Beloit College William L. Kolb papers

Excerpt from: Janesville Gazette (December 1, 1986) Beloit College's Kolb honored for impact BELOIT -- William L. Kolb, emeritus professor of Sociology at Beloit College, is being honored by the Wisconsin Sociological Association in two issues of its journal, "The Wisconsin Sociologist." "The Man and His Impact as Teacher and Activist" appeared in the fall issue of the journal. Part 1 of the series -- 32 pages long, filling two-thirds of the issue -- includes an interview with Kolb, who is a Beloit resident. The essays show "a man sometimes out-of-step with his time, good humored, with measured humility; a man characterized by an incisive intellect, a critical engagement with the world through his concerns with justice, freedom, equality; and a quintessential sociologist," said professor Marlynn May, who interviewed Kolb for the magazine. She is chairman of Beloit College's Sociology Department and is associate editor of the journal. Parker J. Palmer, a sociologist with St. Benedict Center in Madison and a former student of Kolb's at Carleton College, wrote an essay on Kolb's impact on his life. "When I ask myself why the life I am living is so different ... one of the major answers is William L. Kolb. It is a special tribute to the force of Bill Kolb's integrity that he managed to awaken some of us from our suburban slumbers to understand the intimate connection between critical thinking about our society and critical action in it." Other articles about Kolb include "Bill Kolb, Teacher and Academic Man," by Warren Breed, study director at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, Calif.; "Moral Values and Sociological Proof," by James W. Loewen, an author and professor at the University of Vermont; and "The Rare Academic Man: A Man of Scholarship and Faith," by Robert Rankin, past vice-president of the Danforth Foundation. Kolb's address before the Midwest Sociological Society in 1967, when he served as president, and his curriculum also are included in the publication. The winter issue also will be devoted to Kolb, who joined Beloit College in 1964 and served as dean and provost of the college in addition to teaching. He was educated at Miami University and UW-Madison. He has published 27 articles and two books, "Sociological Analysis" and "A Dictionary of the Social Sciences."