Pioneer Fund

The Pioneer Fund, Inc. is a white nationalist 501(c)(3) private foundation based in New York that studies the "science" of eugenics. It was founded in 1937. According to its website, accessed in 2009 but since shuttered, its mission is "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences." According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the group's original mandate was to pursue "race betterment" by promoting the genetic stock of those "deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the Constitution." It has funded Anglo-American race scientists as well as anti-immigration groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

The Pioneer Fund reported $326,929 in total income, $403,102 in total expenses, and $234,119 in net assets in 2011.

Groups and Individuals Funded
In 2011, Pioneer Fund funded:


 * Mokpo National University (South Korea) - $70,000 for "research"
 * Ulster Institute for Social Research (organization run by Richard Lynn, who has argued that blacks have a "psychopathic" personality) - $50,000 for "research"
 * University of Western Ontario - (to the late J. Philippe Rushton, Pioneer Fund's president, through the university where he teaches) - $223,596 for "research"
 * University of Arizona Department of Psychology - $35,000 for "research"

According to the SPLC:


 * "The Pioneer Fund [has] supported a variety of institutions working to legitimize race 'science,' including the IAAEE [ International Association for the Advancement of Eugenics and Ethnology ] and the journal Mankind Quarterly, which today is published by long-time eugenicist, anti-Semite and Pioneer grant recipient Roger Pearson. . ..


 * "Arthur Jensen, an educational psychologist focusing on race since 1966, got more than $1 million in Pioneer grants over three decades. In his famous 1969 attack on Head Start -- the early-education program that aims to help poor children -- Jensen wrote in the prestigious Harvard Education Review that the problem with black children was that they had an average IQ of only 85. No amount of social engineering could improve that performance, he claimed, adding that 'eugenic foresight' was the only solution.


 * "Roger Pearson, whose Institute for the Study of Man has been one of the top Pioneer Fund beneficiaries over the past 20 years, may provide the clearest indication of the kind of extremists supported by the fund. Pearson came to the United States in the mid-1960s to join Willis Carto, founder of the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. In 1965, Pearson became editor of Western Destiny, a magazine established by Carto and dedicated to spreading extreme-right ideology. Using the pseudonym Stephan Langton, he then became editor of The New Patriot, a short-lived magazine published in 1966 and 1967 to conduct 'a responsible but penetrating inquiry into every aspect of the Jewish Question.' Its articles carried such titles as 'Zionists and the Plot Against South Africa,' 'Early Jews and the Rise of Jewish Money Power[,]' and 'Swindlers of the Crematoria.' Pioneer support for all the groups linked to Pearson between 1975 and 1996 amounted to more than $1 million -- nearly 10 percent of total Pioneer grants during that period.


 * "In recent decades, the Pioneer Fund has supported mostly American and British race scientists, including a large number of those cited in The Bell Curve, a widely criticized 1994 book that claimed that differences in intelligence were at least partly determined by race. According to Barry Mehler, a leading academic critic of the fund, these race scientists have included Hans Eysenck, Robert A. Gordon, Linda Gottfredson, Seymour Itzkoff, Arthur Jensen, Michael Levin, Richard Lynn, R. Travis Osborne, [the late] J. Philippe Rushton, William Shockley [,] and Daniel R. Vining Jr.


 * "Under [the late] Rushton's leadership, the Pioneer Fund has continued to support extremists. According to Hold Your Tongue, a 1993 book by education expert James Crawford, the Pioneer Fund has 'aided the Institute for Western Values -- the same group [the late] Cordelia Scaife May [sister of far-right financier Richard Mellon Scaife ] paid to distribute [the racist nativist book] The Camp of the Saints -- and in publishing the autobiography of Thomas Dixon,' whose white supremacist novels helped spark the Klan's 1915 rebirth. Recent Pioneer grantees have included white supremacist Jared Taylor and Pioneer Fund board members Rushton and Richard Lynn, who runs the one-man Ulster Institute for Social Research and has argued that blacks have a "psychopathic" personality. Pioneer also has given grants to anti-immigrant groups, including the American Immigration Control Foundation (AICF), the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and Project USA, an anti-immigration group run by a one-time FAIR board member.


