Charles H. Watts II History of the Book

Charles H. Watts II was a graduate of Brown University (’47) who began his career as a professor of English at Brown, became Dean of the College, and went on to assume the presidency (at the age of 37) of Bucknell University. Mr. Watts was chairman of the JCB Associates from 1979-81, and in 1980 joined the Board of Governors, on which he served with dedication until his death on September 27, 2001. At a meeting of the Board of Governors on October 9, 2001, a commitment to establishing a fitting memorial to Mr. Watts was expressed.

From 2002-2008 the memorial took the form of a visiting professorship in the History of the Book, which was proposed, approved, and implemented in 2002. The JCB provided the funds and facilities to be utilized in cooperation with appropriate academic departments.  The English Department made the appointments from 2002-2005, and the History Department appointed their choices from 2005-2008. The scholars were as follows:

Wil Verhoeven  (2002-03)
Jon Klancher  (2003-04)
Augusta Rohrbach  (2004-05)
Jeremy Popkin  (2005-06)
Robert Gross  (2006-07)
Teodoro Hampe-Martinez (2007-08)