Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak established a $1.25 million Robert D. Novak Endowed Chair in western civilization and culture in LAS. Novak graduated from the University with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1952 with a minor in History.

The endowment fund will be used for things such as the chair’s research, graduate student support, travel, publishing and salary supplement, said Paul Osterhout, associate dean for advancement in LAS.

Novak said even as a journalist, the courses he took in liberal arts helped prepare him for life. He still remembers the first class he took was history of western civilization.

“For all time the great teachings of western civilization is the backbone of culture and should be available to students,” he said. “These kind of courses have been dying out at public universities, and my hopes are to perpetuate it at the University of Illinois.”

Classics professor Jon Solomon, winner of 11 teaching awards, will be the first Novak Chair. An endowed chair is the highest recognition possible for outstanding faculty, and there are currently about 70 professors in LAS who hold endowed positions funded by private gifts such as Novak’s, Osterhout said.

According to the University’s description of the Robert D. Novak Chair, it will promote “the understanding and appreciation of major figures, works and ideas important to the development of Western civilization and culture.”

Osterhout said Novak has maintained a close relationship with the college and the campus for a long time, endowing a scholarship of $5,000 for outstanding students in English since 1992 and returning to campus almost every year to meet with the scholarship winners.

“We’re so grateful and hope to perpetuate an interest in western civilization,” Osterhout said. “There are about 130,000 living alumni of LAS who are very supportive and loyal, and a small fraction of that number that make gifts like this, and more and more are doing that. It’s such a great philanthropic example for others.”

Novak said he hopes to sit in on a few of Solomon’s classes in the fall.

“Although certainly the non-Western cultures have a lot to offer, I think that our country owes so much to its straight-line decent from the culture in all fields, starting with the ancient Romans and Greeks and through the European civilizations,” Novak said in a press release.

Now a political commentary writer and author of several books, Novak was a sports writer for the Daily Illini during his first three years at the University.

“Kinds of things like writing, music, theater and religion are what make up the basis of our society,” Novak said. “Western civilization is important because it’s our background and our culture. And to be an educated person, you have to learn about the roots.”