VOLCKER RULES

"In a world of self-dealers, knaves, and charlatans, effective public service is essential. This is Volcker’s central message, and he has embodied the role of the competent, non-conflicted public servant."

I happened upon a review of Keeping At It, a book by Paul Volcker. Given that we seem to be surrounded by scoundrels, it is good to read about someone who is not one. It is likely that most of us won't tackle the book, partially because there are pages in it that deal with highly technical monetary policy issues. On the other hand, from the reviews, I spotted data that even I can understand and I provide some of them below. For example, if you are worrying about your mortgage rate millimetering slightly upward consider that the U.S. prime lending rate a few years back was 21.5%. That percentage is high when applied to lending rates. It seems low though when it is suggested that fewer than 20% of Americans trust the government. I have gathered some of the reviews to encourage us all to have a look at the book.

In an attempt to raise the level of public trust in government, Volcker started the Volcker Alliance. Information about it is provided at the bottom of this bibliography.

1. This is how the Chief Economics Commentator, Martin Wolf, begins his review of Keeping At It: “Paul Volcker is the greatest man I have known. He is endowed to the highest degree with what the Romans called virtus (virtue): moral courage, integrity, sagacity, prudence and devotion to the service of country.” “Keeping At It” , Financial Times, Oct. 29, 2018. (subscription required)

2. Paul Volcker’s Wisdom for America’s Rigged Economy, John Cassidy, New Yorker, Nov. 26, 2018.
“Keeping at It,” which is published by PublicAffairs, is also refreshingly subversive, and packed with the sort of perspective that only age can bring."

"The analysis is an unsparing one. “We embarked on long, unnecessary and ultimately unwinnable wars far from home,” Volcker writes. “We failed to recognize the costs of open markets and rapid innovation to sizable fractions of our own citizenry. We came to think that inventive financial markets could discipline themselves. We underestimated how much the growing size, economic weight, and ambitions of other countries, most critically China, would come to upset the easy assumption of America’s unique global reach.”

"This is a lengthy indictment. In narrowing it down, Volcker analyzes recurring failures at the top of major corporations, banks, public-sector bodies, and universities. The common factors he identifies are self-dealing, shortsightedness, and a lack of public-mindedness.
“...his book amounts to an amicus brief in favor of the argument that large swaths of the economy have been rigged for the benefit of affluent insiders, and so has the political system."

"During the nineteen-eighties and nineties, Volcker, who identifies himself as an Independent, fought a losing battle to maintain the Depression-era regulations that separated commercial banks from investment banks. After the great financial crisis of 2008–09, he led an effort to restore some narrower restraints on Wall Street’s risk taking."

"Even the folks who run Princeton, his alma mater, aren’t spared criticism. Commenting on their management of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he has taught on occasion, Volcker writes, “A great university simply has not risen to the challenge of effective education for public service.”
"In a world of self-dealers, knaves, and charlatans, effective public service is essential. This is Volcker’s central message, and he has embodied the role of the competent, non-conflicted public servant."

3. A Warning From the Saviour of Free Markets," Ed Conway, The Times, Nov. 25, 2018
(subscription required). "Paul Volcker will never be a household name but we badly need more technocrats like him.
Who is the most influential political figure alive? The Queen? Henry Kissinger? Donald Trump, Bill Gates or the Google founder Larry Page? Wrong. It’s Paul Volcker.
Some of you may not have heard of this 91-year-old American but it is hard to think of another living person who has had more influence on the world today."

4. "Paul Volcker Took On Lots of Challenges. I Was One of Them," Albert R. Hunt, Bloomberg. Oct. 31, 2018.
"Any list of the 10 most valuable U.S. public servants over the past half-century would include Volcker, who started in the administration of President John F. Kennedy and finished with President Barack Obama."
"His book, written with Christine Harper, editor of Bloomberg Markets magazine, is full of insights on the central role he played in most of the great economic challenges since the 1960s. Volcker’s prescience and patience prevented several cataclysms."

“Money is directed toward shaping public policy and laws to benefit special interests.” He says that academic institutions, including Princeton, are doing a poor job preparing students for government service."


