The St. Louis American Foundation’s two highest individual awards handed out at the 25th anniversary of its Salute to Excellence in Education gala went to two very different individuals.
2012 Lifetime Achiever Gerald Early is a Philadelphia native who has made his nationwide impact as a scholar and administrator at an elite private institution of higher learning. As director of the Center for the Humanities at Washington University who also holds a prestigious endowed chair as literature professor, Early has made a career working with the best and brightest in St. Louis, most of whom came here from elsewhere.
2012 Stellar Performer Judge Jimmie Edwards is a St. Louis native who has made a national name by co-founding a unique public high school that targets the most marginal group of students. As founder of Innovative Concept Academy in the St. Louis Public Schools, Judge Edwards works with students who have been rejected from mainstream public schools and are one intervention away from his courtroom in the St. Louis Juvenile Court.
Yet as the two men accepted their awards Friday night before a sold-out gala crowd of more than 1,300 at America’s Center in downtown St. Louis, their commonalities were much more evident than their differences. Both were described as humble leaders devoted foremost to their families, and both men generously shared their moment in the limelight with the community applauding them.
“Judge Jimmie Edwards is a humble, passionate man who cares deeply about the St. Louis community, especially its children,” Johnny Furr Jr., the retired Anheuser-Busch executive, introduced his friend and former Saint Louis University classmate.
Edwards opened his remarks by thanking his three primary sources of strength – his church, family and friends – then pointed out that each group was represented in the audience, even going so far as to cite their table numbers. He continued in this humble, sharing mode by praising all of the other awardees on the program and even singling out the St. Louis American reporter (Rebecca S. Rivas) and event coordinator (Kate Daniel) with whom he had the most direct contact.
Indeed, Judge Edwards had almost nothing to say about himself, as he praised an almost endless litany of Innovative Concept Academy partners and supporters, including SLPS Superintendent Kelvin Adams, MERS Goodwill, the Aldermanic Black Caucus and the Downtown YMCA.
“We all embody the hopes of our children, known and unknown,” Judge Edwards said.
Chancellor Mark Wrighton introduced Gerald Early as “a treasure, not just for Washington University and St. Louis, but for the United States and the world.”
In his brief remarks, Early cast his gratitude nearly as widely, thanking Wrighton, Chancellor Emeritus Bill Danforth, the late Dean Jim McLeod, his colleagues and friends, his students (“who have given me my purpose”) and his family, especially his two daughters.
But Early reserved most of his quietly emotional speech for St. Louis, in remarks that reached across what is often a wide town/gown divide between St. Louis’ most elite university and the local community.
“St. Louis, like this award, is something I don’t deserve,” Early said, “but I will learn to accept it with the grace and kindness with which it is given.”
