Professions: One of the nation's most influential teachers of art history; taught at Williams College from 1936 to 1976, serving as department chairman from 1940 to 1969; retired as Amos Lawrence professor of art; directed the Williams College Museum of Art from 1948 to 1976; from 1954 to 55, was executive secretary of Harvard's Committee on the Visual Arts; his books included Manet (1953), Guide to the Art Museums of New England (1958, greatly enlarged and republished in 1982 as The Art Museums of New England), Art Tours and Detours in New York State (1964), and Handbook to the Williams College Museum of Art; his essays appeared in the New York Times and Saturday Review, and in the early 1950s, regularly wrote art and book reviews for The Nation; served in the Naval Reserve during World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander; was sent to the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in 1945 as a member of the Art Looting Investigation Unit; interrogated Nazi art personnel in Austria and Munich and wrote the official report on the formation of Adolf Hitler's art collection; for this, received the French Legion of Honor in 1947; from 1950 to 1951, the U.S. State Department employed him in Munich as director of the Central Collecting Point, supervising the return of art that had been plundered by Nazis.

Awards: Received a Guggenheim Fellowship to study German baroque and rococo art from 1960 to 1961; received a number of awards from Williams including an honorary degree (1971); the Rogerson Cup for "outstanding alumni loyalty, service and achievement" (1975); a Bicentennial Medal "for distinguished achievement in any field" (1996); and the Joseph's Coat, given to an alumnus who graduated 50 or more years ago and "is held in high esteem by both the college and fellow alumni" (1999); Williams established in the 1990s an endowed professorship known as the Faison-Pierson-Stoddard chair in art history.

Passions: President of the College Art Association of America; trustee of Hancock Shaker Village; member of the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, the Bennington (Vt.) Museum and the Art Advisory Committee of Mount Holyoke College; served for many years as his Williams class secretary.

Degrees: Master of Fine Arts, Princeton University; A.M. Harvard, 1930; B.A. Williams College.

Death: November 11, 2006 at his home in Williamstown, MA.

From the Berkshire Eagle.