Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Theodora Getty Gaston 1929 of Venice, CA. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes Harcum alumni for outstanding achievements in their professional lives, personal integrity and stature, who have made lasting contributions to their chosen profession, and is the highest honor given by the Alumni Association.

Gaston attended the Harcum School before it became a Junior College and later studied in New York City, London and Rome. She was a professional singer, and during World War II, served as a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune in Rome.  She had a successful career as a cabaret singer after the war, and was married for 18 years to J. Paul Getty, who founded the Getty Oil Company. Their child Timothy Christopher Ware Getty died at age 12. She later married William Gaston, a Boston attorney, and their daughter, Gigi Gaston was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Equestrian team and is a successful screen writer.

Getty Gaston is the author of a romantic adventure novel, “The Mark of the Eagle,” published by Ex Libris, an arm of Random House. She has nearly completed a book on her life with J. Paul Getty and is president and treasurer of the Timothy Christopher Getty Ware Foundation, which makes gifts to animal welfare causes and some health related charities. She is active in Harcum’s Southern California Alumni Chapter.