Board Legacy
Awards Honoring Honoring Henry A. Millon & Giles Constable
From the early years of the Foundation’s Venetian program, noted scholars Henry A. Millon and Giles Constable served with great distinction on the Venetian Advisory Board (VAB) for the Delmas Foundation. This Board has significantly shaped the Foundation’s Venetian program through generously contributing advice and expertise over the decades. The program has been highly significant in expanding knowledge and awareness of the importance of Venice in the historical record. The Trustees have created two distinctions in honor of these fine scholars.
Henry A. Millon Award in Art and Architectural History
Upon Dr. Millon’s retirement from the VAB in 2015, the Foundation Trustees created the Henry A. Millon Award in Art and Architectural History. One recipient is selected annually from the U.S. applicant pool for the Venetian Research Program. Selection criteria emphasize distinguished work on issues of art and architecture in Venice and its surroundings. There is no separate application for this award.
Henry A. Millon (1927-2018) was an accomplished scholar of Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture. He graduated from Tulane University and received his Ph.D. from Harvard where he studied urban design, architecture, and art history. Millon taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1955-2003) where he co-founded the History, Theory, and Criticism section of the Department of Architecture and helped to make it one of the leading Ph.D. programs in the US. Millon’s contributions to the history of art were many and varied. An indefatigable author, editor and collaborator, he was founding dean of the Center for Advanced Studies at the National Gallery of Art (1979-2000) where he also played a major role in organizing important exhibitions, including the much celebrated “Renaissance architecture from Brunelleschi to Michaelangelo.”
Giles Constable Award
Professor Constable served on the VAB through 2020. Upon his passing, the Foundation Trustees created the Giles Constable Award. One recipient is selected annually from the U.S. applicant pool for the Venetian Research Program. There is no separate application for this award.
Giles Constable (1929-2021), was a prolific author of more than twenty books on a wide array of medieval subjects including monastic tithes, Byzantium power, the 12th century reformation and crusades, the history of Cluny, and many more. Often described as a “giant” in his field, Constable attended Harvard University (A.B., 1950; Ph.D. 1957) and Cambridge University. He taught at the University of Iowa (1955-58) and Harvard (1958-1984), and directed the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library (1977 to 1984). Constable joined the faculty of the Institute of Advanced Study’s School for Historical Studies in 1985 and became Professor Emeritus in 2003. His many honors included a Guggenheim Fellowship and membership in the Institut de France, British Academy, and the Royal Historical Society.
About Past Trustees
George Labalme, Jr. (1927-2016) became a Trustee of the Foundation in 2002 after a long career in charitable fundraising and institutional philanthropy. In addition to his many other contributions as the Trustee overseeing the Foundation’s Humanities and Venetian Research Programs, he will be remembered for his wide knowledge of Venice acquired over decades of experience there. His many close relationships with Venetian cultural leaders and their institutions provided vital support for the Foundation’s mission. He retired as Trustee at the end of 2014.
Patricia Hochschild Labalme (1927-2002) served as a Trustee from the beginnings of the Foundation until her death in 2002. Dr. Labalme in many important ways shaped the work and goals of the foundation. Her intelligence, character, good judgment and grace set the tone for Foundation deliberations. Her life and achievements exemplified the salubrious effects of placing the humanities at the center of one’s life.
David H. Stam, Trustee Emeritus, participated in Mrs. Delmas’s early Venetian grants program and served as Trustee of the Foundation from its formal beginning in 1991 until his retirement in 2012. Dr. Stam brought to the Foundation long experience with research libraries and archives and shaped a program that emphasized making available unknown and inaccessible archival collections in the United States and Europe. This work was formally recognized by the New York Archivist’s Roundtable and from the Society of American archivists.