The Melitta Bentz Award

has been known as both The Melitta Bentz Award for Women's Achievement
and as The Melitta Bentz Woman of Innovation and Invention Award

Melitta Bentz, and Award

"Frau Melitta Bentz couldn't stand seeing coffee grounds in her friends' teeth at a coffee klatch one day, so she invented the coffee filter and went on to make millions with her Melitta Corporation."
--from the book Why Didn't I Think of That? by Allyn Freeman

The multi-billion-dollar coffee products company Melitta, in the spirit of its German founder Melitta Bentz, the Dresden homemaker who invented and patented the filter drip system of coffee making in 1908, created the Melitta Bentz Award in 1989. The award is given every year to recognize a woman's leadership, ambition, and courage. The winner receives a replica of the original brass coffee pot Melitta invented, a $5,000 prize, and $1,000 for a charity of her choice.

Past winners have included:

* Diane B. Allen, New Jersey Senator and former news anchor
* Dr. Anita Borg, founder and president of the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT) and member of the President's Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology (1999)
* Kent Manahan, Emmy Award-winning senior anchor, NJN News
* Nancy C. Panoz, co-founder of Chateau Elan Winery & Resort (1998)
* Karen Page, award-winning author and founder of women's organizations (1997)
* Carol Saline, author, Mothers and Daughters, Sisters, and Straight Talk
* Barbara Boggs Sigmund, former Princeton (NJ) mayor and gubernatorial candidate