Letter from Prof. Milo Beach

MILO C. BEACH

46 Slades Corner Road

Russells Mills, Dartmouth

Massachusetts   02748

USA

                                                                                                                        5 January 2011

Professor William Wagner

Dean of the Faculty

Williams College

Williamstown, Massachusetts

Dear Professor Wagner,

I have no business writing this letter, but a former student has just sent very disturbing news regarding a member of the Department of Art—a department from which I resigned (as Chair) in 1984 to move to the Smithsonian. Moreover, I have had minimal contact with the Department since then, and have only perhaps twice (in those years) encountered the subject of this letter: Shaefe Satterthwaite.

Shaefe arrived at Williams (I believe) the same year that I did, 1969. In those initial years, and in the time since, Shaefe has been the faculty member most discussed by those students with which I have stayed in contact, and this includes many students who never (otherwise) went near the Art Department. His effect on his students, on their ways of thinking, and on the range of subjects they find (present tense) interesting has been so profound that I find it very disturbing that those short contracts that have held him to the College for so long will evidently not now be renewed. (Or, at least, this is what I have just heard from one of those students.)

Shaefe’s ability (clearly remaining intact) to ask provocative, unanticipated questions about subjects that students often have never considered before, and then demonstrably to really care about the responses that students make; and his skill at engaging young people in true conversations about issues of importance, is unrivalled. His departure would be a great loss for Williams; that it might be an enforced departure—if this is truly the case—would not bring acclaim to the institution.

I hope very much this has all been misreported. If not, then I will further hope that by now this decision is being far more carefully considered.

With kind regards,

Milo C. Beach

Retired:

Director

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

(The national museums of Asian art)

Smithsonian Institution

Washington, D.C.

Cc:            Peter D. Low