Awards

Jerome Davis Research Award / Comfort Starr Award

“Jerome Davis was born on December 2, 1891 in Kioto, Japan where his parents were missionaries. His father had helped to found Doshisha University and was a teacher there so Jerome spent his early childhood in Japan. He came to the United States in 1904 to attend Oberlin Academy and, later, Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In college he was an active member of the debating team and president of the Young Men's Christian Association. After graduation in 1913, he decided he wanted to enter a service occupation. For a year he worked with the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Association. Among his other accomplishments, he was able to get a half holiday for workers in some of the larger factories in Minneapolis. In 1914, Davis decided to study for the ministry and also obtain a doctorate. He began studying at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University simultaneously…. Davis did not return to school that fall [1915]. Instead, he volunteered to go to Europe and work with prisoners of war…. When the United States entered the war he was put in charge of all YMCA work in Russia. At the request of the U.S. Government, he directed the distribution of over a million copies of President Wilson's "14 Points" message to soldiers in the German army. Jerome Davis was opposed to the United States invasion of Russia because he felt more could be accomplished by recognizing the Soviet Union and trying to work with them than by going to war…. After completing his work at Union Theological Seminary in 1920 and obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy Degree from Columbia University in 1922, Davis became an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College…. While at Dartmouth he aided the labor movement by investigating a strike at the Amoskeag plant in Manchester, New Hampshire and publishing his findings. The Federal Coal Commission asked him to investigate the labor situation in the coal mines of West Virginia. 

Many of his findings were incorporated in the Federal Coal Commission report. During this period, he was also serving as chairman of the Social Service Commission of the Congregational Church. His work in social service brought him an in invitation, in 1924, to occupy the Gilbert L. Stark Chair of Practical Philanthropy at Yale University. While at Yale, Davis helped to organize monthly labor forums for the New Haven Trades Council, formulated a statement of social ideals regarding labor which was adopted by the Congregational and Christian Churches of America and served as chairman of the Social Service Commission of all the Protestant Churches in Connecticut. He also served as chairman of the Legislative Commission on Jails of the State of Connecticut for twelve years…. Some of Jerome Davis' stands, particularly on organized labor, were unpopular with various members of the Yale Board of Directors. This hampered his career at Yale and eventually cost him his job. The case generated considerable publicity in 1936 and investigations were conducted by the National Education Association, the American Federation of Labor and the American Association of University Professors…. Davis was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in 1936 and served in that capacity for three years. In 1940, he was a delegate from Connecticut to the Democratic National Convention. He was a visiting professor at various colleges and universities but never again held a full‑time teaching position. During World War II, he headed the YMCA prisoner of war work in Canada and served as a correspondent in Russia in 1943 and 1944. In 1949 he headed a peace mission to Europe and in 1952 became the Executive Director of Promoting Enduring Peace, Inc…. Jerome Davis has written numerous articles and over twenty books….  Jerome Davis died on October 19, 1979….”

From a description of the Papers of Jerome Davis at:

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

4079 Albany Post Road

Hyde Park, New York 12538

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu:8000/findbrow.cgi?collection=Davis,+Jerome [accessed October 2008]

Oberlin College archives URL:

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE RECIPIENTS

Academic Year 2009-2010

The Comfort Starr Award

The Comfort Starr Award is one of Oberlin's oldest prizes for meritorious scholarly work. It was established in July of 1902 when Merritt Starr, of Cook County, Illinois, donated $2,500 to the College to help defray tuition costs to deserving students. In terms of the original grant, the prize was designed "for the education of deserving scholars in the college department maintained by said Oberlin College and who shall have attained superior excellence in their studies and who shall elect to pursue the courses of study given in said college in the studies of Civics, Economics, Political History and kindred subjects; and so far as is practicable the awarding of said scholarship shall be used as reward for excellence in said studies."
In November of 1923, Merritt Starr added to the original fund to raise its total to $10,000, the earnings from which would form the base for yearly Comfort Starr Awards. Mr. Starr specifically requested that the award be named the Comfort Starr Award in honor of his wife. In those early years, deserving students were named Comfort Starr recipients for tasks such as correcting themes in the History Department!
In 1937, the award became a prize rather than a form of student aid and students from the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, History, Government, and Economics were made eligible to share the award.