George Steckley Named to Seeley Chair

George Steckley, professor of history at Knox College, has been named the Robert M. and Katherine Arnold Seeley Distinguished Professor of History. The College's Board of Trustees approved the appointment of Steckley at its meeting October 31.

The Seeley chair represents one of the College's highest honors for faculty, in part because of the selection process. The Faculty Personnel Committee nominates "an individual with a record of distinguished teaching and service to the institution and its students" to the Dean of the College and the President, who, in turn, recommend the nominee to the Board of Trustees.

A member of the Knox College faculty since 1973, Steckley has twice won the Philip Green Wright Prize for excellence in teaching. In 2007 he was awarded the Caterpillar Faculty Achievement Award for outstanding teaching, scholarship and service.

"Professor Steckley is a pillar of the Knox faculty and our academic community - strong, dependable, judicious in his statements and driven by a commitment to liberal education that is second to none on this campus," said Lawrence B. Breitborde, Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. "Professor Steckley is held in great respect by colleagues of all generations. His seriousness of purpose and sharpness of intellect are coupled with good humor, humility and humanity."

Steckley is both an award-winning teacher and an internationally-recognized scholar in legal history, whose work has been cited before the U.S. Supreme Court. He received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College, and his master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.

Steckley is an expert on the Admiralty Court, England's chief maritime tribunal in the 17th Century. His 2001 article about "bottomry bonds" -- an early form of shipping insurance -- "represents the painstaking work of someone who has spent his life in the archives of the High Court of Admiralty... You learn all kinds of special details that you would never learn from someone just 'surveying' the field," wrote attorney and author William Long. In an earlier article, Steckley, whose research covers hundreds of cases that came before the Admiralty Court, has shown that ordinary mariners -- somewhat surprisingly -- often prevailed in their wage disputes with ship owners.

The Seeley Professorship was created in 1998 by a bequest from the late Robert Arnold Seeley. A native of Freeport, Illinois, who had a distinguished career in insurance with Economy Fire and Casualty Company, Mr. Seeley graduated from Knox in 1951. The Seeley professorship, endowed by a bequest from Mr. Seeley's estate, is named in memory of his parents, Robert M. and Katherine A. Seeley. His mother was a member of the Knox Class of 1922 and a descendant of Sylvanus Ferris, one of the founders of Knox College and the city of Galesburg.

The first holder of the Seeley faculty chair was theatre professor Robert Whitlatch, who retired in 2008.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 48 states and 42 nations. Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.