5. "In 'Keeping at It,' Paul Volcker Pulls No Punches, Alan Murray, Fortune, Oct. 30, 2018.
[On the need for the Chairman of the Fed. to be cagey:]
"But at the last minute, just before getting into his limousine, Volcker turned and began to speak. We all put our pens to paper. “We did what we did,” he said. “We didn’t do what we didn’t do. And the result was what happened.”

Only later did I fully appreciate that such obfuscation was tactical. Once freed from the Fed, Volcker morphed into one of the world’s most blunt-spoken truth-tellers, describing the world exactly as he saw it. He became a leading crusader against global corruption—including the legal/lobbying kind practiced in Washington—and a tireless advocate of better-training for public servants as a path to better government. 

"Finally, Volcker erupted, arguing that he could think of no socially valuable financial innovation since the ATM. “I mean, wake up, gentlemen. I can only say your response is wholly inadequate. I wish that somebody could give me some shred of neutral evidence about the relationship between financial innovation recently and the growth of the economy—just one shred of information.”

That’s the Paul Volcker of Keeping at It. (“I received no evidence,” he says after recounting his conference outburst.) It’s a book that deserves to be read, if only because pure public servants like Paul Volcker have become all too rare, if not nonexistent, in today’s America.
Startling Statistic From the 1980s "The prime lending rate eventually peaked at an unprecedented 21.5% and precipitated a recession, but Volcker held firm, broke the back of inflation, and saved the American economy."

6." Paul Volcker’s Guide to the Almighty Dollar," The Atlantic, Charles R. Morris, Oct. 30, 2018
"The former chairman of the Federal Reserve has three fundamental rules: stable prices, sound finance, and good government. He also does not mince words. In our conversation, he assailed the “greed and grasping” of the banks and corporate leadership, and the gross skewing of income distribution in America."

Volcker Alliance

     The Volcker Alliance was founded by Volcker in 2013 with the goals of improving governance and restoring public trust in government. 

From the Volcker Alliance:

"Government should be responsive to its citizens, transparent in its operations, accountable for delivering on its promises, and visibly held to the standard of robust and unbiased measures.

Public service is a high calling, and that it is critical to engage our most thoughtful and accomplished citizens in service to the public good.

Government functions best when its system of civil service is independent, stable, and staffed by civil servants who are experienced and expert in their domains.

Our public workforce and government institutions must be dynamic: designed to encourage innovation, leverage technology, and adapt to the needs of a changing nation in an evolving global context.

The performance of our government institutions depends critically on the training and education of talented public servants, and that this responsibility is shared by our government, our institutions of higher education, and by leading institutions in every sector of society.

Government must be a responsible steward of financial resources, diligent in avoiding waste, assiduous in seeking evidence to assess the effectiveness of its initiatives, and proactive in helping citizens understand the long-term sustainability of its operations."

At the Volcker Alliance you can find documents such as this one: Preparing Tomorrow's Public Service.

The report: 

"Presents insights on crucial skills from nearly 1,000 rising government leaders and explores how government's managerial capacity can keep pace with the scale and complexity of government's responsibilities.  Additionally, the study provides recommendations to government agencies, professional associations, and educational institutions on cultivating the most critical capacities for government service. With nearly one-third of federal career employees eligible for retirement by the end of the decade and similar workforce pressures impacting states and localities, these issues are of growing importance."

Interesting Library Items

      I couldn't quickly think of an interesting title for this post, so I simply inserted the word to draw your attention. The first item is about the type of reference questions that used to be asked in libraries and it is from a recent letter in The New York Times. The second was discovered on a visit to a university library and it is not so amusing.

Reference Work in Olden Times
    Back in the last century one often had to visit a library or call a reference desk to find the answer to a question. The query could be an easy one - What is Pee Wee Reece's real name? - or more mystifying like the one asked below. It illustrates that information is now easier to find and, as well, that innocence has been lost.

"You Could Look It Up"
To the Editor:
New York Times, Nov. 21, 2018
Michael Lewis’s review of “The Library Book,” by Susan Orlean (Oct. 21), transported me back to the 1960s, when I worked at the reference desk of my college library and fielded all sorts of questions via the telephone.

