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Professorships Through the Years

As first demonstrated by Captain Heman Oviatt in the early years of Western Reserve College, endowed professorships are gifts that keep on giving.

Professorships are one of the most lasting gifts that can be made to the University. While students, faculty, staff--and even buildings--may be on campus for only a finite period of time, an endowed professorship can provide a more permanent legacy of scholarship, teaching, and research. This is as true today as it was in 1826, when the Board of Trustees of Western Reserve College passed a resolution that would allow anyone to endow a named professorship with a gift to the school of $5,000.

In 1837, Western Reserve trustee Captain Heman Oviatt endowed what is now the oldest named professorship at Case Western Reserve University. Oviatt established the endowment with an initial bond of $10,000. He then raised an additional $3,000 from other donors and paid semi-annual interest for the professor's salary.

Originally created as the Oviatt Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric in the Department of Theology, the professorship was first held by the Reverend Henry Nobel Day.

In 1853, the theology department was closed. To ensure that his endowment would continue, even as courses or departments might change, Oviatt wrote to the Board of Trustees on April 19, 1853: "In the present state of the College, and the prospect of students for years to come, it is desirable to use all reasonable economy in an effort to revive and carry on the College, I am wishing, and it seems to me desirable, that the Professors in the Theological Department should give instruction in the Collegiate Department, as the exigencies of the College may require. And I hereby express it as my desire that the Professors on my endowment give such instruction in the Collegiate Department. "

That year, the professorship was renamed the Oviatt Professorship of English, the title by which it still stands. Gary Lee Stonum is the current Oviatt Professor and chair of the Department of English.

The Other First

Almost fifty years after Heman Oviatt established his professorship, Laura Kerr Axtell donated $100,000 to establish the Levi Kerr Professorship in Mathematics at Case School of Applied Science in honor of her brother, Levi Kerr.

A cousin of Leonard Case Jr. 's, Kerr engaged in business and banking in Cleveland. In 1880, when Case died, Kerr became administrator of his estate, playing an important role in the establishment of Case School. A few years later, Kerr drowned in Florida. Because of his sister's generosity, the Kerr legacy remains in the form of the professorship that bears his name.

John Stockwell was appointed as the first Levi Kerr Professor, in 1886. His tenure in the role--1886 to 1887--was short-lived, but his impact on the University was profound. At its founding, in 1880, Case School had appointed Stockwell as instructor of mathematics and astronomy, and asked him to organize both the faculty and the curriculum. He served as chief administrator until the appointment of the first president, Cady Staley. Stockwell was then named the Kerr Professor. In 1887, he resigned to pursue a full-time career in research and publishing. When he died, in 1920, he was referred to as the "Dean of American Astronomy." At Case, he 's remembered for even more.

The Levi Kerr Professorship in Mathematics is currently held by James Alexander, chair of the Department of Mathematics.

In the many years since Oviatt and Axtell established endowments, many others have followed their lead. There are now more than 170 professorships endowed throughout the University. Each of these will ensure an enduring legacy by providing consistent streams of revenue to support instruction and research.

Winter 2003