Hotel Ballroom.

The luncheon, which celebrated AHF's 35th anniversary, honored William C. Carter, Ph.D., a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Distinguished Professor Emeritus and a renowned expert on the French writer Marcel Proust, as the 2009 Humanities Award recipient. Author and Alabama native Warren St. John delivered the keynote address, and the 2009 Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarships were presented. Musician and music historian Bobby Horton led the crowd in the singing of the national anthem.

William C. Carter
A native of Jesup, Ga., Carter completed his bachelor's degree in French at the University of Georgia in 1963. In 1965, he won a one-year Fulbright-Hays Grant to study in France at the University of Strasbourg . Afterwards, he returned to the University of Georgia and earned a master's degree in French in 1967. In 1971, he earned his doctorate in French from Indiana University . He joined the UAB Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in 1975 and later became the department chairman, 1979-1990.

Carter, who chaired the AHF Board for two terms, was instrumental in developing the Proust collection at the UAB Mervyn H. Sterne Library. The collection eventually became the third largest in the world.

In 1989, the French government honored Carter for his contributions to French culture by awarding him the Palmes Académiques. He later won the Prix Servir du Rotary International in 1992, an award given annually to Americans who have made outstanding contributions to Franco-American cultural exchanges.

Carter also co-produced the award-winning documentary Marcel Proust: A Writer's Life, which aired on PBS in 1993.

In 2000, Yale University Press published Carter's book Marcel Proust: A Life, the first comprehensive English language biography on Proust. The book received critical acclaim and was listed as a "Notable Book of 2000" by the New York Times. It also was named as one of the "Best Biographies of 2000" by the London Sunday Times and listed among the "Best Books of 2000" by the Los Angeles Times. That same year, Carter was invited by PEN America to participate in a "Great Performers" special tribute to Proust at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

In 2006, he published Proust in Love, which literary critic Harold Bloom has called a "marvelous study of the comic splendor of the great novelist's vision of human eros and its discontents."

Carter won the 2002 UAB Caroline and Charles W. Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction. He later was named as a Distinguished Professor of French at UAB in 2004. Carter retired from UAB in 2008. In June 2009, the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees named him as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Carter was introduced by University of Alabama at Birmingham President Carol Garrison.

Warren St. John
St. John presented a discussion utilizing thoughts from two of his books- Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania and Outcasts United -and how their unique tales of football and soccer reflect on our culture and relate to the humanities as a whole.

St. John has become a literary star. His most recent book, Outcasts United , was released in April 2009. It is the real-life story of a soccer team made up of refugee children, known as the Fugees. Representing 13 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, and led by a coach from Jordan, the Fugees unite in the small town of Clarkston, Ga., which was initially hesitant to embrace them.

He is also the author of the national bestseller Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania . Not just for Tide fans, Rammer Jammer captures the sometimes insane and unpredictable world of college football fans. The book chronicles the journeys of loyal and passionate fans obsessed with following the team from weekend to weekend. St. John spent one entire season totally immersed with the legions of fans who faithfully drove to games in RVs.

St. John was born in Birmingham and attended the Altamont School. He later attended Columbia College in New York City, where he now lives with his wife, Nicole. He currently serves as reporter for the New York Times and has written for the New Yorker , New York Observer and Wired. Popular sports radio personality Paul Finebaum introduced him.

2009 Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarships
The awards luncheon also recognized six elementary teachers receiving the 2009 Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship will support their professional development and classroom enhancements in history and civics. Generously funded by Edgar and Louise Welden of Birmingham, the scholarships honor the memory of Jenice Riley, the late daughter of Gov. Bob Riley and his wife Patsy, whose dedicated passion for teaching and devotion to community helped ensure a quality education for our state's youth. Rob Riley presented the awards, and emphasized the need for teaching excellence in the classroom. He stated he enjoyed speaking about his late sister and her love for children, and thanked the recipients of the awards, adding they were not thanked enough.

"I consider it to be an honor and a privilege for my project to have been selected for a Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarship," said Janet Leffard , third-fifth grade teacher at Dodge Elementary School in Mobile. "I think it is very important for Americans and Alabamians to appreciate and to help preserve our nation's and our state's history."

Leffard worked with her students on SOS-Schools for Our Ship-a program that documents the 1964 effort by Alabama students to return the USS Alabama to Mobile. SOS also examines the damage done to Battleship Park during Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina and stresses the importance of funding to help restore the historic site.

This year's recipients were awarded their scholarships at a patron's reception held prior to the luncheon. They include:

•  Rebecca Campbell, 4th-grade teacher, Uniontown Elementary School, Uniontown
•  Susie Criswell, 3rd-5th grades teacher, Wrights Mill Road Elementary School, Auburn
•  Melissa Elliott, 5th-grade teacher, Lynn Fanning Elementary School, Meridianville
•  Fredna Grimmett, 5th-grade teacher, Ogletree Elementary School, Auburn
•  Janet Leffard, 3rd-5th grades teacher, Dodge Elementary School, Mobile
•  Carol Murphree, 6th-grade teacher, Russellville Middle School, Russellville

The Alabama Humanities Awards Luncheon was made possible in part by the generosity of James W. and Wynona W. Wilson Family Foundation, Vulcan Materials Company and the Birmingham News. The Hoover Public Library provided volunteers for the event.