One caller asked, “Do you have any material on fellatio?” Innocent that I was, I figured that Fellatio was likely an Italian composer, so brightly replied, “One moment, please. I’ll check the card catalog.” I couldn’t find anything under Italy or Music or Composers. At a loss, I asked my boss, Gladys, a sprightly senior, one month away from retiring. Her answer: “If he’s famous enough, he’ll be in our big dictionary!” So out to the center of the reference room we went, where a humongous dictionary lay on a tall pedestal.

Gladys’s finger traveled down the page and then stopped, and I saw her lips moving as she read. She started shaking all over and breathlessly said, “Read it! Read it!” We laughed for a long, long time. Just one of the many things I learned at the library.

[The letter was submitted by a woman from Claremont, CA.]

Source: The photograph above is found in "The Changing World of Library Reference," By Andrew Richard Albanese & Brian Kenney, Publishers Weekly, Aug 26, 2016

Library as a Safe Space (?)

     The neatly printed note provided below was inserted in a book I took from the shelves in the library at Western University. If students are as 'snowflakey' as we are led to believe, they might have melted upon reading it. I find it more puzzling than threatening.

     The note was found in an obscure history book that would never have been popular and it was in a remote section of the stacks. It is neatly typed and the paper is nicely and evenly cropped. The 'footnote' at the bottom which is not readable from my poor photograph reads:

    ("based on an actual incident, 3 laughing London cops followed by 4 London area dead ones. some things never change".)

     It is likely the case that the student (if a student did it)  who wrote it is not an English major and that the 'London' referred to is the one in which Western University is located.  What is not so clear is what is being referred to as  the  'actual incident'. There have been some very minor dustups over partying on Broughdale Ave., but that certainly hasn't resulted in "4 London area dead ones [cops].

   I suppose there are at least 30 other rules. I don't know if any similar notes have been found.
Perhaps I should call the Reference Desk.

RICKY JAY

     Ricky Jay died in Los Angeles on Nov. 24th.  I knew little about him until I did a post about this book which he wrote: Matthias Buchinger: 'The Greatest German Living'. He (Jay) was a very interesting person and you can learn about him quickly by reading this article by Anita Gates: "Ricky Jay, Gifted Magician, Actor and Author, is Dead at 70," New York Times, Nov. 25, 2018. I have also pasted below the biographical information available on his website since it will probably disappear. In some of the interesting articles about him there is mention of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, which should itself be worth a post-or-two.

Ricky Jay: the Serious Bio While Ricky Jay has long been considered one of the world’s great sleight-of-hand artists, his career is further distinguished by the remarkable variety of his accomplishments as an author, actor, historian, and consultant.  His one man show Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants was directed by David Mamet and garnered for Mr. Jay the Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards for Outstanding Achievement. Subsequent productions were staged at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater, the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles, The Spoletto Festival in Charleston and the Old Vic in London. His most recent show, Ricky Jay: On the Stem, also directed by Mr. Mamet, just closed a seven-month critically acclaimed run in New York City.

