 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
|
Wednesday, April 21, 2004 WRITER: Lloyd Winstead, 706-542-3966, winstead@uga.edu GIFT FROM HARRY AND JANE WILLSON ENDOWS PROFESSORSHIP AT UGA ATHENS, Ga. -- With a $250,000 gift to the University of Georgia Center for Humanities and Arts, Harry and Jane Willson of Albany have endowed a professorship in the humanities. The CHA Willson Professorship will be a collaboration between the Center for Humanities and Arts and UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. William A. Kretzschmar Jr., professor of English and linguistics at UGA, will hold the position. Harry and Jane Willson own Sunnyland Farms, the largest mail order peca products business in the country. Though not UGA graduates, the Willsons have supported the university in many ways over the past 20 years. Jane Willson, who graduated from Wellesley College in 1945, has served on the board of trustees of the UGA Foundation. She previously made a gift to support UGA’s Center for International Trade and Security. Harry Willson earned a bachelor’s degree from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard in 1943. “Harry and Jane believe strongly in the importance of education, and they are committed to helping the University of Georgia provide the best possible training and preparation for the future leaders of our state and nation,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “They are valued friends of the university, and we are deeply appreciative of their support.” Kretzschmar joined UGA in 1986 as editor-in-chief of the American Linguistic Atlas Project, the oldest and largest ongoing language survey project in the country. While continuing in that position, he has become the American pronunciation editor for the Oxford English Dictionary and is co-editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English. He involves both undergraduate and graduate students in his research, supporting their work with grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Dialect Society and other sources. Kretzschmar was director of UGA’s linguistics program from 1996 to 1999. He has been a leader in the Campus Information Technology Forum and other initiatives to develop the university’s information technology capability. Wyatt Anderson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said Kretzschmar has an international reputation for using techniques of humanities computing in his linguistics research and “is an ideal choice to be the first CHA Willson professor.” Betty Jean Craige, director of the Center for Humanities and Arts, praised Kretzschmar as both an extraordinary scholar and excellent citizen of the university. “He will bring distinction to the title of the CHA Willson professor,” Craige said. Kretzschmar’s appointment was made on the recommendation of a committee of UGA senior scholars in the humanities. News Bureau |
 |
 |
 |
