1979 Distinguished Service Citation

Literary Biographer – Research Professor

You are a nationally recognized scholar on the life and works of two major American authors – James T. Farrell and Mark Twain. Earlier this year you received a Guggenheim Fellowship for work on a new biography of Farrell. And this fall, the first volume of your five-volume series, Mark Twain’s Early Tales and Sketches, was published. You trace your interest in writing to your undergraduate days on the Beloit campus, where you were stimulated and encouraged by famed professors George Clancy and Dickie Richardson. You have called them, “superior teachers and stringent critics.” In 1978, you retired after four decades as a distinguished and popular professor at Miami University in Ohio, where you chaired the English Department and received the coveted Benjamin Harrison Medallion for personifying the university’s aspiration to seek excellence in service to the nation. Your scholarly writings include six books, several of which have been published in foreign languages. It is with great pride that Beloit College recognizes your devotion to higher learning and to academic excellence by presenting you this Distinguished Service Citation at the 45^th Reunion of your Class.