Nixon Professor in the Natural Sciences

Mark Wilson was installed as the first Lewis M. and Marian Senter Nixon Professor in the Natural Sciences during ceremonies on April 21, 2004. A dinner was hosted at the Wooster Inn by College of Wooster President R. Stanton Hales. Following the dinner and presentation, David Fastovsky, a professor in the department of geosciences at the University of Rhode Island and a close friend of Mark's, delivered a lecture in his honor in Lean Lecture Room of Wishart Hall. Titled, "Ideas in Paleontology: Resonating to Social, Political, and Popular Content," Dr. Fastovsky discussed contemporary popular culture's concepts of the Tyrannosaurus rex, dinosaurs and maternity, and the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The Nixon Professorship was established through a bequest from Marian Senter Nixon. A native of Canton, Ohio, Mrs. Nixon graduated from Wooster in 1927 with a degree in Latin and taught in the Canton public schools. Lewis M. Nixon, whom she married in 1938, held a variety of positions in the U.S. Information Agency, the Department of State, and other offices during his 47-year career with the federal government. Mr. Nixon died in 1990 and Mrs. Nixon in 2001.

In making the official proclamation, Wooster President R. Stanton Hales said, “As one who greatly valued teaching of the highest quality, and a teacher herself, Mrs. Nixon would be very pleased to know that the inaugural holder of this professorship is one of Wooster’s most highly regarded teachers.”