Francis C. Oakley, the Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of the History of Ideas, Emeritus, at Williams College, and President Emeritus of the college and of the American Council of Learned Societies, received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Notre Dame during the university's commencement May 21.
Oakley is a noted teacher, historian, and administrator. A native of Liverpool, England, he was educated at Oxford University, at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, and at Yale University, where he completed a Ph.D. in medieval history before joining the Williams faculty in 1961.
In 1977, he was appointed dean of the faculty at Williams, a post that he held until being name president in 1985. During his nearly decade-long tenure as president, he established the Gaius Charles Bolin Fellowship and the Class of 1960 Scholars programs, oversaw a doubling in the college's minority population, and led the college through a major curricular review, introducing tutorial classes in all departments, strengthening the distribution requirements, establishing majors in Asian studies and literary studies, and creating the Program in Experimental and Cross-Disciplinary Studies.
During his presidency the college's endowment more than doubled, and the college's Bicentennial Year of 1993 saw the successful completion of a $173 million fund drive, the record for a liberal arts college. Prominent among the building projects undertaken during those years were the expansion of Hopkins Hall, the construction the Jewish Religious Center, and the start on the construction of the Spencer Studio Art building.
Oakley has written extensively on medieval and early modern intellectual and religious history and on American higher education. His most recent books are "The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church 1300-1870," which in 2004 was awarded the Roland Bainton History Prize, "Natural Law, Laws of Nature, Natural Rights," and "Kingship: The Politics of Enchantment."
His honors are numerous. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Medieval Academy of America, and an honorary fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University. During the 1999-2000 academic year, he held the Sir Isaiah Berlin Professorship in the History of Ideas at Oxford. He has served as president of the New England Medieval Conference, and was awarded the Francis H. Hayden Memorial Award (Northern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce) for civic and community leadership in 1994 and received the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from Yale University for outstanding achievement as a historian, academic administrator and advocate for the liberal arts in 1997.
He also holds honorary degrees from Northwestern, Wesleyan, Amherst, Bowdoin, North Adams State, and Williams.
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Capeless Students Raise $5,619 for Charity
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Students at Capeless Elementary School celebrated the season of giving by giving back to organizations that they feel inspired them.
On Monday night, 28 fourth-grade students showed off the projects they did to raise funds for an organization of their choice. They had been given $5 each to start a small business by teachers Jeanna Newton and Lidia White.
Newton created the initiative a dozen years ago after her son did one while in fifth grade at Craneville Elementary School, with teacher Teresa Bills.
"And since it was so powerful to me, I asked her if I could steal the idea, and she said yes. And so the following year, I began, and I've been able to do it every year, except for those two years (during the pandemic)," she said. "And it started off as just sort of a feel-good project, but it has quickly tied into so many of the morals and values that we teach at school anyhow, especially our Portrait of a Graduate program."
Students used the venture capital to sell cookies, run raffles, make jewelry, and more. They chose to donate to charities and organizations like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Berkshire Humane Society and Toys for Tots.
"Teaching them that because they have so much and they're so blessed, recognizing that not everybody in the community has as much, maybe not even in the world," said Newton. "Some of our organizations were close to home. Others were bigger hospitals, and most of our organizations had to do with helping the sick or the elderly, soldiers, people in need."
Once they have finished and presented their projects, the students write an essay on what they did and how it makes them feel.
"So the essay was about the project, what they decided to do, how they raised more money," Newton said. "And now that the project is over, this week, we're writing about how they feel about themselves and we've heard everything from I feel good about myself to this has changed me."
Sandra Kisselbrock raised $470 for St. Jude's by selling homemade cookies.
"It made me feel amazing and happy to help children during the holiday season," she said.
Gavin Burke chose to donate to the Soldier On Food Pantry. He shoveled snow to earn money to buy the food.
"Because they helped. They used to fight for our country and used to help protect us from other countries invading our land and stuff," he said.
Desiree Brignoni-Lay chose to donate to Toys for Tots and bought toys with the $123 she raised.
Luke Tekin raised $225 for the Berkshire Humane Society by selling raffle tickets for a basket of instant hot chocolate and homemade ricotta cookies because he wanted to help the animals.
"Because animals over, like I'm pretty sure, over 1,000 animals are abandoned each year, he said. "So I really want that to go down and people to adopt them."
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