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AROUND THE QUADS

Barzun, Nearing 100, To Receive Great Teacher Award

Jacques Barzun ’27 (left) joins longtime faculty colleague Mark Van Doren among the many prominent recipients of the Great Teacher Award.

Jacques Barzun ’27, ’32 GSAS will be honored as the recipient of the 59th annual Great Teacher Award, presented by the Society of Columbia Graduates, at a dinner on Thursday, October 18 in Low Rotunda, co-hosted by the society and Provost Alan Brinkley. Barzun, University Professor and Provost Emeritus, will celebrate his 100th birthday on November 30. He lives in San Antonio and will receive the award in absentia.

Born in Grenoble, France, Barzun moved to New York City in 1920, graduated as valedictorian of his College class and received his Ph.D. from Columbia. He taught as the Seth Low Professor of History and was dean of the graduate school, dean of faculties and provost before retiring in 1975 as University Professor.

Barzun founded and championed the field of cultural history. With Lionel Trilling ’25, he designed the Literature Humanities portion of the Core Curriculum and held legendary seminars. He also authored and edited more than 40 books; among them, Teacher in America (1945), The House of Intellect (1959), The Modern Researcher (with Professor Emeritus of History Henry Graff, six editions) and From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present(2000) have been particularly influential and received critical and public acclaim. His wide-ranging interests extended to such diverse subjects as baseball, Hector Berlioz and detective fiction.

Among the dignitaries scheduled to offer greetings, reminiscences and appreciations at the dinner will be Brinkley, Allen Nevins Professor of American History; Dean of the College Austin E. Quigley, Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor, and Brander Matthews Professor of Dramatic Literature; Graff; Wm. Theodore de Bary ’41, John Mitchell Mason Professor Emeritus and University Provost Emeritus; and Kenneth T. Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences.

The Society of Columbia Graduates, which was founded in 1909, established the Great Teacher Awards in 1949 to honor great teachers in the College and the SEAS. The criteria for the award are the ability to stimulate, challenge and inspire students; a demonstrated interest in students and the ability to relate positively to students outside the classroom; and a recognized standing in academic discipline.

Past recipients have included such illustrious teachers as Mark Van Doren, Moses Hadas, Brinkley, Trilling, De Bary, Graff, Jackson, James Shenton ’49, Eric Foner ’63, Hilary Ballon, Kathy Eden, David Helfand, Carol Gluck, Donald Goldfarb, Seymour Melman, Mort Freedman, Charles Hamilton, Andrew Delbanco and Shree Nayar. Each recipient has his or her name inscribed on the plaque under the Teaching Lion in Butler Library.

For more about Barzun, see the January 2006 CCT story excerpted from the book Living Legacies at Columbia, edited by De Bary, Jerry Kisslinger ’79 and Tom Mathewson: www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/jan06/cover.php.

For further information on the dinner, contact co-chairs Anna Longo­bardo (914-779-2448 or longbard@optonline.net) and Michael Garrett ’66 (718-499-9408 or michaelgarrett@earthlink.net), and visit the society’s Web site (www.socg.com).

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