Academy of Achievement

Non profit educational organization

The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving people in diverse fields The academy also brings together the leaders with promising graduate students for mentorship. It hosts an International Achievement Summit, which ends with an awards ceremony, during which new members are inducted into the academy.

Founded in 1961 by Sports Illustrated and LIFE magazine photographer Brian Reynolds, the Academy of Achievement recognizes high achievers in public service, business, science and exploration, sports, and the arts. Reynolds established the academy after realizing that the famous people he photographed from different fields did not usually get to meet one another. A 1989 San Francisco Chronicle article called the organization "little publicized but immensely powerful". According to William DeVries, who helped develop the first artificial heart, "It is a social network. Like a club. Now I can call Chuck Yeager up, or Philip 'Bo' Knight, and they'll return my calls, ask me out places. I promised myself I would never ask the people here for money, but I know a lot of scientists who do." At the 1990 summit in Chicago, for example, student delegates "rubbed shoulders" with Ronald Reagan, Maya Angelou and Michael Jordan, and in 1995, students met with inductees including George H. W. Bush, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Lady Bird Johnson, Robin Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Rosa Parks. Academy members and summit attendees have also included Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, Maya Lin, Barbra Streisand, Mikhail Gorbachev, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. In 2005, The Washington Post called the summit "one of the world's most dazzling gatherings of international celebrities Nobel Prize winners, heads of state, star athletes, titans of industry, scientists and entertainers." In 1985, Reynolds's son, Wayne Reynolds, took over the leadership, becoming the executive director of the academy. In the 1990s, Reynolds moved the organization's headquarters from Malibu, California, to Washington, D. C.

In 2007, the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation donated $9 million to the academy.

The annual summit is attended by graduate students and young innovators from the U. S. and overseas, like Sergey Brin and Larry Page, computer science graduate students who later founded Google. The summits were originally attended by high school students chosen for their academic achievement and extracurricular activities. On September 9, 1961, the academy hosted its first International Achievement Summit. it included a "Banquet of the Golden Plate" award ceremony, named for the gold plate service used for special occasions by the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, which provided the service for the ceremony. Physicist Edward Teller was the keynote speaker, and warned of the United States' poor performance in the atomic arms race. Awardees at the inaugural ceremony included engineers Charles Stark Draper and Kelly Johnson, General Douglas MacArthur and film director William Wyler. Other attendees included Nobel laureate Willard Libby (Chemistry, 1960) and future Nobel laureate Luis Walter Alvarez (Physics, 1968). The first honorees were chosen by a national board of governors, but subsequent honorees have been selected by the Golden Plate Awards Council, which consists of Academy awardees. At the 13th annual summit, held in June 1974 in Salt Lake City, Academy member Leon Jaworski, the Special Prosecutor overseeing the Watergate investigations at the time, said in his keynote address that he expected to win a Supreme Court case to get subpoenaed tapes from President Richard Nixon. Among the awardees at the summit were actor James Stewart, professional athlete John Havlicek, and Nobel Laureate chemist Paul Flory. The 25th annual American Academy of Achievement Summit took place in 1986 in Washington, D. C. The ceremony was addressed by former inductees Chuck Yeager and Erma Bombeck, and was attended by a group of 390 high school graduates assembled from across the U. S. the first country music artist ever admitted into the academy. New inductees into the academy in 2002 included Clinton, U2 lead singer Bono, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai. The 2021 awards ceremony took place in Los Angeles on December 23. Among the awardees was Katalin Karikó, a biochemist whose research with Drew Weissman underpins the mRNA COVID 19 vaccines.

Recipient Category Year inducted NotesHank AaronSports1977Muhammad AliSports1986Neil ArmstrongScience & Exploration1973Jeff BezosBusiness2001Jimmy CarterPublic Service1984Ray CharlesThe Arts1975Bob DylanThe Arts2003Henry FondaCinema and the Performing Arts1979Ruth Bader GinsburgPublic Service1995 Mikhail GorbachevPublic Service2000Kazuo IshiguroThe Arts2017Steve JobsBusiness1982Coretta Scott KingPublic Service1997Ralph LaurenBusiness1989John LewisPublic Service2004George LucasThe Arts1989Tenzing NorgayScience & Exploration1973Barack ObamaPublic Service2007Sandra Day O’ConnorPublic Service1987Larry PageBusiness2004Shimon PeresPublic Service2003Ronald ReaganU. S. President1990Bill RussellSports2008Carl SaganScience & Exploration1975Jonas SalkMedicine1976Desmond TutuChampion of Human Rights2003John WoodenSports1976Stevie WonderThe Arts1977