Edge Named to McKean Chair

May 1, 1997

An endowed faculty chair named for former Rollins College President Hugh F. McKean and his wife, Jeannette G. McKean, has been established at Rollins with a $1 million endowment from the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation, Rollins President Rita Bornstein has announced.

"Hugh and Jeannette held a lifelong faith in the importance of liberal arts," she said. "This chair is a fitting tribute both to the quality of Rollins' faculty and to the enduring legacy of the McKeans, their intellectual curiosity and love of learning, and their enthusiasm for this college, its students and faculty. An endowed chair is the highest honor that can be bestowed on a faculty member."

Bornstein named longtime Rollins philosophy Professor Hoyt L. Edge to fill the newly established chair. The McKean Chair brings to 11 the total number of endowed chairs at Rollins, three of those established in the last four years. Faculty chairs, considered an indicator of an institution's academic quality, provide enhanced research and scholarship opportunities.

Speaking on behalf of the Genius Foundation trustees, foundation President Harold Ward said, "We are pleased to be able to recognize Hugh and Jeannette's involvement with the college in this way. We are very pleased that Dr. Edge will be the first chair holder."

Edge, who joined the Rollins faculty in 1970, was selected "for his commitment to teaching, his record of scholarship, and his service to the college," Bornstein said. "Hoyt is a much-loved and extraordinarily gifted educator who has devoted his life to this college."

Edge said he was particularly honored to be named to the chair donated by the McKeans, who were such longtime supporters of the college and an important part of its history.

"The study of philosophy is integral to a liberal arts education," he said, "and this gift will further strengthen the quality of the education we provide our students."

Nearly half of the money raised during Rollins' current $100 million comprehensive fund-raising campaign will go toward endowments to support faculty chairs, student scholarships, fellowships, and support for academic centers and institutes, Bornstein said. A total of $61 million has been raised to date.

Jeannette McKean established the Genius Foundation in 1959 in memory of her mother, who was the daughter of one of Winter Park's founders and greatest benefactors, Charles Hosmer Morse. Hugh McKean, a 1930 Rollins graduate and art professor, was president of the college from 1951 to 1969, then chancellor, and chairman of Rollins' Board of Trustees, on which Mrs. McKean served for many years. The McKeans' collection of paintings, pottery and art treasures from the estate of Louis Comfort Tiffany forms an important part of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art on north Park Avenue in Winter Park.