At the 2007 NASS Conference in McLean VA, Fred Sawyer presented the Sawyer Dialing Prize to Mac Oglesby, citing Mac’s unusual dials and his willingness to help others make dials, passing his educational efforts among several generations of people, and his promotion of community interest in sundials.  Once again this year the prize included a custom Spectra Sundial designed and produced by Jim Tallman of Artisan Industrials.  In accepting the prize, Mac thanked many people who had helped him:  Bill Maddux, who introduced him to dials, Fred Sawyer, who brought him into NASS, Bob Terwilliger about Compendium articles, Fer J. de Vries, who helped him through email correspondence, Tony Moss for ideas, and David Roth, with slides of Bill Maddux and Mac and their work.  Mac then distributed cylinder azimuth dials he had made as a gift for each conference participant – specific to his/her own location.

http://www.artisanindustrials.com/world-of-sundials/spectra-sundial-brattleboro.html

 

At the 2006 NASS Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Fred Sawyer announced that the Sawyer Dialing Prize for 2006 is given to Hendrik Hollander, “for his innovative design of a mean-time planar sundial with oblique conical gnomon and modified hour lines and day curves – resulting in a sundial adapted to modern timekeeping while retaining the aesthetic appeal of the familiar dial face.” Fer J. de Vries was able to present the dial to Hendrik in The Netherlands.

One of Hendrik’s conical gnomon dials is on the cover of the September 2006 [Vol. 13, No. 3] issue of The Compendium.  Inside that issue Hendrik explains in detail how the cone dial and a number of other bi-gnomon sundials work.   In response to the Sawyer Dialing Prize Hendrik sent a letter of thanks to the NASS conference.

http://www.artisanindustrials.com/world-of-sundials/spectra-sundial-amsterdam-netherlands.html

At the 2005 NASS Conference in Chicago IL, Fred Sawyer presented the Sawyer Dialing Prize to Tony Moss, “in recognition of his achievement in combining superb craftsmanship, a lifetime’s teaching experience, and a constant desire to share knowledge, methods, and techniques in the practical art of dialing.”  The prize consisted of a certificate, a cash award, and a specially commissioned Spectra Sundial by Jim Tallman.  Tony’s prize money went into the construction of the Jamestown 400^th anniversary dial, dedicated in 2007 during the NASS Conference and placed at the Analemma Society’s Observatory Park (Turner Farm Park), Great Falls, VA.

http://www.artisanindustrials.com/world-of-sundials/spectra-sundial-bedlington-northumberland-england.html

 

At the 2004 NASS Conference in Tenafly, NJ, Fred Sawyer announced that the Sawyer Dialing Prize would go jointly to Bill Nye and Woodruff (Woody) Sullivan for their efforts to transform the Mars Rover Pancam calibration disk into a Martian sundial (with electronically placed hour lines) that could be viewed on the Internet.  The award was a foregone conclusion at the inception of the prize some years ago, but awaited the success of the Mars Rover landings in 2004. [Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell] http://athena.cornell.edu/kids/sundial.html

Unfortunately neither Bill nor Woody was able to attend the conference, but a descriptive paper by Bill was read explaining the corresponding Earth Dial project (“Two Worlds, One Sun”), showing similar styled dials in Utah, Honduras, Ohio, Virginia, Chile, Canada, the UK, Spain, and even the South Pole.  Download the PDF created by Nye Labs at revealing how to make a replica of the Mars Dial.

Fred noted that at the winner’s request, the cash prize will be used to thank and compensate Hilda Taylor, the undergraduate student volunteer who did most of the computer work for the Earth Dial project.  Both Bill and Woody received a certificate and a Spectra Dial by Jim Tallman, with the signature motto of the prize and with a declination line for the date of their choice.

http://www.artisanindustrials.com/world-of-sundials/spectra-sundial-seattle-2.html

At the 2003 NASS Conference in Banff, Alberta Canada, Fred Sawyer presented the fourth Sawyer Dialing Prize to Helm Roberts for his design and construction of the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial.  http://www.kyvietnammemorial.net/

 The certificate read in part: “In recognition of his understanding that the spirit of a sundial can not only stir the imagination but also help to heal the heart and preserve fond memory, as evidenced in his design of the Kentucky Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial.”  Helm also received the Sawyer Prize cash award and a beautiful special edition of Jim Tallman’s Spectra Sundial in etched glass.

Helm Roberts then gave an intriguing and moving presentation, “Making the Memorial – the Design, Theory, and Construction of the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial” at Frankfort, KY.  The gnomon is made of stainless steel, and the end point of its shadow annually touches the engraved name of each of over 1100 soldiers on the anniversary of the day of death. The political and mechanical issues are fascinating, resulting in a truly artistic triumph.

 http://www.artisanindustrials.com/world-of-sundials/spectra-sundial-frankfort.html

At the 2002 NASS Conference in Tucson AZ, Fred Sawyer presented the Sawyer Dialing Prize to John Carmichael.  Fred presented John with a trophy equatorial dial by Tony Moss and a certificate of appreciation for John’s work in recognition of his efforts to bring dialing to a high tech world and his demonstration that it is still possible in that world to prosper as a traditional craftsman of high quality heliochronometers.

John produces a wide variety of sundials, principally in stone and glass.  Many are on public display in parks while others are in private buildings and homes. Visit John’s website at http://www.sundialsculptures.com/ to see the many dials he has produced.

In response to the award, John presented his paper on “Polar Axis Gnomons with Multiple Styles.”  In his talk, John outlined his idea for a project to use the structure of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope as the gnomon for a sundial.  Although the telescope tube is at the correct polar angle for use as a gnomon, the design is complicated by its size and thickness.  The style width creates different shadows projected from different edges of the structure as the day passes and the fuzziness of the penumbral shadow complicates the reading of the time.

At the 2001 NASS Conference in Montreal, Canada, Fred Sawyer presented the Sawyer Dialing Prize to Robert Adzema, with the award given “in recognition of his demonstrations, in sculpture and in print, that with a sundial we can experience light as a tangible form and “time and place” as inseparable.”  Fred presented Robert with the certificate of recognition and a beautiful trophy equatorial by Tony Moss.  Robert will donate the Sawyer cash prize to a worthy cause.

 Robert describes “my sundials are abstract sculptures that measure the apparent motion of the sun throughout the day, the seasons and even the year. These mostly large, public works are carefully laid out, accurate both mathematically and geometrically, cast or fabricated in bronze, steel or stone and permanently set for their exact location. They are about sunlight and shadow.”

For more of Adzema’s work, read about the Suffern Free Library Sundial in The Compendium [Vol. 8 No. 4] December 2001 or visit http://www.robertadzema.com/

At the 2000 NASS Conference in San Francisco, CA, Fred Sawyer announced the presentation of the first annual Sawyer Dialing Prize to Fer J. de Vries “in recognition of his many years of dedication to dialing, and in gratitude for his development of Zonwvlak and his always helpful encouragement and support of the global dialing community.”

 Fer could not attend the conference, but he sent a letter of appreciation asking that the cash award be donated in his name to the University of California Regents for use as a one-time prize fund for U.C. Berkeley’s Architecture 140 course where students are required to make a sundial.