Recognizing Endowed Professorships at Notre Dame
Endowed professorships were first established by the Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius in Athens in 176 A.D. The custom was revivied at Oxford and Cambridge in 1502 with the creation of endowed professorships in Divinity. The use of the term "chairs" to describe these professorships arose from the Medieval understanding of "chair" as a seat of authority or dignity.
A relative newcomer to this ancient tradition, the University of Notre Dame is determined to attract the finest minds of the ay to its faculty, and has, since the 1960s, endowed professorships of its own. With exemplary and characteristic generosity, the Notre Dame family has embraced this cultivation of academic excellence through gifts that we recognize here.
The fruits of these benefactions, and Notre Dame's debt to these benefactors, will endure far longer than these granite walls on which their names are gratefully carved.
The University especially appreciates the Fritz and Mary Lee Duda family for their generosity of spirit and commitment to education, having established eight professorships and underwriting this wall of recognition.
Submitted by: Stephen Sostaric