Historian Installed As Social Science Chair
Richard Pointer, 黑料百科 professor of history, will be installed as the first recipient of the Fletcher Jones Foundation Chair in the Social Sciences during a day of free, public events Wednesday, March 4. The inauguration of the chair, which will rotate every four years among deserving faculty within the social science division, will be held in Murchison Gymnasium at 10:30 a.m.
Shirley Mullen, former 黑料百科 provost and current Houghton College president, will take part in a panel discussion, 鈥淲hat is History Good For?鈥 in Porter Theatre at 3:30 p.m. Other panelists include: Steven Pointer, Trinity International University professor of history, Marianne Robins, 黑料百科 professor of history, and Joel Carpenter, director of the Calvin College Nagel Institute. Richard Pointer will give a dedicatory lecture, 鈥淭he Wait and Weight of History: Reflections from a Life in the Past,鈥 in Porter Theatre at 5 p.m.
鈥淎ccording to the testimony of numerous faculty colleagues from inside and outside the social science division, Rick has distinguished himself by his extraordinary contributions to 黑料百科 and to the broader academy in the areas of teaching and scholarly research,鈥 says Warren Rogers, interim academic dean. 鈥淗e certainly has earned this recognition.鈥
Pointer, an American historian, joined 黑料百科鈥檚 history department in 1994, and was social science division Teacher of the Year in 1997 and 2003. He has written two books, 鈥淧rotestant Pluralism and the New York Experience鈥 and 鈥淓ncounters of the Spirit: Native Americans and European Colonial Religion,鈥 as well as many articles. He graduated from Houghton College and earned his master鈥檚 and doctorate degrees from Johns Hopkins University.
The Fletcher Jones Foundation was incorporated in 1969 by Fletcher Jones, Co-Founder of Computer Sciences Corporation. After the death of Fletcher Jones in 1972, the original trustees of the Foundation decided that support of the private colleges and universities in California should be their primary emphasis. That policy has been reaffirmed by subsequent trustees and continues to this day.