As an actor, Mr. Jay debuted in the Joseph Papp production of Midsummer Night's Dream at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in David Mamet's films: House of Games, Homicide, Things Change, Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, and Heist. He can be seen in many other films including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. He also starred in the heralded episode of the X-Files, "The Great Maleeni."  A serious student of his art, he has been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society for whom he authored Many Mysteries Unraveled: Conjuring Literature in America 1786-1874. He is a contributor to The Cambridge Guide to American Theater and has defined the terms of his art for the Encyclopædia Britannica. Mr. Jay’s book, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women was published to critical and popular acclaim and was voted one of the outstanding books of the year by the Theater Library Association and one of the "Notable Books of the Year" by The New York Times Book Review, which hailed his work in a rave front page review. As a writer and speaker on subjects as varied as conjuring literature, con games, sense perception and unusual entertainments, Jay has authored numerous articles and has delivered many lecture/ demonstrations. Among his presentations are:  "Sleight and Shadow: at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. November 22, 2005;  “Belknap Visitor in the Humanities” at Princeton University speaking on the relationship between magicians and mediums on November 21, 2005;  "Doing Likewise: Imitation, Emulation, and Mimesis at the New York Institute of Humanities, hosted by Jonathan Miller;  "Hocus Pocus in Perfection: Four Hundred Years of Conjuring and Conjuring Literature," the Harold Smith Memorial Lecture at Brown University; "Splendors of Decaying Celluloid" with Errol Morris, Rosamond Purcell and Bill Morrison at the New York Institute for the Humanities.  "The Origins of the Confidence Game",for the conference of Police Against Confidence Crime;  "Chirosophi: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Conjuring Literature," at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California;  "Fast and Loose: The Techniques and Literature of Cheating" at the William Andrew Clark Memorial Library, UCLA;  "The Mystery of Fasting Impostors," and "The Avant Garde Art of Armless Calligraphers" at Amherst College;  "Sense, Perception, & Nonsense" at the University of Rhode Island Festival of the Arts;  and the keynote address at the International Design Conference in Aspen on "Illusion as Truth." He has spoken on "Prose & Cons: The Early Literature of Cheating" in the Pforzheimer Lecture Series on the book arts at the New York Public Library and at the Chicago Humanities Festival, and on "Magic & Science" for the T.E.D. Conference (Technology, Entertainment, & Design) in Monterey, California.  Mr. Jay is a founder of the biennial Conference on Magic History and is the former curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts. He is the author and co-designer of The Magic Magic Book, an illustrated history of the earliest trick conjuring books, published in the Writers and Artists Series of the Whitney Museum of American Art. His book Jay's Journal of Anomalies, based on his fine press periodical of the same name, was recently named one of the "Notable Books of the Year" by the New York Times and one of the "Best Books of the Year" by the Los Angeles Times. His most recent book, with photographs by Rosamond Purcell, is Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck.  Mr. Jay's consulting firm Deceptive Practices has provided expertise on projects as diverse as the film Forrest Gump and the Broadway production of Angels in America: Perestroika. He was a consultant on the Devices of Wonder exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and was the guest curator for an exhibition on conjuring at the Harvard Theatre Collection.  He has written and hosted his own television specials for CBS, HBO, and the BBC, and was the host and narrator of the first documentary mini- series on conjuring, "The Story of Magic," for the A&E network. He presented of a series of films on con games for Turner Classic Movies and in March of 2003 he debuted as a weekly essayist on the National Public Radio station, KCRW, in Los Angeles.

Olive Schreiner

     I am currently discarding many things that belong to me, having just gone through the process of having to dispose of things that belonged to someone else. Before I put this book review in the bin, I will recycle it here. I did it almost 40 years ago for reasons I will attempt to explain below. The review is not too bad, but more importantly the subject, Olive Schreiner, is very interesting. I can't say that I remember her all that well, proving that my long term memory is as bad as my short term one. In refreshing it I learned again what an intriguing character she was. In doing so I found a website containing her letters which should serve as a model for any large scale digitization project. At least have a look at it. First, the review of a biography of Schreiner:


Olive Schreiner, by Ruth First and Ann Scott, Schocken, 1980.

     Just about 100 years ago unsuspecting Victorians found at their booksellers a slim volume by Ralph Iron bearing the rather innocuous title The Story of an African Farm. Assuming perhaps that the book was one of those morally uplifting tracts written by one of those muscular Christians who was out educating the heathen, they purchased it in large numbers. If many were immediately shocked by this immoral book, which was not authored by Ralph Iron and not at all concerned with animal husbandry, many others, particularly women, were deeply affected by its message. One woman wrote that this book along with A Doll's House, was one of the works "which drove most thinking women towards emancipation."

     The author of the book is Olive Schreiner and it is she who is the subject of an excellent biography by Ruth First and Ann Scott. The authors do a fine job of portraying the life of this remarkable individual who later wrote another feminist classic, Women and Labour, which Vera Brittain has called "the Bible of the Women's Movement." Schreiner also wrote on other subjects ranging from pacifism to sex and while some argue that her political pamphlets are too poetic to be good propaganda and her novels too polemical to be examples of good prose, few doubt her essential integrity. Those who read this biography will be both  entertained and saddened for Schreiner's story is not a happy one.  The friend of such diverse people as Eleanor Marx and Cecil Rhodes (before she realized exactly what he had planned for the blacks) and Havelock Ellis and Mahatma Gandhi she was, nonetheless, pathetically lonely. Her freethinking, her sexual radicalism and her liberal stance on all issues cost her a great deal.

