Pathfinder Award Recipients

At the spring luncheon each year, the Puget Sound Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa honors individuals (both adult and youth), businesses, and institutions with the Pathfinder Award. The award certificate reflects the imagery on the distinguished Phi Beta Kappa key, a hand pointing to the stars. It is given to those who “encourage others to seek new worlds to discover, pathways to explore, and untouched destinations to reach.” The people, businesses, and institutions honored do something to broaden peoples' interest in active intellectual accomplishment; they reach beyond ordinary routine, beyond the regular requirement of their lives and jobs, in order to break new intellectual ground and/or inspire others to do so.

2011

David BREWSTER

Founder of the Seattle Weekly, Town Hall Seattle, and Crosscut.com, for providing writers, musicians, activists, thinkers, scientists, and politicians a forum in Seattle.

Stanley CHERNICOFF

For founding the University of Washington Dream Project, in which UW students help qualified high schoolers in low-income Washington state communities with the college-application process. (Read more about the Dream Project in this January 2, 2012, article from The Seattle Times.)

Timothy JONES and STARBUCKS COFFEE

For founding and sponsoring the Hot Java Cool Jazz concerts, which have supported young musicians and raised over $200,000 since 1995 to help the music-education programs of participating high schools in the Puget Sound area.

Carol WISELEY

International entrepreneurship instructor at Mercer Island High School, for inspiring students to be business leaders and particularly for establishing actual trading partnerships with Ghana, Kenya, and China. 

2010

Jean FLOTEN

As President of Bellevue College, for transforming it from a community college to a four-year college offering baccalaureate degrees.

Mary SMITH

Performing arts teacher at Franklin High School (Seattle) for inspiring 5,000 of her students to perform in musicals.

OVERLAKE SCHOOL CAMBODIAN PROJECT

For raising funds and for building and furnishing a school, playground and library in Pailin Province, Cambodia.

2009

Bob BRIDGE

For funding a program to hire University of Washington math majors to tutor struggling math students in Renton high schools.

Lisa DALLAS

Principal of Adna Elementary School, for fostering student writing and art documenting the winter 2007 Lewis County flood in the book This Flood Happened, thus helping the children heal from their experiences of the flood.

Quincy JONES

For providing support and fundraising for the Northwest African American Museum, Seattle Community College, Garfield High School and its Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Alley, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Terry POTTMEYER

Executive director of Urban ArtWorks, for empowering at-risk and court-involved youth through the creation of public art.

Joe TICE

Director of the Tukwila Pantry for his commitment to educating the community about hunger, and for supervising a program assisting young volunteers in developing civic responsibility and public-speaking skills, and improving their grades in junior high, high school, and community college.

Elliott WOLF

Publisher (Peanut Butter Publishing) for fundraising and dedicated work which made possible the publication of This Flood Happened.

2008

Kirk ADAMS

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Whitman College, the first blind individual to be selected as CEO and president of the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind.

Lisa HERB

Founder and president, Alliance for International Women’s Rights, for her work supporting and furthering international women’s rights with a focus on central Asia.

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN OF WASHINGTON

For its National Girls Collaborative Project, advancing the agenda in gender equity for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

INTIMAN THEATRE’S LIVING HISTORY PROGRAM

For working with students throughout Washington state to develop critical thinking skills and stimulate imagination, engaging students in discussions about history, politics, and ethics through theatre.

THE SAUL AND DAYEE G. HAAS FOUNDATION (now known as InvestED)

For providing funds throughout Washington state for 44 years to middle-school, junior-high and high-school students to do whatever is needed to stay involved in school and school activities.

2007

Jeanne Ehrlichman BLUECHEL

For introducing Seattle students to a world of great music through listening to and performing on instruments she has helped to obtain for them.

Andrea LUCERO

As a student at Evergreen High School and Highline Community College sharing her time and talents as a Running Start volunteer.

Lori MATSUKAWA

An award-winning anchor at KING 5 News, for mentoring young people interested in a career as journalists.

Lee MORIWAKI

An editor for the Seattle Times, for helping to spread the Phi Beta Kappa message supporting liberal education.

THE WASHINGTON STATE HOLOCAUST EDUCATION RESEARCH CENTER

For inspiring teaching and learning for humanity through study of the Holocaust.

2006

George COX

For creating the Alexander Hamilton Friends Association, which encourages high-school students to promote and practice good citizenship.

Brody LAROCK

For motivating students in an alternative high school to learn about English and history.

Lwanga LWANGA

After returning home to Uganda, for building and supplying a school for nearly 500 children.

Jon MAGNUSON

For organizing the ACE Mentor Program, which mentors high school students in Seattle who might not otherwise consider careers in engineering, construction or architecture.

2005

Barbara CLINTON

A faculty member of Highline Community College, for motivating those unusually capable students who are struggling in the school environment, and for being co-founder of the League of Education Voters.

