2020 Pyne Prize Nomination Process

Written by
Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students
Nov. 22, 2019

The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate students is now soliciting nominations for the Pyne Prize, the highest general distinction the University confers upon an undergraduate, which will be awarded on Alumni Day, Saturday, February 22, 2020.  In thinking about student nominations, we ask that you consider the following:

The M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize is a prize awarded annually to the senior who has manifested in outstanding fashion the following qualifications: excellence in scholarship, character, and effective support of the best interests of Princeton University.  Founded in 1921 in remembrance of the life and character of M. Taylor Pyne, Class of 1877, Trustee of Princeton 1885-1921, by his cousin, Mrs. May Taylor Moulton Hanrahan, the prize is the highest general distinction the University confers upon an undergraduate.  The prize, which consists of the income from this fund up to the prevailing comprehensive fee for one academic year, is presented by the President during the Alumni Day Luncheon and Awards Ceremony, along with the Woodrow Wilson Award, the Madison Medal, and the Jacobus Award.

We are eager to receive letters of nomination from members of the University community.  Please send letters to [email protected] by Monday, January 6, 2020.

Among those awarded the prize in earlier years were Charter Trustee H. Chapman Rose ‘28, President Robert F. Goheen ‘40, and United States Senator Paul S. Sarbanes ‘54, whose son Michael won the award in 1986.  In recent years, the prize is often shared by two seniors.  Howard W. Bell, Jr., ‘70 was the first black student to receive the prize, and Marsha H. Levy ‘73, the first woman, served as a trustee of the University.  The winners from 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2019 can be found at their respective links.