Knox College - 1999 Caterpillar Faculty Achievement Award Citation

--Richard S. Millman, President of Knox College, June 5, 1999

The Caterpillar Faculty Achievement Award is given annually to a Knox College faculty member whose record of performance is outstanding. The winner of the prize is chosen by the Personnel Committee, an elected faculty body. The choice of the winner is made because of extraordinary accomplishment in teaching, research or creative activity, and service.

This year's winner of the Caterpillar Award is Dr. Penny Gold.

Twenty-three years ago, Professor Gold joined the Knox faculty after completing her Ph.D. at Stanford University. In joining the Knox faculty, Professor Gold added her strengths as a scholar and teacher to an already distinguished Department of History. But Professor Gold's accomplishments have reached beyond her department.

For more than two decades, she has served the College conscientiously and in many different capacities. Professor Gold was instrumental in helping to create the program in Women's Studies, introducing course offerings in Jewish Studies to our curriculum, and establishing the College's Advanced Preceptorials.

Professor Gold has also been a strong advocate for her faculty colleagues. Her initiative led to the creation of a parental leave program for faculty. And she has been a strong voice in helping the faculty and the College to recognize new challenges in balancing teaching and scholarship, and integrating our personal lives with our professional lives.

Professor Gold has published widely, including her book, The Lady and the Virgin, which explores images of women in the Middle Ages. Her more recent scholarship on Jewish-American life has been recognized through a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Penny Gold has an outstanding record of creativity and excellence in her teaching, scholarship and service to the students and faculty of Knox College. Her service has been of extraordinary quality and cuts across not only departmental lines, but also curricular and co-curricular lines. It gives me great pleasure to award her the Caterpillar Faculty Achievement Award for 1999.