Olympiad of the Arts : Excellence Awards
The Mary Daley Hough Grand Prize for Excellence »
The Walter and Josephine Wichansky Award for Excellence »
The Grand Prize for Excellence in Prose Writing is Dedicated to the Memory of Mary Daley Hough
A secret passion led to the endowment of the short story grand prize in this booklet. At first glance, someone who knew Mary Daley Hough might ask, “Why a writing contest?”
Mary Daley Hough pictured here in her prime No question, she enjoyed communicating. She was the most important component of her family because she actually listened and conversed with them individually.
No question, she traveled extensively. Her family’s trips to Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Trinidad, Barbados, England, Spain, France, Germany, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines gave her insights into cultures and people most women of her generation didn’t share.
No question, she loved to read. In addition to the daily newspaper and weekly magazines, Mary Hough read a book a day until she had devoured over 18,000 in her lifetime. Her tastes extended to mysteries, best-sellers, memoirs, poetry, contemporary novels, biographies, and especially the classics.
But what she was really passionate about was writing. She wrote non-fiction and fiction, but she allowed no one but her typists to read her manuscripts. She died in 1993 without publishing, despite her enormous love for the written word.
So it is in her name that Mary Daley Hough’s family has endowed this competition for budding authors, that her passion may be honored in the publication of stories she might have enjoyed reading, perhaps writing.
By David B. Hough,
Son of Mary Daley Hough
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The High School Poetry Division of the Olympiad of the Arts is Dedicated to the Memory of Walter and Josephine Wichansky
Walter and Josephine Wichansky, Christina and Anna (center), 1957 The Walter and Josephine M. Wichansky Award for Excellence in the Arts was bestowed for the first time in 2005 to students for achievements in poetry writing.This is the first of five such gifts to the Olympiad of the Arts, to be awarded between 2005 - 2009. The award is a memorial to two people who were involved in, supported, and appreciated the arts of all variety throughout their lives.
Walter and Josephine Wichansky were born in New York of immigrant parents during the First World War. She was a singer and a poet; he played various musical instruments.
Although they were both talented, they were not able to pursue any higher education or their art following high school graduation because of the Great Depression. Both passed their dreams of artistic achievement onto their children, Anna and Christina, who attended and graduated from both college and graduate school.
Anna Wichansky was a published poet and award winning soprano in New York in high school, and has created this award to further encourage student achievement in all the arts. Her daughter, Christina Filipp, is a 2004 winner in poetry at the Olympiad of the Arts.
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