John W. Chandler, President Emeritus

Your decision to depart Clinton, N.Y., for Williamstown (a decision so good I wish I had thought of it myself) launched a Williams presidency of true distinction. With a love and knowledge of the college developed during your previous 13 years as faculty member and by terms as acting provost and as dean of the faculty, you led Williams through a period of dramatic and exciting growth. You oversaw the final stages of the move to coeducation and the expansion of the college to its current size. You introduced into the curriculum major programs in sociology, theatre and computer science and launched the American Maritime Studies program with Mystic Seaport and the Williams-Oxford program with Exeter College. You erected Bernhard Music Center, expanded the Adams Memorial Theatre and the Williams College Museum of Art, drew plans for the athletic center that now bears your name, and built the wonderful Alumni Center that we enjoy this evening. All of this made possible by alumni support resulting in no small part from the personal affection you inspired from so many of our graduates. Already a national advocate of the liberal arts while at Williams, you raised this campaign to even higher levels subsequently as president of the American Association of ColĀ­leges and Universities, where you also worked to enhance the liberal arts component of engineering education and to improve the experience nationwide of women students, faculty, and staff. You remain still a major influence in higher education through your active schedule of consulting with boards of trustees on issues of governance and presidential leadership. But what we care to honor you most for is the remarkable way that this gentle son of the South led this thoroughly Yankee college to even greater heights of achievement in a style as effective as it was light and endearing.