A Continuing Sense of Amazement

"Observing Dean James J. Valentini over the years often brought to mind what I’ve always thought are the basic requirements for a good life in academe: You have to love students, love what you do and work as hard as you can. And one more thing: If you have the luck to be at a place like Columbia, you had better know how to feel grateful. During more than one dinner at East Campus while I was Faculty in Residence there, surrounded by students balancing plates of food, the dean talked about his own academic career, his good fortune to end up as a professor of chemistry and later a dean at Columbia and, most importantly, his continuing sense of amazement that he got paid to devote his life to the education of brilliant young people.

"Beyond these personal virtues, Dean Valentini’s devotion to the College and his concern for the well-being of its students, so many of whom he made a special effort to get to know, should be evident to anyone who has paid attention to his performance in this office. Fate decreed that during his tenure he was called on to deal with a number of tragedies: the nightmare days of the epidemic, and the academic fallout for students who pay tuition to attend Columbia resulting from a strike by others who generally do not. I think he addressed these difficulties with compassion and resourcefulness.

"For me, personally, I’m especially grateful for Dean Valentini’s commitment to the intensive summer program at Reid Hall in Paris that combines Art Humanities and Music Humanities. Teaching in this program, which the dean’s support has helped nurture, was the best pedagogical experience of my career.

"Jim, you did good. You deserve many stars in your crown, and may they sparkle with a tint of Columbia blue."

Robert E. Harrist Jr.
The Jane and Leopold Swergold Professor of Chinese Art History
Department of Art History and Archaeology