Papers of Willard O. Eddy

Willard O. Eddy, more than any other individual, is credited with promoting liberal arts education at Colorado State University. During his 56-year tenure, he held two full professorships, served as chair of two departments, and created the honors program. He developed the university's first courses in ethics, logic, introduction to philosophy, literary criticism, Western philosophy, and philosophy of science. He was also instrumental in launching programs in religious studies and Asian studies. Officially retiring in 1974, he continued teaching undergraduate classes and held the position of Professor Emeritus until his death in 1993. The Liberal Arts Building was named in his honor in 1978.

Willard Eddy attended DePauw University where he earned his bachelor's degree in English, followed by his master's degree in comparative literature in 1932. He taught as a professor of English language and literature at the Imperial University of Hokkaido in Sapporo, Japan, from 1932 to 1935. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Yale University where he studied political philosophy and the sociology of revolutions and dictatorships. He earned a second master's degree in philosophy from the University of Nebraska and did his doctoral work at the University of Chicago.

Willard O. Eddy was born August 1, 1908, in Hamilton, Indiana, the son of Guy C. and Mamie Eddy. While teaching at CSU he met and married his wife, Gladys Louise Shellabarger, who was also an employee at CSU. They had two children, daughter Sandra and son William.

Eddy took military leave from Colorado A & M from 1942 to 1945 to serve with the Military Intelligence Training Division. He created a curriculum on the Japanese army and taught the Intelligence Sections of the Marine Corps divisions and the 96th Army Division in the Philippines and Okinawa. He later prepared and taught a course on the geography of Korea for occupation troops.

He was at various times a member of the College English Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Modern Language Association, the Rocky Mountain Language Association, the Mountain-Plains Philosophical Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and the Association of University Professors.