Third Peace Award Ceremony
Sunday, October 20, 2024
The Third Nakashima Foundation for Peace Award was given to Steven C. Rockefeller, Sr. via his son Steven C. Rockefeller, Jr. in an afternoon ceremony on Sunday, October 20th, 2024, at the Nakashima Arts Building in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Koto music performed by Mirai Yasuyama welcomed guests as they took their seats for the ceremony. After a meditation by Miriam Belov, Julian Lines gave a brief history of the Sacred Peace Tables and previous Award recipients, and Jon Yarnall spoke to the spiritual values informing the legacy of Nakashima Woodworkers.
Mira Nakashima then made some historical remarks and asked Mayor Larry Keller of New Hope to present the award. The wood candle stand was a section of walnut from the Russian Peace Table inscribed with:
The Third Nakashima Peace Award to Steven C. Rockefeller Sr.
in acknowledgement of his generous support of George Nakashima’s vision.
May this piece of the Peace Table for Russia always remind you
and your family that Peace IS Possible in this troubled world!
Steven Rockefeller Jr., a woodworker himself, received the award on his father’s behalf and delivered a most gracious acceptance speech.
The Rockefeller family has had a long association with Nakashima Woodworkers. In 1972, when Governor Nelson Rockefeller and his wife Happy called upon the Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura to design a house on their family’s compound in Pocantico Hills, NY, Yoshimura turned to his old friend George Nakashima for the furnishings. Nelson’s son, Steven Sr. was instrumental in supporting the first Altar to Peace placed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in upper Manhattan in 1986. Dean James Parks Morton, the ecumenical pastor of that Cathedral, became the first Nakashima Peace Award recipient. Princeton residents and close friends of George, Scott and Hella McVay, who were the first to hear and spread the idea of the Peace Altar, were the second awardees.
The afternoon concluded with the very first book signing by Holly Thompson of “Listening to Trees, George Nakashima, Woodworker.” This children’s book is charmingly illustrated by Toshiki Nakamura and includes an introduction by Mira, a timeline of George’s life, plus wood and woodworking definitions.
George Nakashima and Steven C. Rockefeller Sr. at the first Peace Altar Dedication
