Although Marvin Wilson, MA’61, PhD’63, is in his 50th year as a college professor, the 77-year-old says he’s still acquiring knowledge. “Life is for learning, and learning is for life,” Marvin, a professor of biblical and theological studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., told a Salem News reporter. “First of all, I love what I do. It’s not work. I get paid every day for having fun.” A scholar known for his work in the field of Judeo-Christian relations, he recently presented papers and gave lectures in Texas, New Hampshire, Ohio, New York, Colorado and Washington, D.C. His book “Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith” is in its 26th printing. After earning a master’s and a PhD from Brandeis, he started teaching full time at Barrington College in fall 1963. He taught for eight years at the Rhode Island school, leaving to take a job at Gordon in fall 1971. In 1985, Barrington and Gordon merged, so Wilson’s years of service are considered to be all with one institution. Eric Meyers, MA’64, and his wife, Carol Meyers, MA’66, PhD’75, are both professors in the Department of Religion at Duke University. Eric, the Bernice and Morton Lerner Professor, had two books published in 2012: “Alexander to Constantine: Archaeology of the Land of the Bible” (with Mark Chancey) and “Archaeology, Bible, Politics and the Media” (co-edited with Carol). Carol, the Mary Grace Wilson Professor, was elected president of the Society of Biblical Literature, the largest and oldest learned society devoted to investigating the Bible from a variety of academic disciplines. Last year, her book “Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context” was published. Baroness Ruth Deech, MA’66, a British academic, lawyer and bioethicist, was principal at St. Anne’s College at the University of Oxford from 1991-2004 and served as England’s first independent adjudicator for higher education from 2004-08. She was a BBC governor from 2002-06 and a Rhodes trustee from 1996-2006. In 2005, the British House of Lords bestowed on her the title of Baroness Deech of Cumnor in the County of Oxfordshire. William Fregosi, MFA’68, and his husband, Fritz Bell, just completed the libretto for an opera on Anne Hutchinson, a Puritan religious dissident and proto-feminist. It will premiere in Boston in April 2014 in a production by Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera. William also designs all of the company’s productions. Jacob Hen-Tov, MA’68, PhD’69, received the Superior Civilian Service Award from the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany for 30 years of sustained excellence as a professor of history and government (Eurasian studies). His book “Communism and Zionism in Palestine During the British Mandate” was published last year, and he is working on his next book, “The Palestinian Jewry in Support of the Soviet Union: The Story of the League V, 1941-46.”
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