The Carey Center for Global Good

The transition of the Institute on Man and Science to the Carey Center for Global Good

The roots of the Carey Center for Global Good go back to 1924, when Laura Talmage Huyck convened her “Country Forums on Human Relations.” The forums were created as a reaction to the carnage of World War I. They aimed to promote global understanding that would lead to peaceful resolution of differences.

The forums brought students from as far away as India, the Phillipines, Japan and South America to discuss how to achieve world peace and mutual understanding. Rensselaerville residents were invited to all lectures, and participants were introduced to some enlightened thinkers of the day, such as family planning pioneer Margaret Sanger. Following formal guest lectures, students spent weekends discussing lecture topics with the lecturers themselves.

In l962, Huyck’s daughter, Katharine, assumed her mother’s role. A year later, she and her husband, Lee Elmore, together with their friends Everett and Winifred Clinchy, created The Institute on Man and Science on 100 acres of their own estate. The Clinchys were well-connected and well-traveled promoters of peace (he was founder and president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews) with a growing rolodex of well-heeled contacts. As such, the Institute attracted a broad range of influential artists, politicians, writers and diplomats, including Chief Justice Earl Warren, UN Secretary General U Thant, Joseph Papp, the theatre impresario, choreographer Agnes DeMille, acting teacher Lee Strasberg, musician Artie Shaw, actor Ossie Davis, writer Isaac Asimov, nobel laureate Ralph Bunche, pollster George Gallup, journalist David Halberstam and feminist pioneer Betty Friedan.

Thanks to generous benefactors and board members, the campus evolved to include two Huyck family country estate homes, a restaurant in the estate’s former carriage house, lodging, a theatre, conference rooms and office space. The names of the newly constructed buildings reflected the board’s generous members – Guggenheim and Straus.

As leadership changed and evolved, the Institute’s mission also changed and evolved. The facility’s name was changed to The Rensselaerville Institute, and its mission was no longer to foster a home for visionary thinking, but instead, to lead and develop programs outside of Rensselaerville.

In 2012, the board of the Rensselaerville Institute voted to sell the campus. W.P. Carey, a board member of the Institute and resident of the hamlet, purchased the campus and created the Carey Center for Global Good. Carey’s intent was to revive the spirit of the original country forums – to address issues affecting the people of Rensselaerville, New York State and the world.

He appointed Carol Ash, a Rensselaerville resident and former New York State Parks commissioner, to be its president and to carry on its mission to “bring together innovative and dynamic people from around the world to seek creative solutions to the most pressing challenges of the day.”