Person talk:Comfort Starr (7)

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THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY GAZETTE

Two Schools to Benefit from Starr Gift

Students at two very different Harvard Schools at the Medical School and the Kennedy School of Government -- have something in common: both will benefit from new funding for research and activities from endowments established by the late Dr. William A. Starr.

A journalist, lawyer, film critic and film society president, teacher, and adviser to the United Nations, Starr lived in New York City, and was committed to both advancing biomedical science and research and promoting scholarship and outreach on public policy and journalism issues. Starr, together with Armand G.R. Conant, a close friend of Starr and trustee of the Starr Trusts, worked closely with Harvard officials to determine the best use of Starr's gifts.

The William A. Starr Fellowship Fund for Harvard Ph.D. Students at the Forefront of Biomedical Research at the Medical School is to support students' work on cutting-edge research of such things as gene therapy, neurogenetics, genomics, and other areas of human biology of disease, particularly where those research projects might not otherwise qualify for traditional funding.

The William A. Starr Innovations Fund, established by Starr's gift to the Kennedy School, complements Starr's longstanding commitment to fostering a more informed government public policy as a force for societal change. The purpose is to advance and promote creative, cutting-edge teaching, research, scholarship, and outreach in public policy and journalism. Support will be available to students interested in such issues as journalism, criminal justice, handgun violence, judicial reform, press and politics, government policy, international diplomacy, and the United Nations.

Dr. Starr was drawn to Harvard and felt a close affinity to it, both because of its high quality of education and his historical family connection. Starr family ties to the University extend back more than 375 years to Harvard's earliest days.

Dr. Comfort Starr brought his family from Kent, England, to New Towne (now Cambridge), where he reestablished his surgery practice in 1635. According to family history, Dr. Starr's house became the home of Nathaniel Eaton and served in 1639 as the site where Harvard College instruction began.

("The house probably stood near the site of the Old President's House - opposite Holyoke House." This is a quote from the Harvard Book, page 25. Holyoke Center (1966) encompasses an entire block on a site previously occupied by several structures, including Holyoke House, a dorm dating to 1871. Holyoke Center houses many of the University's administrative offices. The Harvard Book is a pilot project to convert a single scholarly work, the 1875 edition of the Harvard Book, into a digital version that can be easily accessed over the Internet.)

The Rev. Comfort Starr, one of Dr. Comfort Starr's nine children, was the first family member to graduate from the College (in 1647), and is one of five Fellows named in the Harvard College Charter of 1650, the document that officially incorporated the school.

Copyright 1998 President and Fellows of Harvard College

January 29, 1998--Amelia 23:49, 13 November 2009 (EST)