Community Profiles
Edward Hoyt '57

"A grounding in the arts, humanities and social sciences develops the capacity to communicate and to manage solutions—skills necessary to making great ideas work in the world.”
Founder, Hoyt Humanities Fund
Member of the Visiting Committee
When Ed Hoyt ’57 graduated with a degree in
The Effects of Literature
In no small way, Ed credits his success in global business management and his abiding interest in literature to undergraduate courses he took at the School. “The professors opened me to a whole area of insight that has stayed with me throughout my life,” says Ed, who with his wife Sarnia now lives in New York City. One especially memorable course explored twentieth-century American novelists. “We probed layer after layer of the text, following its multiple threads,” says Ed, “I never realized that you could do that with a piece of literature. It was engineering of a different
Faulkner and Global Education
“Studying Faulkner and Hemingway,” Ed continues, “I learned to appreciate meanings that lie beneath the surface. This skill was critical in helping me understand the cultural differences among people, an important ability when managing a global enterprise.”
Grateful for his experience, Ed supports his alma mater by directing his giving to the humanities. “MIT has a crucial role to play in solving the world’s problems,” he says. “A grounding in
The Hoyt Humanities Fund
The year after he retired, Ed established the Hoyt
The Hoyt Fellowship Fund
In 2007, Ed created the Hoyt Fellowship Fund, an
Increasing MIT's Service to the World
As a member of the Humanities Visiting Committee, Ed finds that undergraduates value the