Wold Family Chair in Environmental Studies and Stewardship established by John S. Wold ’34 and the Wold families, is awarded to an experienced faculty member to support Taft’s commitment to lead in matters of environmental stewardship. In addition to educating students in the classroom on important aspects of environmental issues, the chair holder will lead the school’s efforts to become the most environmentally responsible institution it can be.
Three generations of the Wold family: Jack ’71, Court ’02, John Wold ’34 with Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78. Not pictured but also Wold family graduates are Cecily Longfield ’03 and Claire Longfield ’06.
John Wold ’34 was the first professional geologist to serve in the U.S. Congress. He represented the state of Wyoming from 1968 to 1970. He studied geology at Union College (where his father chaired the Physics Department for 25 years) and went on to earn his master’s at Cornell. After moving to Wyoming in 1950 as an independent geologist and businessman, Wold began what is today the Wold Companies, which include oil and gas exploration and production, coal and minerals development and wind energy projects through Whirlwind Company and cattle ranching. He also is CEO of American Talc Company in Van Horn, Texas, which mines, processes and markets talc for the ceramic, paint, plastic and filler industries.. Among his many honors, he received this year’s American Association of Petroleum Geologists Pioneer Award, was named “Wyoming Oil/Gas and Mineral Man of the 20th Century” in 1999 by the American Heritage Foundation of the University of Wyoming and “Wyoming Man of the Year” in 1968. In 2008, he received Taft’s Alumni Citation of Merit. Wold is also the author and sponsor of the National Mining and Minerals Policy Act of 1970, which emphasized the need to strengthen national security by establishing a strong, domestic, free-enterprise mineral industry. The funds for Taft’s endowed faculty chair were “made possible by the development of God-given Rocky Mountain minerals,” said Wold. “They were produced under the strictest federal and state environmental regulations. There has to be balance and a sensible understanding of our economic system. The regulations guiding our development of our natural resources make economic motivations almost extinct. ” The Wolds hope to promote a balanced approach to the study of sustainability. “This chair is incredibly exciting,” says Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78, “a signal of Taft’s commitment to environmental stewardship, proof of the important and pressing lessons our students need to learn.” The generous gift from the Wold family also created the Wold-Richmond Endowed Scholarship, providing financial assistance to a Taft graduate attending Union College. “Willy MacMullen’s great-grandfather, Charles Richmond, as president of Union College, is the man who lured my father there from Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1919,” explains John. “What unique relationships.”
Taft Bulletin Winter 2012 27