University Award for Excellence in Teaching
Daniel Taylor, 1998
"Daniel Taylor, Classicist, linguist, Lawrence alumnus, softball fanatic, recent father of the bride, for the second time in a week, I get to speak while you remain silent. We commend you today as one who has promoted and symbolized liberal education as a member of the class of '63 and of the faculty since 1974. As Hiram A. Jones Professor of Classics, not only do you have the most spacious and elegant office on campus, but you have sustained and extended the tradition of distinguished Lawrence Latinists in assuring that the study of Classics is indelibly linked to the liberal arts experience at the college. You have also apparently adopted the curmudgeonly style of your mentor Maurice Cunningham in your memorable contributions to faculty debates.
A dedicated, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, demanding, and inspirational teacher, students hail you for your 'sheer enthusiasm,' your 'incredible command' of the subject, and the ways in which your zest and energy motivate them. Never given to understatement, you make the Classics come alive, whether by falling off your chair in the throes of a recitation or comparing a Classical author to Dennis Rodman. Through you, one Lawrentian observed, students come to know the 'meaning and beauty of a liberal arts education.'
Author of several books and more than fifty scholarly articles, reviews, and essays, your expertise has earned you numerous awards and fellowships, most recently your second prestigious Research Fellowship for College Teachers from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which enabled you to spend last year in Rome researching and writing on Varro's De Lingua Latina. You have been the recipient as well of numerous regional and national teaching awards, a record we are pleased to extend today.
For your passion, excitement, inexhaustible quest for knowledge, a dedication to liberal education, and love for teaching--if not for your commitment to transforming the folksy Appleton Foxes into the tough Wisconsin Timber Rattlers--Lawrence is proud to recognize you with the Excellent Teaching Award for 1998."