Philanthropy
During a special ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., President Gerald Ford presented Cowan with the United Way's prestigious Alexis de Tocqueville Award for his 17 years of outstanding volunteer efforts and called him "the most important United Way volunteer in the entertainment industry."
The ceremony focused new light on the spectrum of Cowan's contribution outside the public relations industry. For years, he has contributed his unique talent to support the activities of such civic and philanthropic organizations as UNICEF, the Scott Newman Foundation, The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Foundation, the National Foundation for Ileitis and Colitis, the Young Musicians Foundation, and the United Way, where he was national committee communications chairman. He succeeded First Lady Nancy Reagan in the position in 1982.
In 1990, Cowan was honored by the Scott Newman Center at a benefit gala hosted by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in celebration of the Center's 10th anniversary of promoting drug education programs. Cowan has been associated with the Center since its inception, and serves on the board of directors. Newman, in presenting the award to Cowan, said, "In the arena of public caring, he's several dimensions higher. Others may appear to occupy the limelight, but no one works with greater diligence to better effect. He adds dignity to all of us, through his effort and we become beneficiaries by honoring him."
On March 21, 2002, Cowan was honored as Mentor of the Year by the Volunteers of America at a gala event at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, at the time owned and operated by his good friend -and client- Merv Griffin.
Read more about this topic: Warren Cowan
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)