The Montgomery Endowment will continue to search for term-long Montgomery Fellows, even though none of the last four have stayed for prolonged periods.
Consultant to the Department of the Interior Joseph Sax, one of this term's Montgomery Fellows, arrived Monday and will depart today.
George Woodwell '50, founder and director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, will visit as a Montgomery Fellow in November for 11 days.
Though the two Montgomery Fellows prior to Woodwell and Sax also stayed only for brief period, Executive Director of the Montgomery Endowment Barbara Gerstner said this is not a sign that Montgomery Fellows who stay for an entire term are a thing of the past.
"Since the beginning of the program we've had various visits of various lengths of time," Gerstner said.
The Montgomery Endowment, established in 1977 by Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth F. Montgomery '25, provides funding for prominent scholars and individuals to visit the school and interact with students in a variety of ways like teaching classes or giving public lectures.
Some Montgomery Fellows, like former Chief of the Cherokee Nation Wilma Mankiller in the winter of 1996 and astronaut Mae Jemison in the winter of 1993, stayed at the College for an entire term, residing in the Montgomery House on Rope Ferry Road.
Others, like French film director Bertrand Tavernier and journalist Al Hunt in the spring of 1996 both stayed three days.
Gerstner said prospective Montgomery Fellows are often not available for entire terms, so they must come for a few days or not come at all.
"And that's true for a lot of people who are invited," she said. "They are in the cutting edge [of their field] ... they cannot give up nine weeks."
"Everyone who gets invited feels it's a great honor," Gerstner added.
Gerstner said she thinks full term fellows are beneficial to students, but are more difficult to arrange.
"It's harder to get people for a full term, so I try to do that first and where it's just impossible to do that for particular terms then I try to get several short-term visitors." she said.
"We are trying very hard to get people for full terms. I think it's very effective to have people here for longer times and it's frankly a lot easier on us," Gerstner said.
Gerstner explained events tied to Fellows who visit for only a few days are difficult to arrange.
"If you have two or three people in one term ... you're really crowding things," she said.
The Montgomery Fellows are nominated by a committee including the Dean of the College, the Dean of the Faculty, three faculty members, two members of the Montgomery family and are chaired by the College Provost
"People can be on the list for years or can be invited relatively soon after they've been nominated," she said.
"Often times I'm working three years in advance," Gerstner said of Montgomery Fellow scheduling.
Gerstner said prospective Fellows are sometimes offered open invitations because specific terms can be restricting to them.
"Normally what I do is send a blanket invitation" asking prospective Fellows if they can come in the next few years, Gerstner said.
"I get on the phone and we negotiate times," Gerstner said. But occasionally, problems arise with busy prospective Fellows.
"They'll say they can come and a few months later they find out their schedule is full," Gerstner said.
Gerstner said she had three long-term Montgomery Fellows lined up for last year. Russian author and intellectual Vyacheslav Ivanev stayed at the Montgomery House in November, followed by Mankiller.
Ernest Gellner, a famed anthropologist was scheduled stay at the Montgomery House all through Spring term, but he died of a heart attack before the term started.
A number of past Montgomery Fellows have also been honorary degree recipients, such as historian David McCullough and physicist Freeman Dyson.
Gerstner said the frequent overlap of honorary degree recipients and Montgomery Fellows is merely a coincidence.
"Actually, the President's office and I have often thought we ought to share names, but we don't do that," Gerstner said.
