Prof. Emeritus P. Albert Duhamel, who taught English
at Boston College for nearly 50 years and was a founder
of the University's Honors Program, died Oct. 1. He
was 86.
"Al was one of the giants of the Boston College
English department in the 1950's and 1960's,"
said Vice President for University Mission and Ministry
Joseph A. Appleyard, SJ, who studied under Prof. Duhamel
as an undergraduate. "He inspired many of his
students - myself included - to follow in his footsteps
in the study of the history of English literature.
"In founding the honors program at Boston College,
he set a new standard for intellectual excellence,"
Fr. Appleyard said. "Appropriately, he spent the
last happy years of his teaching career introducing
freshmen to the great literature of the past."
In addition to his teaching, Prof. Duhamel for several
years was book editor at The Boston Herald and hosted
a weekly television show on WGBH-TV, "I've Been
Reading," for which he interviewed a wide range
of authors and other guests, ranging from professional
baseball players to best-selling novelists.
One of his guests was Julia Child, who in 1962 cooked
her first television meal - an omelet - on his show.
A number of viewers contacted the station to express
their interest in the cooking segment, and Child launched
a pilot for her own show on WGBH shortly thereafter.
A graduate of College of the Holy Cross, Prof. Duhamel
earned a master's degree in English at Boston College
and added a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin.
Prof. Duhamel joined the Boston College faculty in 1949.
He was later appointed to the English department's
Philomatheia Chair, which he held until his retirement
in 1995.
In 1958, College of Arts and Sciences Dean William Van
Etten Casey, SJ, appointed him director of Boston College's
new Office of Special Programs. There, Prof. Duhamel
joined fellow faculty members Walter Langlois and Joseph
Sheerin to select academically talented students for
the University's inaugural Honors Program.
Residents of Bedford, Prof. Duhamel and his wife of
63 years, Helen (Stowell) Duhamel, delighted in travel
and spent many summer vacations visiting unusual places
around the globe, according to their daughter, Mary
Kramer. In addition to his wife and daughter, Prof.
Duhamel is survived by two grandchildren.
In keeping with his lifelong dedication to education,
Prof. Duhamel willed his body to a medical school.
The memorial service will be private. Donations in
his name may be made to the University of Wisconsin
Foundation, P.O. Box 8869, Madison, Wis. 53708 for
the support of that school's Helen C. White Library.
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