Endowed Professorships

Endowed professorships were first established in Athens in 176 A.D. by the Roman emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. The custom was revived at Oxford and Cambridge in 1502 with the creation of endowed professorships in divinity. The use of the term "chairs" for 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 has, since the 1960s, endowed professorships of its own as it has sought to attract the finest minds of the day to its faculty. The Notre Dame family embraced this cultivation of academic excellence through gifts whose fruits, and the university's debt to these benefactors, will endure far longer than the granite walls on which their names are carved. The university especially appreciated the Fritz and Mary Lee Duda family for establishing eight professorships and underwriting this wall of recognition.

Notre Dame, Indiana · United States