IT is a gift from one of history's greatest philanthropists to another from the present day.
Although they were born more than a century apart, the threads which tie them together are their humble origins in the east of Scotland and their commitment to simple acts of human kindness.
Sir Tom Farmer, the Edinburgh-based multi-millionaire, is to be honoured with the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy 2005.
He is in good company. Past recipients include the Gates, Rockefeller and Sainsbury families, Ted Turner, the US media tycoon, and George Soros, the Wall Street financier.
Expressing his surprise and profound pleasure at the honour yesterday, SirTom said that he was particularly delighted, since this year's Carnegie medals will be presented at a special ceremony in the Scottish Parliament. It is the first time the biennial event has been held outside the US and marks Carnegie's birth ties to Scotland.
Also receiving medals in Octoberwill be the Aga Khan, the Cadbury family, both the Hewlett and the Packard families, and Agnes Gund, chairwoman of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Sir Tom said yesterday: "I was very pleasantly surprised even to be nominated, but to be honoured with this medal is wonderful."
The 64-year-old founder of Kwik-Fit, one of Scotland's richest men, has devoted his life to philanthropy. A private man who never discusses his countless acts of benevolence, the devout Roman Catholic is known to have donated millions to charities, emergency relief funds, and good causes both at home and abroad.
Through his Farmer Foundation, he provides support to communities all over the world to promote self-sufficiency and personal development.
He stressed: "A lot of people think that (philanthropy) is about signing cheques. But it isn't just about that. One of the most valuable things you can do is to give up your time - and I have always tried to do that."
William Thomson, a greatgrandson of Carnegie, said:
"Recipients of the medals share Andrew Carnegie's vision that distributing one's accumulated wealth for the common good is just as important a task as building up that wealth.
"I need hardly say that the 2005 medals will be presented to people whose philanthropic works more than fit the criteria"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article