Alumni Gazette

With Five You Get . . . ?

John ’60E (PhD) and Marjorie Manuel White ’60W (Mas) with son David White

It started with David, the son of John ’60E (PhD) and Marjorie Manuel White ’60W (Mas). He received the family’s first Fulbright grant in 1994 to study glaciers in Iceland.

With that, David, a climatologist, started an avalanche of Fulbrights for the Whites—five in the immediate family. Marjorie, a sociologist nurse, followed with a Fulbright in 1995 to study families in Finland. Fulbright number three went to John in 1996 to study living Icelandic composers.

It was back to Marjorie for the fourth award, a teaching electorship at the University of Iceland in 2000, and John received the latest Fulbright in 2003, as a Distinguished Chair at the University of Vienna, where he taught at the Institut für Musikwissenchschaft. “We didn’t set out to do it, but it seems to run in the family,” says John.

Their advice for those interested in getting a Fulbright? “Don’t be modest on your application. That’s not the time to hide your light under a bushel.”