Two Knox College faculty members have been named to endowed chairs, one in business and management and the other in philosophy, President Teresa Amott announced on February 20.

John Spittell, professor of business and management and executive-in-residence, is the College's first recipient of the Joseph E. and Judith B. Wagner Distinguished Chair in Business.

William Young, associate professor and chair of philosophy, is the first recipient of the College's R. Lance Factor Endowed Professorship in Philosophy.

President Amott made the two appointments upon the recommendation of Knox's Faculty Personnel Committee and the Dean of the College.

The new Distinguished Chair in Business is endowed by Joe '50 and Judi Wagner of Littleton, Colorado. The business and management minor is the College's largest minor. Students combine the business minor with a wide variety of majors, including economics, psychology, and art.

The R. Lance Factor Endowed Professorship in Philosophy was a gift from an anonymous donor in appreciation of the education received at Knox and the important role that Professor Lance Factor had in shaping those educational experiences. Professor Factor, himself a distinguished chair holder as the George Appleton Lawrence Service Professor of Philosophy, taught at Knox for 46 years before retiring in December 2014.

Endowed chairs are a way to both honor and reward current faculty for their accomplishments and to help bring exceptional new teachers and scholars to campus. An endowed chair is the highest honor that Knox College can bestow upon a faculty member, and it continues to nurture the College's historic commitment to excellence in both teaching and research.

Knox now has 21 endowed chairs -- in disciplines that range from biology to computer science to music, as well as chairs that recognize academic service. During Knox's Above & Beyond initiative, the College's goal is to endow 10 additional chairs in established disciplines, like chemistry and art, and in new fields of study that will expand the Knox curriculum.

An endowed chair adds funds to the faculty salary pool annually, ensuring that Knox can recruit excellent faculty and continue to offer a broad and academically rigorous curriculum to future generations of students.

About John Spittell

Professor Spittell received his M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and his B.A. in economics and psychology from Ripon College.

In 2010, Professor Spittell received the Philip Green Wright/Lombard College Prize for Distinguished Teaching. He regularly teaches courses in marketing, brand management, managerial finance, corporate strategic management, and entrepreneurship and society, and has overseen the business and management minor during its amazing growth of the past five years.

During the 2015 spring term, he and colleagues in computer science will launch a new immersive term for the College called Startup Term. He also serves as coordinator of the Kemper Scholars Program and is the campus representative for the Chicago program in business and entrepreneurship through the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.

In the community, Professor Spittell serves on the city of Galesburg's Economic Development Task Force and the Business District Development and Redevelopment Commission and is involved with the Sustainable Business Center. He also has served on the City Planning Commission, on the Board of Directors of the Knox Galesburg Symphony, and the Soangetaha Country Club and was a member of Knox College's Business Advisory Council before joining the College.

Before coming to Knox, Professor Spittell was co-owner and general manager of United Distributors, Inc.

About William Young

Professor Young earned his Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame and his B.A. at the University of Rhode Island. His areas of teaching and scholarly expertise include contemporary ethical theory, philosophy of feminism, existentialism, and modern philosophy.

His longtime affiliation with Knox's Asian Studies program has led to courses in Buddhism, Japanese Buddhism, and East Asian Philosophy. He also has served as co-leader of the immersive term, Japan Term, which includes travel to Japan.

In 1995, Professor Young received the Phillip Green Wright/Lombard College Prize for untenured faculty, and he has received a citation from three Knox graduating classes as one of their most influential educators.

In addition to his teaching areas, he often serves as a committee member on student Honors projects and mentors philosophy majors who regularly have their work accepted for presentation at national conferences. Since his earliest years at Knox, Professor Young has served the College widely, including membership on the curriculum, executive, and First-Year Preceptorial (FP) committees.

About the Wagners

While at Knox, Joe Wagner was a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity and earned a letter in swimming as the team manager. He majored in business and, upon graduation, started his business career in sales.

He worked for Frontier Airlines before joining the Caterpillar Tractor business in 1954 in Texas, where he worked until 1976, when he moved to Denver after acquiring the Caterpillar dealership for the State of Colorado.

Today, Wagner Equipment owns the CAT dealerships for Colorado, New Mexico, and far west Texas with 1,500 employees. From 1972 until retiring in 2013, Judi owned Wagner Investment Management Company.