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About the Event

Portland State was pleased to honor the Melvin Mark and William Furman Families at its twelfth annual Simon Benson Awards Dinner, October 19, 2011. The event took place at the Oregon Convention Center's Portland Ballroom, and featured a compelling keynote address by former secretary of state, Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

Named after one of Oregon's first philanthropists, the Simon Benson Award was created in 1999 to honor the state's contemporary pioneers of philanthropy. Recipients are tireless community leaders who give generously of time and resources and whose legacies affect the lives of generations of Oregonians, past, present, and future.

In 2011, the Simon Benson Awards Dinner raised $465,000 for the Fund for PSU, which supports students, faculty and programs campus-wide.

 

Past Simon Benson Award Speakers and Recipients:

2011 Speaker: Condoleezza Rice
 Recipients: Melvin Mark & William Furman Families
2010 Speaker: Charles Gibson
 Recipients: Mark & Ann Edlen, Jim & Shirley Rippey
2009 Speaker: Rosalynn Carter Recipients: Fairborz Maseeh
2008 Speaker: John Glenn Recipients: Sam Wheeler, Gwen Burns and Family
2007 Speaker: Magic Johnson Recipients: Robert and Jane Morrow, Robert and Sharon Miller
2006 Speaker: Queen Noor of Jordan Recipients: Barbara and Gary Ames, Marta and Ken Thrasher
2004 Speaker: Walter Cronkite Recipients: Thomas and Caroline Stoel, Patricia Wessinger
2003 Speaker: Madeleine Albright Recipients: Elizabeth Johnson, James Miller
2002 Speaker: Rudolph Giuliani Recipients: Jeannine Cowles, Ernest Swigert
2001 Speaker: Bob Dole Recipients: Julie and Peter Stott, Cindy and Duncan Campbell
2000 Speaker: Mario Cuomo Recipients: Mary and Maurie Clark, Don Frisbee
1999 Speaker: Colin Powell Recipients: Paul Bragdon, Jean Vollum