Friday December 06, 2024
Josh Miner '43 Leadership Development & Education
Josh Miner '43 Experiential Education Award
Josh is remembered annually at Reunions throught the Josh Miner 43 Experiential Education Award was initiated by the Friends of Outdoor Action Board in 1995. The award is named in honor of Josh Miner of the Princeton Class of 1943. As a founding trustee of Outward Bound, Josh Miner was instrumental in bringing the philosophy of Kurt Hahn to the U.S. and in establishing the first U.S. Outward Bound Schools. In celebration of Joshs significant influence on the development of experiential education in the U.S.A., the Miner Award is presented each year to a graduate of Princeton University who has provided outstanding leadership in the fields of experiential or outdoor education. To continue the tradition of experiential learning at Princeton, the award winner serves as a member of a panel on experiential education held at Princeton. A certificate is presented to the award winner.
Throughout his life Josh was a champion of outdoor education and leadership development. His role as the founding trustee of Outward Bound planted the seed from which OA developed years later. The qualities of leadership which form the Outward Bound ideal ("To serve, to strive, and not to yield") are most embodied in the OA Leader Training Program where students are challenged to develop their leadership abilities through rigorous training and through leading other students on wilderness trips.
Josh and his wife Phebe were great supporter of the Outdoor Action Program and Josh made a generous gift to OA before his death. His goal was for the funds to support student leadership development and education. In order to maintain the excellence of the OA Leader Training Program additional funds are needed annually. Our goal is to expand his gift to become an endowed fund to provide ongoing support for the Outdoor Action Leadership Training Program.
For additional information, please contact the Outdoor Action Office (609) 258-5621.
Josh Miner '43We are all saddened by the death of Josh Miner who gave so much to the field of outdoor education. This message about Josh was sent out by Outward Bound on February 1, 2002. Dear Outward Bound USA Trustees, Advisors, Staff and Friends, It is with a profound sense of loss that we write to inform you of the death of Joshua L. Miner III, the founder of Outward Bound USA, at the age of 81. Josh passed away peacefully yesterday at his home in Andover, MA with his wife, Phebe, and eldest son, Josh IV, by his side. A memorial service will be planned for February. As we mourn the passing of a great friend, we must also celebrate his full and rich life as a visionary educator, noted advocate for youth, and World War II hero. In the early 1950s, Josh was inspired by the philosophy and educational approach of Kurt Hahn while teaching under him at the Gordonstoun School in Scotland. Over the next decade, and with the support of many other inspired individuals, Josh founded the Outward Bound movement in the United States, based upon the principles of experiential learning through outdoor adventure. From the establishment of the Colorado Outward Bound School in 1961, Outward Bound has developed into a nationwide system of wilderness schools and urban centers, and has spawned the proliferation of an entire outdoor education industry. Today, there are well over 600, possibly as many as 1,000, U.S. schools, universities, agencies and other institutions that use the Outward Bound philosophy and its techniques in their programs. Josh always urged us to celebrate these 'imitators' rather than fear them as competitors. For him, the greatest satisfaction lay in seeing a student, "discover that through trying day to day he could do much better than he dared to dream." Plus Est en Vous. There is More in You. Josh's probing blue eyes always saw the "more" in each person he encountered, the "more" that we could become as individuals and as part of our community. Josh was proud of Outward Bound's evolution, not only into a successful group of wilderness schools (Colorado, Hurricane Island, Voyageur, North Carolina and Pacific Crest), but also into vital urban centers in New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Baltimore and Philadelphia. More recently, he was pleased with the establishment and success of Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, a public school design program currently in over 115 schools across the country. From Josh's perspective, Outward Bound was coming full circle, back to its roots in the educational philosophy of Kurt Hahn. Signed. Frances A. Rubacha. Outward Bound USA Chairman. John C. Read. Outward Bound USA Interim President. Born in Plainfield, N.J., Miner attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton. During World War II, he served as a battery commander and captain in General George Patton’s 696th Armored Field Army, earning the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, five Combat Stars and the Croix de Guerre. |