Kay Bonney |
Katherine A. Bonney, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion
The professor who influenced me the most was Kay Bonney, who was on the religion faculty
at Dickinson when I arrived in 1961, although she left in 1964, finally becoming headmistress
of a girl’s prep school in Connecticut before she retired. We remained in regular
contact until a couple of years before her death, when failing health made it impossible
for her to correspond.
Dr. Bonney had amazing patience with students who found the academic study of religion
perplexing, despite—or perhaps because of—years of Sunday-school learning.
Over the years as a professor, I have recalled that patience and longed for a healthier
dose of it myself. Kay also had an uncanny ability, at least in my case, to instill a
sense of self-confidence that remained a source of inspiration throughout graduate school
and well into my own teaching career. There were times along the way when I wondered
whether all of the study and stress were worth it, but Kay convinced me to persevere.
Because she had a degree from New York’s Union Theological Seminary (as did then
President Howard Rubendall and highly respected English professor Ben Horlacher), I set
out for Union after graduation, before beginning doctoral work. Were it not for Kay,
I doubt that I would have looked to Union, which for generations was internationally
recognized as the nation’s premier seminary, but my time there remains extraordinarily
significant in buttressing an approach that unites learning, faith and life into a single
whole and continues to sustain me nearly 40 years later [currently at the University
of Tennessee at Chattanooga]. So Kay Bonney wound up having signal impact on both my
life and my career.
Charles H. Lippy ’65
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