Tue 8 Jan 2008
Former Williams President Hank Payne died yesterday.
Students at Woodward Academy in College Park returned from winter break Tuesday to news that the private school’s president, Harry C. “Hank” Payne, had died on Monday.
Payne, 60, was found dead Monday afternoon in Midtown Atlanta. The cause of death was being investigated by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office.
His death was announced on the Woodward Academy web site.
“The school has flourished over the past seven years under Dr. Payne’s leadership,” the note on the Web site reads. “We have become a community in every sense. Now our community faces the most difficult of tasks — to mourn a great man, a visionary leader and a loyal friend.”
Payne was named president of Woodward in July 2000 after serving as president of Williams College in Massachusetts from 1994 to 1999.
I met Payne only once, at the class of 1988′s 10th year reunion. Judging from Record coverage at the time, he was doing a fine job. I congratulated him on his performance as president. He graciously acknowledged the compliment while pointing out the working at Williams was “easy duty.” Indeed. While President Payne’s time at Williams ended on an awkward note, with the faculty and town in open revolt over the proposed new theatre, there can be no doubt that he loved Williams and served her well.
Condolences to all.
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14 Responses to “Payne, RIP”
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January 9th, 2008 at 11:50 am
[...] Payne’s death on Monday was a suicide. Woodward Academy president Hank Payne wrote a suicide note before taking his life [...]
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Jeff Z. says:
This is tragic news. President Payne, from a student’s perspective, did a great job. He was incredibly accessible. As one example, I was in a class on voting right and I emailed President Payne to ask whether there might be a way to help fund a class trip to a prominent voting rights conference. He emailed back within minutes, and within hours we had met and he had provided funding for the entire class to fly down and attend the conference for four days. I also note that he was smart enough to send a son to Williams, my classmate Jon. It is no easy thing being a simultaneous President and father of a student, but President Payne handled it really well. Condolences to Jon and the entire Payne family.
& says:
I wish Goodrich and the room named for President Payne could be open today.
If someone who is registered as an EphBlog author can take a bit of time, there is a photo of President Payne from the time of his presidency at Williams posted with his bio on the Presidents’ bios page of the College’s Office of the Presidency. The picture would make a good addition to be imported into this thread.
& says:
I wish Goodrich and the room named for President Payne could be open today.
If someone who is registered as an EphBlog author can take a bit of time, there is a photo of President Payne from the time of his presidency at Williams posted with his bio on the Presidents’ bios page of the College’s Office of the Presidency. The picture would make a good addition to be imported into this thread.
& says:
President Schapiro will undoubtedly make an announcement to the College, with a brief memorial.
Until then, for those of you who did not know Hank Payne, I have pasted in his official bio as a former President of Williams below, copied from the website for the Office of the President. I liked and admired Hank and am deeply saddened by this morning’s news. My condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and students.
Harry C. Payne, Ph.D., Litt.D., LL.D., 1994-99
Hank Payne assumed the presidency of Williams on Jan. 1, 1994 and initiated three major planning processes focusing on the curriculum, student life outside the classroom, and the college’s major financial priorities.
He oversaw the total renovation of Griffin Hall—a rejuvenation of the oldest classroom building on campus that was historically sensitive and integrated the latest teaching technology. He guided the planning and construction of a $45 million addition and renovation of the college’s science facilities that transformed teaching and learning in those fields. He also launched the initiative for a new center for theatre and dance.
At the same time he worked to increase attention at Williams to civic life and the instilling in students of civic virtues.
Payne taught European intellectual history since joining the faculty at Colgate in 1973. He continued teaching while provost and then acting president of Haverford and while president of Hamilton. As professor of history at Williams he taught a course on historiography.
He has served as president of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the field in which most of his scholarly work has focused. He wrote The Philosophes and the People, edited three volumes of Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, and produced more than 50 scholarly articles and reviews.
Payne graduated as the highest ranking B.A. candidate in the Yale College Class of 1969 and earned an M.A. at the same time. His Ph.D. in history, also from Yale, came in 1973. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Hamilton (1988), Colgate (1989), Williams (1993) and Amherst (1994).
He was a Danforth Fellow from 1968 to 1973 and an honorary Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1968. He won a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend in 1975 and won the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies’ annual article prize for 1975-76. He was an overseas fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge University, in 1977.
Payne currently serves as president of Woodward Academy in Atlanta. His wife, Deborah, directed the Science and Mathematics Resource Center at Williams. They have two sons, Jonathan ’97 and Samuel.
& says:
Announcements from the College are likely to be delayed, as there are reports of a police investigation into whether President Payne’s fatal fall from an Atlanta hotel window was accidental. Those of you who are close to his family may want to reach out to them now. This must be an extremely difficult time.
My most sincere condolences.
Guy Creese '75 says:
This is too bad. Now that I’m my mid-50s, I consider dying at 60 to be way too young.
I was not a huge fan of Hank Payne. I asked him a question at a Williams Today gathering, he answered the question by avoiding it, and clearly thought he’d sailed one by me. That said, he was bright and his heart was in the right place. He just was not the right President at that time in Williams’ life. It looks like there was no such mismatch at Woodward Academy, and I am sure he will be missed.
& says:
Hamilton College, where Payne served as President before coming to Williams, is reporting that
“A memorial service has been scheduled for Friday, Jan. 11, at 11:45 a.m. in the Woodward Academy Chapel.”
& says:
From President Schapiro, posted on the College’s website:
& says:
Sorry. That didn’t work with the block quote.
From President Schapiro, posted on the College’s website:
January 8, 2008
To the Williams Community,
It is with profound sadness that I report the tragic news that President Emeritus Hank Payne died unexpectedly yesterday in Atlanta, where he’d served since 2000 as President of Woodward Academy.
We benefit here at Williams every day from initiatives carried out or begun during the presidency of this wonderfully decent and caring man who dedicated his professional career to expanding the intellectual lives of students. His influence lingers even in the construction of our North and South Academic Buildings, designed to achieve for the humanities and social sciences what, under his stewardship, the Science Center was able to do for the natural sciences.
Our thoughts and prayers go to Debroah and to their sons, Jonathan, Class of 1997, and Samuel.
M. Schapiro
President
kthomas says:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article has recently been updated, with news that is hard to bear.
At this moment I can only offer my prayers, my thoughts and my condolences to all.
FROSH mom says:
Unbearably sad.
I wish his family… strength.
& says:
A few more details about services for him:
HARRY “HANK” PAYNE, 60, died Monday. Graveside service, 3 p.m. today, Arlington Cemetery; Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care.
Published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on 1/9/2008.
Anynomous says:
It’s so sad about this tragedy. I wish his family strength. May the prayers go with Dr. Payne and his family. This news has truly startled everybody. I will miss him.