Calderwood Charitable Foundation

The Calderwood Charitable Foundation was formed by the late Stanford Calderwood, himself a bold proponent of writers and writing. As president of WGBH-TV in Boston, Calderwood first negotiated with the British Broadcasting Corporation for selected programs and then convinced Mobil Corporation to underwrite Masterpiece Theatre, which turned out to be PBS's longest running series. As a businessman and money manager, Calderwood was a generous benefactor to the arts and education institutions. Endowed in his name or that of his wife, Norma Jean Calderwood, are the curatorships of Egyptian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and of Islamic Art at the Harvard University Art Museums; courtyards at both the MFA and Harvard's Fogg Museum; a University Professorship in Islamic Art at Boston College, directorships of the Boston Athenæum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Boston University's Huntington Theatre; professorships in Economics at Wellesley College and the University of Colorado; and a studio for writers at MacDowell Colony.