Steve MILLER

For being a tireless advocate on behalf of public education, and, as a board member of the Bellevue School District, for helping to develop policies that support students.

PUGET SOUND THEATRE ORGAN SOCIETY

For its work in encouraging young people to learn to play the pipe organ through scholarships and lessons.

WE THE PEOPLE

For taking up the national program of civics instruction resulting in having participating students outperform their peers in political science courses and registering to vote at twice the normal rate.

2004

Walter BODLE

For using his work with his camera to motivate young people having difficulty in school and society.

Gary EMMONS

Through “Key Players,” for encouraging people of all ages to enjoy music, learn to play keyboard instruments, and then bring their music to others.

Maria RAITU

For motivating, as an 18-year-old high school student, all her schoolmates of the same age to register to vote.

MOUNT BAKER COMMUNITY CLUB

For providing Martin Luther King Jr. college scholarships to minority students in the greater Mount Baker area, granting approximately 30 such per year for a total close to $100,000, and for fostering writing among elementary-school students.

POWERFUL VOICES

For helping girls who have been victims of abuse to learn decision-making and goal-setting skills, and training them to pass these skills on to other girls in need.

2003

Thomas CARLSON

Elected as a University of Washington junior to Phi Beta Kappa in 2002 when he was awarded the Science Medal, for his career-long willingness to assist classmates and younger students with academic pursuits.

Mina MILLER

As founder and director of the Music of Remembrance organization, for greatly enriching the greater Seattle community.

Helen WONG

Senior class president, for creating Odle Outreach, a community service program to mentor eighth graders and prepare them for the adjustment to high school.

2002

Clarence ACOX

For directing Seattle’s Garfield High School award-winning jazz band for decades.

Elena MAYER

An eighth grader at the Evergreen School and student-council member, for championing positive change, including the establishment of a girls-only class time to address special needs.

Mary Margaret WELCH

At Mercer Island High School, for requiring students to integrate technical and scientific learning with the business and research world.

SEATTLE GIRLS' SCHOOL

Founded by Marja Brandon, for building the confidence and self-image of young women so that they may pursue careers in math, science and technology.

2001

Daniel BECKER

A senior and class officer at Mercer Island High School, for novel ideas for fundraising.

Ted COLBY

A student at Highline Community College, for mentoring junior and senior high–school youth groups and for supporting a literacy program for children who speak Spanish as a first language.

Arthur KRUCKEBERG

University of Washington professor emeritus, for providing leadership in starting a series of colloquia, provided by the Washington Alpha Chapter, designed to discover common ground between the humanities and the sciences.

Nancy ROBINSON

Director of the University of Washington Center for Young Scholars, for having provided for two decades for the education of youth who are academically advanced over their peers.

2000

Jessica CRAIG

Having come to YouthCare’s Orion Center, for her employment there as an outreach worker and for being an active volunteer.

Eana HIBBS

For her tireless advocacy of literacy as a volunteer and as coordinator of the literacy program at Highline Community College.

Muyguek TAING

A 4.0 junior at Sammamish High School, for her work with the Crossroads Community Center, Amnesty International, and Group Health for which she received the Outstanding Youth Award.

THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

For its elementary and secondary education programs, grants and higher education scholarships.

1999

Ronald GEBALLE

Posthumously, for mentoring, as a physics professor at the University of Washington, many teeanagers in the early entrance program.

Margaret HABEGGER

An active Seattle volunteer, for her philanthropic initiative.

Jen SOUTHWORTH

A teacher in the Kitsap district, for her dedication to improving eduation.

THE SEAHAWKS ACADEMY

A Seattle middle school, for offering innovative extracurricular activities for at-risk kids

1997

Katherine OSTROM

For her energetic integration of lifelong learning, active scholarship, and civic enterprise and the development by Phi Delta Kappa, the education honorary, of the New Immigrants program to assist Puget Sound area teachers to better understand immigrant children and parents.

ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY

For its success in affecting the literary culture of the Seattle area, particularly through its poetry readings, author receptions, and special events.

THE WASHINGTON STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

For its creation of a museum that succeeds in educating people by making history meaningful, memorable, and entertaining.

1996

Akiko KUROSE

For her commitment to the teaching of peaceful relations and the involvement in the establishment of The Coalition for Learning.

Gwendolyn MOORE

For her fund raising and organization of the Turtle Bluff Chamber Orchestra and her devotion to her piano students of the Olympic Peninsula.

KOMO TV 4

For its literary outreach campaign known as “Drop Everything and Read.”

U.S. BANK

For its sponsorship of “U.S. Bank School Connection,” telephone information lines in the Puget Sound area that link parents and teachers.

1995

Dave CHIHULY

Kathy MARION

Damaris MCFATRIDGE

Joyce NEWBORN

Gerard SCHWARZ

Margriet TINDEMANS

HIGHLINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Although the documents relating to the individual awards for 1995 are not available at this time, every recipient was chosen for their unique contributions enriching the cultural and educational life of our city and state.