Dickinson College President Emeritus to Discuss ‘Aging on the Diagonal’
Dickinson College President Emeritus William G. Durden
Durden led Dickinson from 1999-2013
by Rebecca Fox '22
William G. Durden '71, former president of Dickinson College and current president of the International University Alliance (IUA), will discuss societal pressures on aging and define aging in positive terms. His lecture, “An Anticipatory Memoir: Aging on the Diagonal,” will take place Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium.
Durden will discuss his research on aging and his own beliefs about how we can “age on the diagonal,” or grow older in a positive and beneficial way, rather than looking at aging as a negative aspect of life. Durden has studied the ways in which the later parts of life are often unexplored or undefined, despite the world’s growing population of older people.
Durden, in his position at the IUA, is currently focusing on bringing productive change to liberal arts institutions and innovations to education everywhere. He is the author of Living on the Diagonal and Other Selected Writings, which recounts his adventurous career in education, business and government and offers advice for today’s students and future generations. Prior to his Dickinson presidency, Durden served as president of a division of the Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc., and was vice president of academic affairs for the Caliber Learning Network. He taught in the German department at Johns Hopkins University and served as founding executive director of the Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Durden was also a “private tutor” for then British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the topic of talent development and global competitiveness.
The program is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is part of the series, The Good Life. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty series.
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Published February 18, 2020