University of St Andrews Chancellor to step down

Sir Kenneth Dover, FRSE, FBA, Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, is to retire from office on December 31st 2005.

At its meeting on Saturday November 5th 2005, the Business Committee of the General Council of the University was informed of the Chancellor’s decision to step down.

Arrangements to appoint Sir Kenneth’s successor will be announced in due course.

A distinguished academic, Sir Kenneth (85) was born in London and educated at the city’s St Paul’s School before going on to study at Balliol College, Oxford. After serving with the Royal Artillery during the Second World War and being mentioned in dispatches for his service in Italy, he returned to Oxford and became Fellow and tutor at his old college in 1948.

In 1955, he was appointed Professor of Greek at the University of St Andrews and was twice Dean of the University’s Faculty of Arts during his 21 years there.

In 1976, Sir Kenneth became President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, a post he held for 10 years. During the 1980s he held positions at Cornell University and Stanford University in the States. In 1978, he was elected to the Presidency of the British Academy, of which he has been a fellow since 1966, and served for a term of three years.

He was also elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1975 and received a knighthood two years later for services to Greek scholarship.

Sir Kenneth returned to St Andrews as the University’s Chancellor in 1981 and was the first Chancellor in the University’s history to be neither a peer nor an archbishop.

He has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Oxford, St Andrews, Birmingham, Bristol, London, Durham, Liverpool and Oglethorpe. He is also a foreign member of the American and the Royal Netherlands Academies of Arts and Sciences.

Sir Kenneth’s scholarly works include Greek Word order (1960), Aristophanic Comedy (1972), Greek Homosexuality (1978) and The Greeks and their Legacy (1989).

NOTE TO PICTURE EDITORS:

Photographs of Sir Kenneth are available from the Press Office on 01334 462529.

Issued by Beattie Communications on behalf of the University of St Andrews. Contact : Niall Scott, tel 01334 462244, mobile 07711 223062