Robert Gates to Speak at WM Charter Day

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Robert Gates

Gates, a 1965 graduate of the college, will speak at 4 p.m. Feb. 3 at William and Mary Hall. Tickets are not required for the event, and it is open to the public. Gates will be invested as the college’s 24th chancellor at the ceremony. The event will also honor Professor Emeritus of Government James A. Bill, who served as the first director of the Reves Center for International Studies; he will receive an honorary degree of doctor of humane letters.

Charter Day marks the 319th anniversary of the awarding of the Royal Charter from King William III and Queen Mary II of England that established the college.

Gates will be the first William and Mary alumnus in the modern era to serve as the college’s chancellor. When the college was chartered in 1693, the chancellor was an English subject, usually the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London, and served as the college’s advocate to the crown. After the Revolutionary War, George Washington became the first American chancellor. Most recently, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has held the post.

Gates, who already holds an honorary doctorate from the college, retired this summer as defense secretary under President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. He has served in public service since his graduation with a degree in history, starting with a job in the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966. He is the only career officer in CIA history to rise from entry-level employee to become the agency’s director, a job he held from 1991-93.

James Bill joined the college’s faculty in 1987 as a chaired professor in the government department. In 1989, he became the Wendy and Emery Reves Professor of International Studies and became the first director of the Reves Center for International Studies. He shaped the Reves Center for more than a decade; today, the center coordinates many of the university’s international programs and activities.

In 1992, students voted to present him with an outstanding faculty award. That same year, the James A. Bill Study Abroad Scholarship Endowment was established at the college. He retired as director of the Reves Center in 1998, but continued to offer classes in Middle East politics until he officially retired in 2004. He has co-authored 10 books, including “The Eagle and Lion,” which explores the relationship between the United States and Iran from the 1940s through the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Bill earned his bachelor’s degree in foreign affairs and philosophy from Assumption College, then earned a master’s degree in political science from Penn State University, and a master’s in politics and Ph.D. in politics and Near East Studies from Princeton.