Eddy Award-Winners Announced for 1998; Eddy Lectures Set for Sept. 24

A professor of psychology, a mathematics major in the Honors Program and a professor of philosophy from Columbia University are this year’s winners of the Willard O. Eddy Awards.

Winner of the Eddy Teacher Award is A. Wayne Viney, psychology professor; the Eddy Scholar Award-winner is Laura David, a senior mathematics student; and the Eddy Lecture Award-winner is Arthur Danto from Columbia University.

The awards are presented each year in honor of Willard Eddy, founder of the Honors Program and the philosophy department. During his 56-year tenure at Colorado State, Eddy was instrumental in promoting interdisciplinary study and international understanding, among his many other accomplishments.

Two presentations will be given Sept. 24 by Danto, who is Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and columnist for "The Nation." The first seminar, "Seeing and Showing: The History of the Eye" will be at 3 p.m. in Room 228 Lory Student Center.

Danto’s evening lecture will explore "Restoration and Meaning: Philosophical Issues of Interpretation Related to the Restoration of the Sistine Chapel" at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24 in Room 228 LSC. The talk is free and open to the public.

Danto has written extensively about the history of philosophy, philosophy of knowledge and ethics. However, he is best known for his wide-ranging essays on the arts, including the history and philosophy of art, aesthetics and art criticism. Some of his books include "Embodied Meanings: Critical Essays and Aesthetic Meditations," winner of the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism; "After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History;" and "Wake of Art: Criticism, Philosophy and the Ends of Taste."

Viney, winner of the Eddy Teacher Award, has served the university since 1967. He received the 1996-97 Faculty Graduate Education Award from the College of Natural Sciences and was recognized as Outstanding Professor by the Mortar Board of the National Senior Honor Society in 1996. In addition, he was awarded the Oliver P. Pennock Distinguished Service Award in 1991.

In nominating him for the Eddy award, colleagues noted Viney’s 31 years of outstanding service in research, scholarship and outreach:

"Dr. Viney is one of the most respected scholars and teachers in the university both for his outstanding classroom performance and for this breadth of knowledge outside of experimental psychology. His influence on undergraduate and graduate students is especially noteworthy. He spends countless hours with students in his untiring efforts to involve them actively in his courses and help guide them with their career paths."

In support of the nomination of Viney, a student wrote, "Dr. Viney is awe-inspiring. Not only is he incredibly intelligent, but he is also very humorous. His class has been the most enjoyable aspect of my academic experience at Colorado State."

The Eddy Scholar Award was presented to Laura David, a mathematics major and Honors Program participant from the time she began her studies at Colorado State in 1994.

David, a senior who will graduate this spring, is president of the Student Honors Council and has been an Honors Peer Adviser for the past three years.

Although busy with math tutoring and student teaching, David is an active equestrian and volunteers with area therapeutic horseback-riding programs. Her hometown is Ames, Iowa.

Willard Eddy served as chairman of two departments and developed the university’s first classes in philosophy, logic, ethics and more than 20 other courses still offered in the College of Liberal Arts. Eddy began his career at Colorado State in 1936 and, although retiring in 1974, continued teaching part-time until his death in 1993.

"Willard Eddy was a key contributor to the founding of the liberal arts education at Colorado State," said Bob Keller, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "He was pivotal in transforming Colorado A & M into the comprehensive university that Colorado State is today, and it is wonderful to celebrate and honor his legacy with the Eddy Awards."

Each year, events commemorating Eddy’s contributions to Colorado State culminate with the Eddy Lecture. The awards are made possible by support from the Griffin Foundation and Mathews Foundation in addition to alumni, friends and family of Willard Eddy.