   [The review concludes with this quotation from Schreiner which is a good early statement for those in favour of shattering glass ceilings. "From the judge's seat to the legislator's chair; from the statesman's closet to the merchant's office; from the chemist's laboratory to the astronomer's tower, there is no post or form of toil for which it is not our intention to attempt to fit ourselves; and there is no closed door we do not intend to force open."]

Sources: 
   It is well worth learning more about this South African feminist, socialist, pacifist, polemicist and writer of fiction. If those subjects are not enough to get you interested, I can also mention SEX since she had a relationship with Havelock Ellis. To quickly find out all you need to know, simply go to this website: The Olive Schreiner Letters Online.
   Even if you are not interested in her or any of the subjects listed, you should still have a look at OSLO. Apart from being fully searchable it breaks her career and letters into all the categories one can imagine. You can even go quickly to the material involving Ellis if you are only interesting in seeing if there are any 'naughty bits'.



If you would like to see Schreiner's final resting place, seek accommodation  at the Buffelshoek Dirosie Lodge near Cradock on the Eastern Cape. It looks like a beautiful spot.

The review appears in, Western's Caucus on Women's Issues, Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1981. p. 4.
     That was the first issue of a newsletter produced at the University of Western Ontario. At the time, I was a Collections Librarian for American, Canadian and British history. Increasingly the subject of "Women" was to be found among other subjects in a variety of academic disciplines and I was asked to take some responsibility for "Women's Studies". Things were simpler then. There is now a person of the appropriate gender who acquires material in "Women's Studies and Feminist Research."

Post Script
   On the other hand, some very low level nepotism may have been involved. I see that my wife (at that time) was the President of Western's Caucus on Women's Issues. Perhaps things weren't so simple.
   While I could not determine the fate of the newsletter, the WCWI still exists.

Wallace Klippert Ferguson

     Professor Ferguson was a well-known and highly regarded historian who graduated from the University of Western Ontario and finished his career teaching at that university. I first encountered his name on the textbook that was required in an introductory history course at the University of Maryland: A Survey of European Civilization (with co-author Geoffrey Bruun). Years later I was surprised to find him among the history faculty at UWO and I was fortunate enough to have been enrolled in two of his classes. One was related to the Renaissance and the other was a seminar on historiography. As well, there were some evening supplementary sessions held at his house which is located across from St. Peter's Seminary and adjacent to King's College. Mrs. Ferguson, also a professor, was often involved and music from the period being studied was played.
   I was reminded of Professor Ferguson because a fellow student from that time has recently published another book. Among the acknowledgements he mentions "the pleasures and benefits of Wallace K. Ferguson's seminars on the Renaissance..." Given that Professor Ferguson died in 1983 and that there is not much information readily available about him, I thought it worth providing some here. From it you will learn more about Professor Ferguson's career and scholarship and you will see that my old friend is not the only one to acknowledge him for the support and and inspiration he provided.

Sources:
 Books and articles by Professor Ferguson are found in some of the sources noted below. Otherwise the references are about him.

    

     In 1971 his colleagues in the history department produced a festschrift: FLORILEGIUM HISTORIALE: Essays Presented to Wallace K. Ferguson, edited by J.G. Rowe and W.H. Stockdale.

The picture directly above is from this book which contains some biographical material at the beginning and a portion is provided here. Otherwise there is not any additional information about Professor Ferguson to be found among the essays.

