Rice University Athletics
Rice's Owls Wins Prestigious Award
6/3/2013 12:00:00 AM | Owl Club
June 3, 2013
NEW YORK CITY - Alum Robert Flatt's Rice's Owls, a chronicle of a family of owls that inhabited the Rice University campus in 2010, was named the IndieReader Discovery Award winner for photography books, the organization announced at Book Expo America on Saturday.
The IndieReader Discovery Awards are open to independently published books and are voted on by a distinguished panel of judges from industry insiders. The award is the sixth accolade for the book, ranging geographically from first place at the recent San Francisco Book Festival to honorable mention at the New England Book Festival in Boston.
The book is exclusively available through the RiceOwls.com online store and the Rice Ticket office at Tudor Fieldhouse, with all proceeds benefitting the Owl Club, which supports the overall goals for the Rice University Athletic Department by generating the funds for scholarships for student-athletes in 16 varsity sports.
A unique photographic study of a family of great horned owls who first took up residence behind Huff House on campus in the spring of 2010, Rice's Owls is truly a gift from Flatt to the entire Rice community.
"Photographing the great horned owl family raise their two babies on the Rice University campus in the spring of 2010 was a labor of love for me and a uniquely spiritual experience," Flatt said. "I wanted the whole Rice University community- students, faculty, alumni, staff (especially the groundskeepers) and friends of Rice to share this experience. Hence I wrote this book."
A long-time donor to Rice Athletics, Flatt saw this publication as an exciting way to generate additional support.
Flatt enjoyed a 31-year career in business at Cameron International, with a bachelor's and master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Rice and an MBA from Harvard. He went on disability retirement from Cameron in 2004, but continues to teach Leading Change in Operations at the Jones School as an adjunct professor of management.
