Past ΦBK President Frederick J. Crosson Dies
Frederick J. Crosson, past president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the John J. Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus of Humanities at the University of Notre Dame, passed away on Dec. 9, 2009, at the age of 83.
Crosson (right) served as president of Phi Beta Kappa from 1997-2000, in addition to vice-president (1994-1997) and as a senator (1982-2000).
From 1977-1991, Crosson was a crucial member of the Society’s Committee on Qualifications, serving as chairman of the committee for nearly 10 years, from 1982-1991. The Committee on Qualifications evaluates applicant institutions and makes recommendations for new chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and is, therefore, vital to the continuation of the Society and as a safeguard of the organization’s integrity.
In line with his academic interests, Crosson served as a philosophy and religion reviewer for the Society’s quarterly for members, The Key Reporter, from 1973-1997.
A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1953, Crosson specialized in phenomenology and existentialism, but studied and taught in a much broader variety of fields. His publications were varied, reflecting a wide range of interests as a scholar and educator.
On the national scene, Crosson was sought after as a policy maker. His service included: Evaluator, Northwest Central Association of Schools and Colleges, 1994-2010; Executive Board, North Central Assn. of Schools and Colleges, 1984-1989; Consultant-Evaluator, North Central Assn. of Schools and Colleges, 1970-1998; Editor, The Review of Politics, 1976-1982; Executive Committee, Metaphysical Society of America, 1978-1981; Executive Committee, Society of Christian Philosophers, 1987-1990; President, American Catholic Philosophical Assn, 1990-1991; Editorial Board, American Journal of Jurisprudence, 1989-1998; Editorial Board, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 1985-2010; Secretary-Treasurer, Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, 1976-1990.
A native of Belmar, N.J., Crosson earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Catholic University of America and studied at Laval University in Quebec and at the University of Paris before receiving his doctoral degree in philosophy from Notre Dame in 1956. He began teaching at Notre Dame in 1953 in the program of liberal studies, a great books program. He eventually directed the program from 1964 to 1968, when he became the first lay dean of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters, a position he held until 1975, when he returned to full-time teaching and scholarship. From 1976 to 1982 he served as editor of Notre Dame’s Review of Politics.
Known and loved by his colleagues for his enthusiastic collegiality and by his students for his generous availability, Crosson, a devotee of the seminar, often spoke of his delight at noticing the “eureka moment” in a student’s expression. What he most desired for his students, he once said, were “the skills of discerning and relating, of finding the order and meaning in nature and in culture. To begin to do that, to begin to be able to make for ourselves informed judgments about life and about works of literature, about politics and sociological theories, about what is worth reading and loving and doing, is to begin to free ourselves from being the prisoners of the mass media and the conventional wisdom of our time.”
Crosson is survived by his wife of 53 years, Dr. Mary Patricia (Burns) Crosson, and by his children, Dr. Jessica Crosson, of Lafayette, Calif.; Veronica Flynn of Wilmington, Mass.; Jennifer Crosson of South Bend; Christopher Crosson of Gerton, N.C.; and Benedict Crosson of Seattle; and five grandchildren.