The Elizabeth S. Peters Prize was established in September 1985 by Lehman Professor Patricia J. Thompson to honor her mother who died in March of that year. Ellie Jones (aka Elizabeth S. Peters) was a fashion model and multilingual translator.
Née Ellie Zibert – Yelizaveta Petrovna Zibert – Ellie Jones was raised in the town of Ufa in the Russian Urals in a family of wealthy landowners of German descent who had emigrated to Russia at the time of Catherine the Great. Her family fled to California after the Russian Revolution, but she stayed in the Soviet Union and worked in Moscow before immigrating first to London, then to New York where her daughter Patricia was born and raised.
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Ellie Zibert (Sibert) took the last name Jones from her husband George Jones, then Peters, from her second husband Henry Peters. As originally established by Prof. Thompson, the annual Elizabeth S. Peters prizes were given to students showing excellence in the study of literature and culture in each of three languages: French, German and Russian. The first prizes were awarded at Lehman's graduation in spring 1986. For some years named the "Elizabeth S. and Henry Peters" prizes, the distinction was awarded in German several times; there are no records of any student having earned the prize in Russian. Since the 1990s, the Elizabeth S. Peters Prize has been awarded annually for excellence in French.
Professor Thompson publicly revealed the identity of her biological father, the famous Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, in 1991. This led to a number of events, in Moscow and in New York. Lehman College hosted a centennial celebration of the poet, playwright and artist, "Mayakovsky: Man or Myth?" in 1993. Prof. Thompson played the character "Pat" in a staged reading (in an English translation) of Daniel Besnehard's play, Hudson River: A Longing for Exile, in Lehman's Art Gallery in 1999. Published that year in the original French (Hudson River: Un désir d'exil, Éditions Théâtrales) and performed in Angers, Besnehard's play features Mayakovsky's poetry and legend, his stay in New York and his daughter.
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Tall and outspoken, Professor Thompson was a well-known figure at Lehman College long before her paternity had been revealed. Patricia J. Thompson (Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskya, 1926-2016) was Professor of Women's Studies and Education at Lehman and an active member of the Faculty and University Senate. A feminist who published a number of books and dozens of articles on the Hestian tradition, Prof. Thompson transitioned from the field of home economics to diverse fields of Women's Studies. She mentored generations of students and organized many events, both at Lehman and through the American Educational Research Association concerning, for example, women and the family, power, war, technology and the professions.
Lehman College continues her legacy and that which honors her multilingual mother, only posthumously known to be linked with the poet and dissident Mayakovsky. Prof. Thompson's wishes to celebrate talented undergraduates, studying literature and culture, carry on with the annual Elizabeth S. Peters Prize for Excellence in French.
References:
1995 Priscila Ellis
2007 Jacquelyn Haas
2008 Miguel A. García & Emmanuel Pérez
2009 Comlanvi Bamezon
2010 Laura Luciano & Béatrice Yodé
2013 Adama Tall
2014 Kokou V. Biem
2015 Harry Kuan C. Chen &
Marichelle Renée T. Pita
2016 Madelyn Sher
2017 Kantomalala Rasedoar
2018 Greici Brito
2019 Nora Belhadj
2020 (not awarded)
2021 Thiawo Lecor
2022 Zadel De Leon
2023 Calvin Pillah-Neipal
2024 Armel Stahela Nganda Fandio