    “Wallace Klippert Ferguson was born in Peel County, Ontario on 23 May 1902. His father was a Methodist minister, who, before entering the active ministry, taught Hebrew and Patristic Greek. In 1924, Professor Ferguson graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History. He then entered Cornell university as a graduate student and holder of the Andrew Dixon White fellowship in History. His thesis for the Master of Arts degree, under the direction of Carl Becker, was in the field of the French Revolution and was completed in 1925. His first publication, an article on “The Place of Jansenism in French History,” appeared in 1927. During further graduate work at Cornell under the direction of Preserved Smith, Professor Ferguson began work on one of his life-long interests, the life and works of Desiderius Erasmus. In 1927 Professor Ferguson received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Cornell university and spent the next year in Europe on a grant from the Social Science Research Council. This grant enabled him to embody the results of his doctoral research in his first book, Erasmi Opuscula, which consisted of an edited collection of the works of Erasmus not included in the Leyden edition of the Opera Omnia.

     On his return from Europe, Professor Ferguson joined the History department at the Washington Square college of New York University where he remained for twenty-eight years and made notable contributions to the development of one of the outstanding history departments in North America. In 1956 he returned to the University of Western Ontario to occupy the J.B. Smallman Chair of History and serve as head of the department of history. He is now senior professor of history at the University of Western Ontario [1971].”

   The profile notes that Western awarded him an LL.D. in 1954 and concludes that:

“His publications and scholarly labours have earned Wallace Ferguson an honoured place in the historiography of the Renaissance. Even so, it is possible that his most significant contribution, albeit an intangible one, has been the unfailing encouragement and support which he has given to countless students and colleagues. The editors hope this volume of essays contributed by friends and colleagues will serve as fitting testimony to Professor Ferguson’s services to the historian’s craft during his long and dedicated career.”

Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship - 1939

In 1939 Professor Ferguson was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. The following information is found on the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation website.

[The picture at the top of the younger Ferguson is from this source.]

Fellow: Awarded 1939

Field of Study: Renaissance History

Competition: US & Canada

Born: 05-23-1902

Died: 01-19-1983

As published in the Foundation’s Report for 1939–40:

FERGUSON, WALLACE KLIPPERT:  Appointed for studies of the histories and historical interpretations of the Renaissance written from the15th century to the present; tenure, twelve months from July 1, 1939.

Born May 23, 1902, in Canada.  Education:  University of Western Ontario, B.A., 1924; Cornell University, M.A., 1925, Ph.D., 1927. Social Science Research Council Fellow, 1927–28.

Instructor in History, 1928–30, Assistant Professor, 1930—, New York University. Visiting Professor of History, University of Chicago, Summer, 1931.

Publications:  A Survey of European History, v. I, 1936; The Renaissance, 1940. Editor of Erasmi Opuscula: A Supplement to the Opera Omnia, 1933. Contributor to Persecution and Liberty: Essays in Honor of George Lincoln Burr, 1931.  Articles and reviews in Journal of Religion, American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History, Political Science Quarterly, Historical Outlook, Nation, Saturday Review of Literature, Herald Tribune Books.

[About the Foundation: United States Senator Simon Guggenheim and his wife established the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1925 as a memorial to a son who died April 26, 1922. The Foundation offers Fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions and irrespective of race, color, or creed.]

Another  announcement about the  award can be found here:

“GUGGENHEIM FUND NAMES 69 FELLOWS,” New York Times, Mar. 27, 1939.

“Sixty-nine fellowships with awards totaling $150,000 were announced yesterday by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to applicants judged most capable of adding to the "scholarly and artistic power" of this country.”

Canada Council Medal - 1967

Almost thirty years after winning a Guggenheim,  Professor Ferguson was awarded a Canada Council Medal.

“Achievement Worth $2,500,” The Globe and Mail, Dec. 12, 1967.

OTTAWA (CP)--”Canada Council medals for 1967 have been awarded to historians Frank Underhill and Wallace K. Ferguson, painter Jean-Paul Lemieux and literary scholar H. Northrop Frye.”

Selected Newspaper Articles (these are not found elsewhere in any bibliography related to Ferguson).

“ Armament Called 800 Year Problem,” New York Times, Feb. 9, 1952.

“Governments have had a hard time making financial ends meet for 800 years, particularly at times when changing techniques of warfare involved increasing expenses for armaments, Prof. Wallace K. Ferguson of New York University said yesterday in a symposium on the Renaissance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

“The Essential Unity That Linked Three Centuries,” Wallace K. Ferguson, New York Times, June 19, 1955.

