| Year | Prize Amount |
| 1976 | $25,000 |
J. V. Cunningham was born in Cumberland, Maryland, on August 23, 1911, the son of working-class Irish parents. His father, a railroad worker, moved the family to Billings, Montana, where Cunningham spent most of his childhood. He attended Stanford for both undergraduate and graduate school, receiving his Ph.D. in 1945.