Gilbert M. Grosvenor

Last updated
Gilbert M. Grosvenor
Gilbert M. Grosvenor-FIG 1999 (2).jpg
Gilbert M. Grosvenor, guest of honor at the 1999 International Geography Festival
Born (1931-05-05) May 5, 1931 (age 92)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Yale College
Occupation(s)Chairman Emeritus, National Geographic Society
Spouse
Donna Kerkam
(m. 1961;div. 1977)
[1]
Mary Helen Wiley Jarman
(m. 1979)
Children3
Parents
Relatives
Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005)

Gilbert Melville Grosvenor (born May 5, 1931) is the former president and chairman of the National Geographic Society, who previously served as the editor of National Geographic magazine. [2] Now largely retired, Grosvenor and his wife Wiley live in Virginia. [3]

Contents

Biography

Born in Washington, D.C., Grosvenor is the son of Melville Bell Grosvenor and the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell. He attended Deerfield Academy. [4] He received a B.A. in psychology from Yale University in 1954. Between his junior and senior years, he volunteered in the Netherlands in efforts to recover from the North Sea flood of 1953 and co-authored an article that was published in the National Geographic. "Although I'm not sure I realized it at the time, it changed my life," Grosvenor recently recalled. "I discovered the power of journalism. And that's what we are all about—recording those chronicles of planet Earth." [5] He subsequently joined the staff of the magazine as a picture editor.

In 1970, Grosvenor assumed the position of editor of National Geographic Magazine. [2] He married Mary Jarman in 1979. [4] He served as editor until 1980, when he became president of the National Geographic Society, additionally becoming chairman of the board of trustees (on which he served from 1966 to 2014) in 1987. He retired as president in 1996 and chairman in 2011, since which time he has served as an honorary director of The Explorers Club.

In 1996, Grosvenor was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the Scottish Geographical Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. [2] [6]

In 1996, Grosvenor received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Sylvia Earle. [7]

Grosvenor was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, by President George W. Bush on June 23, 2004.

Writings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Geographic Society</span> American non-profit scientific and educational institution

The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world.

Niall FitzGerald, is an Irish businessman.

<i>National Geographic</i> Monthly geography, history, nature, and science magazine

National Geographic is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine months after the establishment of the society, but is now a popular magazine. In 1905, it began including pictures, a style for which it became well-known. Its first color photos appeared in the 1910s. During the Cold War, the magazine committed itself to present a balanced view of the physical and human geography of countries beyond the Iron Curtain. Later, the magazine became outspoken on environmental issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Press</span> American geophysicist (1924–2020)

Frank Press was an American geophysicist. He was an advisor to four U.S. presidents, and later served two consecutive terms as president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1981–1993). He was the author of 160 scientific papers and co-author of the textbooks Earth and Understanding Earth.

Roy Michael Huffington was an American oilman originally from Tomball in Harris County, Texas, who later served as United States Ambassador to Austria.

Lila Bell Wallace was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist. She co-founded Reader's Digest with her husband Dewitt Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor</span> American photo editor (1875-1966)

Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, was the first full-time editor of the National Geographic magazine (1899–1954). Grosvenor is credited with having consolidated the nascent magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Canadian Geographical Society</span> Canadian nonprofit educational organization

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society is a Canadian nonprofit educational organization. It has dedicated itself to spreading a broader knowledge and deeper appreciation of Canada, including its people, places, natural and cultural heritage, as well as its environmental, social and economic challenges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gardiner Greene Hubbard</span> American lawyer (1822–1897)

Gardiner Greene Hubbard was an American lawyer, financier, and community leader. He was a founder and first president of the National Geographic Society; a founder and the first president of the Bell Telephone Company which later evolved into AT&T, at times the world's largest telephone company; a founder of the journal Science; and an advocate of oral speech education for the deaf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John C. Mather</span> American astrophysicist and cosmologist (born 1946)

John Cromwell Mather is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) with George Smoot.

Melville Bell Grosvenor was the president of the National Geographic Society and editor of The National Geographic Magazine from 1957 to 1967. He was the grandson of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin S. Grosvenor</span>

Edwin S. Grosvenor is a writer, photographer, and President and Editor-in-Chief of American Heritage. He has published nine books and is best known for writing on his great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell, including two books and several magazine articles. Early in his career, Grosvenor worked as a freelance photographer for National Geographic, completing 23 assignments. He has been interviewed on History Channel, CBS News Sunday Morning, AARP Radio, AP Radio, CBC, NBC Radio Network, NPR, and Voice of America, and has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution, Boston Museum of Science, and other venues.

Thelma Somerville Cudlipp was an American artist and book illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beinn Bhreagh</span>

Beinn Bhreagh is the name of the former estate of Alexander Graham Bell, in Victoria County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It refers to a peninsula jutting into Cape Breton Island's scenic Bras d'Or Lake approximately three kilometres southeast of the village of Baddeck, forming the southeastern shore of Baddeck Bay.

Sir Alistair George James MacFarlane was a Scottish electrical engineer and leading academic who served as Principal and Vice Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Rector, University of the Highlands and Islands.

Grosvenor is a surname derived from Hugh Le Grand Veneur, a member of a Norman French family that aided William the Conqueror in 1066. Le grand veneur, literally means "the master huntsman" in French, is an elevated title in William's 11th-century French court. Initially, Hugh was called Hugh Lupus. Lupus was overweight, and his townsmen gradually changed the appellation from le grand veneur to le gros veneur, and Hugh wore the epithet with pride.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin A. Grosvenor</span>

Edwin Augustus Grosvenor was a historian, author, chairman of the history department at Amherst College, and president of the national organization of Phi Beta Kappa societies from 1907 to 1919. Grosvenor was called "one of the most cosmopolitan of Americans" by author and abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. His son, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, was the first employee and longtime editor of National Geographic Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander G. B. Grosvenor</span>

Alexander Graham Bell Grosvenor was a United States Navy pilot, carrier officer, and avid yachtsman credited with promoting the resurgence of sailing at the United States Naval Academy. He was a great-grandson of the inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, and brother of Gilbert M. Grosvenor, former Chairman of the National Geographic Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Oliver La Gorce</span>

John Oliver La Gorce (1880–1959) was an American writer and explorer known for his work in the National Geographic Society. He served as Associate Editor of the Society from 1905 to 1922, Vice President from 1922 to 1954, and President from 1954 to 1957, before retiring at the age of 77.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert L. Breeden</span> American editor, publisher

Robert Lewis Breeden (1925–2013) was an editor, publisher, senior executive at the National Geographic Society, and chairman of both the White House Historical Association and U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

References

  1. "DONNA KERKAM GROSVENOR Obituary (2021) Santa Fe New Mexican". Legacy.com. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Lanken, Dane. "The bee in Grosvenor's bonnet", Canadian Geographic, Vol. 116.6, November–December 1996: pp. 95-96.
  3. "Interview of Gilbert M. Grosvenor". The Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education.
  4. 1 2 "Mary Jarman Wed To G.M. Grosvenor". June 2, 1979.
  5. "Why National Geographic Is a Family Affair". NationalGeographic.com. February 15, 2015. Archived from the original on April 9, 2015.
  6. Royal Scottish Geographical Society Awards and Medals Archived February 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  8. "The Water Crisis". Huffington Post.
Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by President of the National Geographic Society
March 1980 – 1996
Succeeded by