Justin Homkow in the Low Rotunda during the recent George Washington commemoration

The 200th anniversary of George Washington's death on Dec. 14, 1799 was observed nationwide this month as flags flew at half-staff on government buildings, wreaths were laid at historic sites and monuments, and colonial museums held commemorations for the nation's first Commander-in-Chief. A special tribute was staged on the eve of the bicentennial in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library, organized by a Columbia College sophomore motivated by admiration for the Founding Fathers, and particularly, Washington.

Justin Homkow, CC '02, began planning the commemoration, held on the afternoon of Dec. 13, eight months earlier. He initiated contacts with well-known historians through letters and phone calls, seeking guidance in organizing the program, then carried off the planning on his own. The two-and-a-half hour program, an official Mount Vernon-recognized bicentennial event, featured noted historians and drew 400 guests to the Rotunda.

In organizing the program, Justin Homkow, 19, sought guidance from historians at Columbia and other universities, including, among others, Columbia Professor Richard Bushman, an authority on colonial history; Dorothy Twohig, a Columbia alumna (GSAS '54 M.A.) and former associate editor of the Papers of Alexander Hamilton at Columbia and editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia until her retirement in 1998; Lesley Herrman of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; and Edmund S. Morgan of Yale University, one of the country's foremost scholars of colonial history.

Drafting his own proposal, Homkow lined up contributions and other support to finance the program, at a cost of almost $10,000, from several organizations, including the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, the American Flag Institute, Fraunces Tavern Museum, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Morgan, Sterling Professor Emeritus of American History at Yale University, and author of The Genius of George Washington (1980), accepted Homkow's invitation to serve as host of the program and moderator of a question-and-answer session at its conclusion. Three other noted scholars agreed to give lectures: Peter Henriques, Associate Professor of History, George Mason University, and author of the forthcoming He Died as He Lived: the Death and Funeral of George Washington; Don Higginbotham, Dowd Professor of American History, University of North Carolina, and author of The War of American Independence (1983) and George Washington and the American Military Tradition (1985); and Twohig, Associate Professor Emeritus of History, University of Virginia.

Books by Higginbotham, Twohig and Morgan are listed among the Ten Great Books on George Washington, selected by the Organization of American Historians for Mount Vernon's Washington bicentennial observance.

To lighten the academic program, Homkow arranged for the Continental Field Music fife-and-drum corps to open the program on the steps of Low Library with a pageant of military and patriotic music familiar to Washington, and invited three musician-friends from Columbia and New York universities, cellist Julia Bruskin; her sister, violinist Emily Bruskin; and vocalist Jenny Coates, to perform popular 18th-century music, including several of Washington's favorites, concluding the program with "Father of the Land We Love," written in 1932 by George M. Cohan for the bicentennial celebration of Washington's birth. A dessert reception, which featured an elaborate cake with inscriptions and cherry illustrations and filling, followed the program.

Homkow, who has no special academic connections through family or friends, was competing with organizers of hundreds of tributes around the country as he tried to secure prominent Washington scholars for his event. His biggest asset was clearly enthusiasm for Washington's life and legacy.

Homkow's admiration for the founding Fathers developed in grade school (a native New Yorker, he attended Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School). His enthusiasm for the founders is unabashed: "They used the greatest thoughts and achievements of mankind as a basis for a new society where individuals would be able to control their destinies and leave a better place for others. They were some of the greatest men to ever walk the Earth." Washington, he noted, "more than any other person secured our nation's independence and established our legitimacy in the world and national character."

One of his favorite books, Homkow says, is a five-volume series, a government publication from the 1930s, "The History of the George Washington Bicentennial," that is a complete record of the bicentennial of Washington's birth in 1932. Reading through the volumes, he said: "I have often thought to myself how wonderful it would have been to have taken part in the national celebration of the bicentennial."

While viewing an exhibit of treasures from Washington's home in Mount Vernon at the New York Historical Society in early 1999, Homkow came across an advertisement for a bicentennial commemoration of Washington's death to be held at Mount Vernon.

"I thought about Washington and all of the events that happen on campus for very specific purposes and I thought there were no celebrations of our common heritage and our common heroes, such as the Founding Fathers," he said. "It dawned on me that this was the perfect year to do it."

Columbia sponsors and supporters of the event included Butler Library, the History Department, the Columbia College Student Council Co-Sponsorship Committee, and the Foundation for Academic Standards and Tradition, a non-political academic organization that promotes a study model for informed citizenry, of which Homkow is a campus chapter founder. Of the bicentennial program, the History Department said in a statement: "This project is a remarkable sign of the vigor of independent historical pursuits at the University."

Homkow has yet to formally declare his major, but expects to concentrate his studies in American history, economics, and philosophy. His career goals, he says, will combine education, public service and entertainment -- achievements he clearly sought in the Washington program.