Douglas C. Basil Award

The Douglas C. Basil Awards celebrate the valuable contributions of retired faculty in higher education. The Douglas C. Basil Award provides a retired faculty with a $5,000 stipend for a special project or research. One or two retired professors are selected annually from online submissions.

An honored Emeritus Professor, Dr. Basil retired in 1989 from the Management and Organization Department at the USC Marshall School of Business after 28 years of service. We are grateful for Professor Basil’s generous endowment to support retired professors.

“My philosophy is that it was a university education that allowed me to be a professor and that I must give back to university education” said Basil. “I have great admiration for my fellow Emeriti, and wish to provide some assistance to sponsor their research and contributions…I wish to thank USC faculty, students, and administration for a wonderful life and the opportunity to contribute to my students and to USC.”

Award Recipients

Dr. Douglas C. Basil, Ph.D.

May 30, 1923 – December 20, 2022 A truly amazing Renaissance man, Dr. Douglas Constantine Basil, passed away at his home surrounded by his family...

Gretchen Anderson

Gretchen Anderson was awarded the Douglas C. Basil Award for her research on the design and development of modular facilities for Early Childhood Care and...

Joseph Dane

Joseph Dane was awarded the Douglas C. Basil Award for his project to improve FreeWordPress, support reproduction of visual art, and to provide an outlet...

Katherine Schlaerth

Katherine Schlaerth was awarded the Douglas C. Basil Award for her study to investigate the circumstances under which elderly individuals who are non-English speaking, isolated...

Peter Clark

Peter Clark was awarded the Douglas C. Basil Award for research on his book Reeling Them In: How to Hook Your Audience with Storytelling.

Florence Lin

Florence Lin used the Basil Award funds for travel and conference expenses to present interdisciplinary, real-world, and unifying physics research results at scientific conferences. Specifically,...

Nominate a faculty member

Similar to encore.org’s purpose prize, Douglas C. Basil Award is intended to fund a retired faculty’s current or future purposeful project. The monetary prize is intended for retired faculty who might not have the funds to pursue a special academic or creative project. Those projects that exemplify contributions towards the greater good, giving back and/or innovation are more likely to be considered. The awards are taxable if taken in lump sum or they can be claimed tax free by submitting receipts for reimbursement or the funds can be used to pay student assistants.