Francis Christopher Oakley
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Added category Medievalists
{{Unreferenced|date=May 2007}}
'''Francis Christopher Oakley''', L.H.D., Litt.D., LL.D., is a scholar and professor of [[medieval history]], who additionally served as president of [[Williams College]] from 1985-1993. Born in [[Liverpool, England]] in October, 1931 to Irish immigrants, he remained in Liverpool during the German bomb raids of [[World War II]] while his older siblings were sent to the countryside. His mother, Siobean, was a homemaker and his father, Joseph, worked at a local sewing factory.
After receiving his [[Bachelor_of_Arts|B.A.]] degree from [[University_of_Oxford|Oxford]], he went on to do graduate work at the [[University of Toronto]]'s [[Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies]]. However, before he could pursue his [[Ph.D.]] he had to go back to England to fulfill his mandatory, one-year of military service. He subsequently was admitted to the [[Yale University]] History Department and received his Ph.D. in 1961.
After teaching history for two years at Yale, Oakley came to [[Williams College]] ([[Williamstown, Massachusetts]]) in 1961 as a lecturer in history, then became a full professor in 1970 and Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of the History of Ideas in 1984. Oakley was co-founder in 1969 of the Interdepartmental Program in the History of Ideas, serving as its chair in 1974-76, 1985, and 1989-1990, and was dean of the faculty from 1977 to 1984. He became president of Williams on July 1, 1985 and completed his term of office on [[December 31]] [[1993]].
A former president of the New England Medieval Conference (1983-84), and currently chairman of the Board of the [[American Council of Learned Societies]], he is the author of numerous books and more than a hundred articles and book reviews on topics in medieval history and higher education. He serves on the editorial boards of ''The Journal of the History of Ideas'' and of ''Orion: Nature Quarterly''. In 1986 he was elected Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and, in 1991, Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His most recent books include: "Kingship: The Politics of Enchantment" (2006); "Natural Law, Laws of Nature, Natural Rights: Continuity And Discontinuity in the History of Ideas" (2005); and "The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church 1300-1870" (2004).
He is currently working on several other books and remains very active in the academic and arts community. In 1956 he married Claire-Ann Lamenzo of [[Hartford, Connecticut]]. They have four children: Deirdre, Christopher, Timothy and Brian.
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[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Liverpool]]
[[Category:Medievalists]]