PVC

Marvin Bressler Award

AwardedtothememberofthePrincetonfamilywho,throughheartfelt supportoftheUniversity’sstudent-athletesandcoaches,bestembodiesa beliefinthelifelonglessonstaughtbycompetitionandathleticsasa complementtotheoveralleducationalmission.Awardedinthespiritof MarvinBressler,professorofsociology,1963-94.

Marvin Bressler

When speaking of two of his favorite Princetonians, retired basketball coach Pete Carril and president Robert Goheen, Marvin Bressler said that they shared “a kind of monumental integrity, enormous competence, an overwhelming work ethic and the conviction that character is to be cherished over talent.”

Those are also characteristics that describe Bressler and in part are why Princeton’s Department of Athletics introduced the Marvin Bressler Award in 1997.

Bressler joined the Princeton faculty in 1963 and spent 30 years teaching young men and women sociology and how to think for themselves. He served as the chairman of the department for two decades, and his scholarly interests included the influence of education on social behavior, the impact of society on idea systems and the development of sociological theory.

Bressler received his bachelor’s degree in education from Temple University and his master’s and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. He spent five years as an assistant professor at Penn before joining the faculty at New York University in 1957.

An honorary member of two Princeton classes, 1968 and 1982, Bressler retired in 1994 and received the Alumni Council Award for Service to Princeton. It was said that he was dedicated to Alumni Colleges out of the strong conviction that “the University takes on an obligation to maintain an educational relationship with students for a lifetime. Undergraduate education is the beginning, not the end.”

Previous Recipients

1997 Marvin Bressler (D)

1998 Louis Pyle ’41 (D) & Dick Malacrea

1999 Larry Ellis

2000 Cindy Horr

2001 Harold T. Shapiro *64

2002 Dick Williams *72

2003 Fred Hargadon h66 (D)

2004 Don Betterton

2005 Jon Hlafter ’61

2006 John Gager

2007 Kathleen Deignan

2008 Ken Samuel h83

2009 Jeff Orleans

2010 Hal Feiveson *72

2011 John McPhee ’53

2012 Stu Orefice h08

2013 Phil Felton

2014 Neil Pomphrey

2015 Tara Christie Kinsey ’97

2016 Clayton Marsh ’85

2017 Frank Sowinski ’78

2018 Dov Weinryb Grohsgal *13 h14

2019 Karen Jezierny

2020 Dr. Stanley Katz h1921 h80 h83 h85

2021 Adam Maloof

2022 Alec Dun *04