Professor's impact on father and son leads to Western Civ professorship

A love of the humanities spanning two generations of KU alumni has inspired a $500,000 pledge to fund a professorship in the KU Humanities and Western Civilization Program.

The pledge to KU Endowment from Jay Howard, b'79, and his wife, Julia, of Austin, Texas, will establish the Jack and Shirley Howard Teaching Professorship in Western Civilization. The professorship honors Jay's parents, Salina, Kan., residents Jack Howard, b'51, and Shirley Rice Howard, d'51.

The pledge will be matched with $500,000 from the Hall Family Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., and it will be eligible for additional support through the Kansas Partnership for Faculty of Distinction. Interest earned on the combined gift will fund a salary stipend and provide support for professional travel, graduate student assistants, and equipment or other materials for the faculty member awarded the professorship.

"The Howard Professorship will anchor a program that has almost 60 years of tradition at KU," Chancellor Robert Hemenway said. "It will give the University the means to recognize excellent teaching in Western civilization and the humanities, which are important components of a well-rounded education."

Jay credited his inspiration for the gift to the interest in the humanities he shares with his father and to the teachings of J. Eldon Fields, c'34. Fields, who died in 2003, taught political science at KU from 1946 to 1983 and was one of the first directors of the Western Civilization program.

Jay said that his father, a prolific reader, broadened his accounting coursework at KU in the late 1940s and early 1950s with a Western civilization course taught by Fields. Later, Fields asked Jack to work as one of his teaching assistants in the course. When Jay followed in his father's footsteps and came to KU, he, too, enrolled in humanities courses, including an honors Western civilization course taught by Professor Fields.

"Like my father, I graduated with an accounting degree, but my most memorable and enjoyable coursework was in the humanities and Western civilization," said Jay, who holds a degree in law from the University of Texas at Austin.

Noting Fields' influence on both his education and his father's, Jay said he remembers Fields for challenging and engaging students in Western civilization classes.

"He was a rare and gifted teacher—an academic who loved the classroom experience and disregarded the 'publish or perish' mantra that seems to rule academia today," Jay said. "Being in the classroom is where he wanted to be.

"My father and I have both remarked how much we enjoyed Fields' class. He and I believe that studying Western civilization and the classics is an important part of a college education. With this gift, my hope is to solidify Western civilization as an integral component of the University curriculum and foster an environment where the next generation of teachers like Professor Fields can thrive."

Howard's gift counts toward the goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise in excess of $600 million for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment serves as the independent, non-profit fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.