On Friday, Oct. 19, 2007, Professor David D. Commins was named the first incumbent of The Benjamin Rush Distinguished Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Rush Chair was named for the founder of Dickinson College, Dr. Benjamin Rush, who, just days after the Treaty of Paris, founded Dickinson College for the purpose of educating engaged citizens and leaders who would ensure the success of the new democracy. For Rush, a Dickinson liberal-arts education was to be inherently different from those offered on the continent. Dickinson was to offer a distinctively American education that engaged its students with their society.