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.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
No Comments
Dalton Considers Digitization of Records
By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — The town is exploring digitizing its records to improve documents organization and accessibility, while reducing the need for physical storage space.
Digitization and storage is an issue that the town encounters, more often than they would like, and has become increasingly apparent through the ongoing work of the Stormwater Management Commission, Chair Thomas Irwin told the Select Board in April.
"[The commission has] repeatedly struggled to determine what documents exist, access past commission records, and identify a secure searchable location for records we continue to generate," he said.
Currently, the town's Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) documents are primarily stored on a Google documents account managed on a Berkshire Regional Planning Commission computer and, to a lesser extent, the stormwater management webpage, Irwin said.
"For obvious reasons, this is concerning. As Dalton moves toward full MS4 compliance, both the number and the size of these records will increase," he said.
He estimated that the stormwater commission alone will initially store at least 50 documents, but the issue extends farther than this department.
"Recently, the Planning Board spent many hours searching for the east of the pond drawing and the 1992 land court decision related to Crane and Company, Petricca Industries Inc., and the Town of Dalton," Irwin said.
Cassidy Flynn scattered five hits in a complete-game effort in the circle as Lenox upset top-seeded Hoosac Valley, 3-2, in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament. click for more
Brayden Durant struck out seven and walked one in a complete-game effort on the mound Saturday to pitch the Drury baseball team to a 6-0 win over Keefe Tech in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament at Joe Wolfe Field. click for more
Jason Codey struck out 13, walked two and allowed just an infield single as the Generals earned a 7-1 win over Wahconah to claim their third straight regional title. click for more
Gracelyn Wright struck out eight, and Genevieve Lagess went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in as the Hurricanes beat Monson, 17-3, to claim their first Western Mass title in four years. click for more
For the boys, Ward Bianchi helped lead the way with a win in the shot put and a second place in the javelin as the Mounties finished 16 points ahead of runner-up Pittsfield (pending the results of the pole vault, which were unavailable at 11 p.m. Friday night). click for more
