Naming Opportunities
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Endowed Professorships
Notre Dame’s pursuit of academic excellence ends with our students as beneficiaries—but it begins with our faculty. Nothing is more important to Notre Dame’s continued ascent in the academy than attracting and supporting professors of distinction.
The prestige and resources associated with an endowed professorship assist the University in recruiting, maintaining, and promoting the nation’s and, indeed, the world’s best teacher-scholars. Specifically, chairs provide a pool of funds to support the complex teaching, research, and professional development needs of top faculty.
Faculty chairs can be endowed at three levels:
- Premier Chair ($5,000,000 and above): Bestowed upon world-renowned faculty with extensive research needs.
- University Chair ($3,000,000): To recognize the outstanding academic achievement of senior-level faculty.
- Collegiate Chair ($1,500,000): Conferred upon junior faculty who exhibit strong potential for superior achievement as teachers and scholars.
Professorships will be named at the donor’s behest: for example, the Lucille and Paul O’Brien Chair in American Literature.
With the consent of the donor, appropriate recognition will be offered, including the etching of the benefactor’s name onto the marble wall surrounding the Hesburgh Library reflecting pool, annual reports, and invitations to special recognition events.
To learn more about endowing a professorship, please contact us.
Vittorio Hösle: the Kimball Endowed Chair
No one embodies the international character of Notre Dame better than Vittorio Hösle, the Paul G. Kimball Professor of Arts and Letters. Fluent in an astonishing seven languages, Professor Hösle taught in places as far-flung as Brazil, Italy, Korea, Russia, and India before joining the Notre Dame faculty in 1999.
His appointment as the Kimball Chair was a major coup for Notre Dame, as he is perhaps the best-known young philosopher in his native Germany. Yet Professor Hösle believes that endowed chairs like his do more than simply ensure the presence of highly distinguished scholars: “They signify a university’s enduring commitment to certain academic values,” he says.
A 1973 Notre Dame alum, Paul G. Kimball, established this professorship with his wife, Kathleen. Paul is an advisory director of Morgan Stanley and a member of Notre Dame’s Advisory Council for the College of Arts and Letters. Kathleen, a Saint Mary’s alumna, is an adjunct professor at Fairfield University.
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