This is a book review by Ferguson. The book is: Four Stages of Renaissance Style: Transformations in Art and Literature.

“NYU Professor to Deliver Talk,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 1956.

It is announced that Ferguson is to give three talks on the Renaissance.

“CBS Plans Series on Renaissance,” Val Adams, New York Times, Aug. 8, 1956

“One of the speakers is F. Dr. Frank C. Baxter, who concludes his televised lectures on Shakespeare Sunday, will turn next to the Renaissance. Beginning on Aug. 19, he will, serve as host to various scholars who will discuss aspects of the Renaissance, including its art, music, architecture, scholarship, politics and astronomy.”

“Prof. Ferguson Weds Prof. Margaret Wing,” New York Times, Mar. 27, 1949.

In this wedding announcement one learns that Professor Margaret Prouse Wing was “an alumna of Lady Margaret Hall of Oxford University [and a] Professor of German at Sarah Lawrence College.”

She was the hostess for the events on Waterloo Street.

Both she and Professor Ferguson had been married before. His first wife, from whom he was divorced, died in 1961 and the obituary can be found here: “Winnifred Carroll,” New York Times, Mar. 3, 1961.

     The image below is from M. Pleasant Cemetery. (Although it appears to indicate that Professor Ferguson died in 1985, that is not the case. He died in 1983).

I am sure there were local obituaries and notices about his death in campus publications, but they have not yet been digitized and I did not take the time to look for them. One is provided below from a fellow scholar of the Renaissance.

   

In Memoriam: Wallace K. Ferguson; A Tribute

Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Quarterly, 

Volume 37, Number 4 | Winter, 1984, p. 675.

The first two paragraphs are provided here:

    “Last year, the community of Renaissance scholars, and the Renaissance Society of America in particular, suffered a serious loss with the death of Wallace Ferguson, one of the leading Renaissance historians of his generation, and one of the founders of the Renaissance Society of America, a member of its Board from 1954 to 1965, and its President from 1965 to 1967.

    Wallace Klippert Ferguson was born in Peel County, Ontario, on 23 May 1902; he received his B.A. at the University of Western Ontario in 1924, and his Ph. D. at Cornell in 1927. He taught at New York University 1928-56, at the University of Western Ontario 1956-72, and died in London, Ontario, after a long illness on 19 January 1983.”

This is the concluding paragraph:

“Wallace Ferguson will be remembered by his friends, colleagues, and students for his learning, his wit, and his generosity, and for a disinterested concern for historical scholarship and for a moral and intellectual integrity that have become rather rare in recent years. His solid and substantial contributions to the study of the Renaissance, and especially of Erasmus, will be used and admired as long as these studies continue to be seriously pursued.”

Post Script

     The acknowledgement by my old friend and classmate, Graham MacDonald,  is presented here:

At the University of Western Ontario, I owe thanks to “Professor William H. Stockdale, who first brought Ruskin to my attention as a person of interest. Professor Frederick A. Dreyer, a Burke scholar and a close student of Methodism, advised that a knowledge of the old poor laws would be important with respect to Ruskin. The pleasures and benefits of Wallace K. Ferguson’s seminars on the Renaissance and his many writings have been lasting rewards.” 

It is found on p. xvii. of John Ruskin's Politics and Natural Law: An Intellectual Biography which was recently published by Palgrave Macmillan. 

    The legacy continues. Every year the Canadian Historical Association awards the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize for "the outstanding scholarly book in a field of history other than Canadian history."

For details click on the link above.
     Some Western faculty members have been nominated for the Ferguson Prize. For example, Professor Ian K. Steele's book, Setting All The Captives Free: Capture, Adjustment, and Recollection in Allegheny Country was shortlisted in 2014. In 1995 Professor Rande Kostal won the Ferguson Prize for his book, Law and English Railway Capitalism, 1825-1875.

     The picture of the older Professor Ferguson provided above is how I remember him. A tie is generally not seen in a class room these days, nor is tobacco. There used to be long silences while Professor Ferguson reloaded his pipe. No one minded and he wasn't the only person in the room smoking.

  For information about another notable historian who passed through Western see my profile of N.S.B. Gras.