Davie and Joy were not alone in their fondness for Pilgrim Place. Retired leaders of church-related institutions around the world have called Pilgrim Place "home" for nearly a century. John and Anne Bennett, Mary Ely Lyman, Ed Manthei, Harold Fey and Nell Morton are just a few of the many from earlier generations whose contributions to church and society are still remembered.

"Pilgrims" are known for their continuing engagement with major issues of the time. The community has a long tradition of critical analysis and debate about the most creative approaches to such issues as peace, social justice and the environment. Pilgrim Place exemplifies a different kind of "retirement," where elders continue to probe, connect and grow.

The small college town of Claremont, thirty miles east of Los Angeles, facilitates the reflective/engaged lifestyle of Pilgrim Place residents. Located here are the five Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Scripps, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd and Claremont-McKenna), as well as the Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University.

Centrally located on Pilgrim Place's 32-acre campus, the new LEED-certified Napier Center will be an important part of the campus development plan now in the early stages of implementation. This 4,400 sq. ft. facility will serve as Pilgrim Place’s principal site for a great variety of resident and community activities. A large multi-purpose room will be used for issue forums, meetings, Eucharistic services, special suppers and parties, yoga classes and musical events (thanks to the presence of Davie’s beloved baby-grand piano). The building we call the Napier Center will itself call us to "creative change."

The Napier Awards for Creative Leadership will be an affirmation of young adults who have shown outstanding leadership skill and promise in addressing three sets of issues that were central in the lives of Davie and Joy Napier – global peace, racial justice and care of the Earth. Through this program, Pilgrim Place residents will extend their tradition of engagement with current issues into direct contact with college and seminary students, thereby modeling a role for elders in nurturing the vision among young people of a world made better through their own committed labors.

We plan for the Napier Awards program to extend to students at the principal institutions the Napiers served before retirement – Stanford, Yale (both Yale College and Yale Divinity School), Pacific School of Religion – as well as the institutions to which they related during their retirement years (the Claremont Colleges and Claremont School of Theology).

During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Napier Awards will be launched among the Claremont undergraduate colleges, and in the following year they will be implemented among the other five institutions. Click here for more detailed information about the launch of the Awards at the Claremont Colleges.

The $700,000 amount we are seeking for the Awards will support the program for an initial five-year period. We believe that its successful implementation over this timeframe will put us in a strong position to secure additional support, including endowment funds, for the years beyond.