Prof. William H.
Brownlee was appointed to The Claremont Graduate School in 1959—the first
professor of the CGS Religion Department. The endowment was established
in his memory after his death in 1983 for scholars to be invited to give
a lecture in the field of Old Testament Studies and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Ever since, the endowment has received generous gifts from Mrs. Brownlee
who has faithfully attended the annual Brownlee memorial Lectures as well
as other Institute events from time to time along with her children—three
of whom live in Southern California.
Shortly before her
death in 1994, Mrs. Brownlee had donated $30,000 to the already existing
Wm. H. Brownlee Memorial Endowment at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity
at The Claremont Graduate School. This generous gift will largely
increase the existing endowment as well as provide funds for purposes beyond
the annual Brownlee Lecture. Thus in the near future the income of
the endowment will be used to sponsor an assistantship for a graduate student
in religion and to host a scholar for a semester in order to do research
in the field of religion in Claremont on an alternative basis, in addition
to the annual lecture that will continue to be given in the spring of each
year.
In her letter to
the Graduate School the restrictions of the endowment’s purposes are stated
as follows: 1) To fund the annual William H. and Sarah Louise Brownlee
Memorial Lecture; 2) to fund a Brownlee Postdoctoral fellowship which would
support a scholar-in-residence for one semester residency at the Institute
for Antiquity and Christianity in the area of religious or biblical studies;
3) to fund a Brownlee Student Research Assistantship which would be awarded
to student(s) in religious or biblical studies for an amount up to one-half
of the current year annual tuition. The endowment will now be named
The William H. and Sarah Louise Brownlee Endowment of the CGS.
--IAC
Bulletin Vol. 21, no. 3 (September 1994): 4-5.
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