The University of Mary Washington’s popular Great Lives lecture series will return in January 2017 with a new name. The popular program has been renamed The William B. Crawley Lecture Series to honor its director, the University’s Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History who created the series in 2004.
The announcement was made at a 2017 Great Lives’ kick-off reception at the Jepson Alumni Executive Center on Tuesday, Oct. 18.
Originally known as The Chappell Series, the name change was instituted at the urging of John Chappell, for whom the series originally was named. Chappell provided the initial endowment and, with his family, continue to support the Great Lives program.
“The vision of bringing authors of outstanding biographies to talk to students and to the Fredericksburg public has been refined continuously through Dr. Crawley’s personal effort, and has become a widely recognized and highly successful model of university/community participation,” said Chappell, a resident of Philadelphia.
“We have long recognized Bill as the architect of the success of Great Lives and we are grateful,” said Chappell. “We feel the more clearly his leadership is connected to it, the more the series will be enhanced.”
Crawley was a member of UMW’s history faculty for more than 40 years, during which time he won awards for outstanding teaching and held a number of administrative positions. He retired from full-time teaching in 2010. Crawley is the author of a biography of 20th-century Virginia politician William M. Tuck titled Bill Tuck: A Political Life in Harry Byrd’s Virginia. He also wrote The Centennial History of The University of Mary Washington, published in 2008.
The free Great Lives lecture series brings renowned biographers to the Mary Washington campus to explore the diverse lives and achievements of remarkable people. The 2017 series features a lineup of diverse personalities from ancient to modern times and covers wide-ranging fields of accomplishment. Many of the speakers are the pre-eminent authorities on their subjects, and a number have won Pulitzer Prizes in history and biography.
