John McCardell Jr.

For his dissertation, The Idea of a Southern Nation, he was awarded the 1977 Allan Nevins Prize by the Society of American Historians.

[2] An anonymous donor of $50 million in the spring of 2004 asked that Middlebury's science center, Bicentennial Hall, be renamed John M. McCardell Jr.

[2] McCardell is the founder and director of Choose Responsibility, an organization dedicated to exploring and advocating the lowering of the legal drinking age to 18 and issuing drinking learner permits to adults age 18, 19, and 20 in an effort to promote responsible consumption.

He authored an op-ed in The New York Times in 2004 saying, "the 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law".

[4] He later spearheaded the creation of the Amethyst Initiative, a statement of over 120 college presidents across the United States calling for reconsideration of drinking age laws.