 * "The other big beneficiary of Pioneer handouts is American Renaissance, a racist newsletter published by Rushton's close friend, Jared Taylor, who recently argued in its pages that blacks are incapable of sustaining any kind of civilization. Taylor's journal focuses on eugenics and alleged race-based differences in intelligence."

Funding
According to SPLC, Pioneer is now solely funded by Swiss physicist "Walter P. Kistler, who is in the Aviation Hall of Fame and founder of Kistler Aerospace. In 1996, Kistler also endowed in perpetuity the well-known Bellevue, Wash., science outfit, Foundation for the Future."

Founders
As listed October 2009:


 * Wickliffe Preston Draper (1891-1972), textile magnate
 * Harry Hamilton Laughlin (1880-1943)
 * Frederick Henry Osborn (1890-1981)
 * John Marshall Harlan (1899-1971)
 * Malcolm Donald (1877-1949)

Directors
As of May 2012:


 * J. Philippe Rushton (Professor of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, passed away October 2, 2012)
 * R. Travis Osborne (Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Georgia)
 * Richard Lynn (Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Ulster; President, Ulster Institute for Social Research)
 * Stephen Rushton (J. Philippe Rushton's son and Associate Professor of Education, University of South Florida)

As of October 2009:

"When Harry Weyher died on March 27, 2002, J. Philippe Rushton, Professor of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, a long-time Pioneer grant recipient, was appointed the new president. At the same time, Weyher's widow, Mrs. Michelle Weyher, was appointed a Director, as was Richard Lynn, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Ulster, also a long-time grantee. They joined existing board members R. Travis Osborne, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Georgia, and Karl Schakel, an engineer and businessman-rancher from Colorado."

Past Directors of the Pioneer Fund and Years Served:


 * Wickliffe P. Draper [1937-1972]
 * Harry Hamilton Laughlin [1937-1941]
 * Frederick Henry Osborn [1937-1958]
 * John M. Harlan [1937-1954]
 * Malcolm Donald [1937-1949]
 * John H. Slate, Jr. [1941-1946]
 * James P. Kranz, Jr. [1948]
 * Henry Rice Guild [1948-1974]
 * Charles Codman Cabot [1950-1973]
 * John M. Woolsey, Jr. [1954-1959]
 * Harry F. Weyher, Jr. [1958-2002]
 * John B. Trevor, Jr. [1959-2000]
 * John F. Walsh, Jr. [1971-1973]
 * Henry E. Garrett [1972-1973]
 * Marion A. Parrott [1973-2002]
 * Thomas F. Ellis [1973-1977]
 * Eugenie Mary Ladenburg Davie (Mrs. Preston) [1974-1975]
 * Randolph L. Speight [1975-1999]
 * William Dawes Miller [1983-1993]
 * Karl Schakel [1993-2002]
 * Edwin D. Morgan [2000-2001]
 * R. Travis Osborne [2000-present]

Contact
Web: http://www.pioneerfund.org/

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Harry F. Weyher, Jr. (1921-2002) served as the third president of the Pioneer Fund for 44 years (1958-2002).
 * J. Philippe Rushton
 * Linda Gottfredson
 * Charles Murray and Richard J. Hernstein
 * Institute for the Study of Man - grantee
 * International Association for the Advancement of Eugenics and Ethnology - grantee
 * John Tanton
 * Frederick Henry Osborn - former president

External Resources

 * Adam Miller, "Professors of Hate," Rolling Stone magazine, October 20, 1994.
 * Charles Lane, "The Tainted Sources of 'The Bell Curve'", The New York Review of Books, December 1, 1994. Response
 * Michael G. Kenny, "Toward A Racial Abyss: Eugenics, Wickliffe Draper, And The Origins Of The Pioneer Fund", Journal Of History Of The Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 38(3), 259–283 Summer 2002.
 * William H. Tucker, The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund (University of Illinois Press, 2002).