University of Virginia Library

MEMORIAL RESOLUTION FOR MRS. ELEANOR SHANNON

The following resolution was adopted:

WHEREAS, Eleanor Bosworth Shannon was born in Memphis in 1925 and took a B.A. at Sweet Briar College in 1947 and an M.A. at Cornell University in 1949; and

WHEREAS, Mrs. Shannon, then Miss Bosworth, was Assistant Professor of History and later Acting Dean of Women at Southwestern College in Memphis; and

WHEREAS, Eleanor Bosworth married Edgar Finley Shannon, Jr., a native of Lexington and a member of the faculty of Harvard University, in 1956; and

WHEREAS, Mr. and Mrs. Shannon moved to Charlottesville in 1956 when Mr. Shannon joined the English Department of the University; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Shannon was elected President of the University in 1959; and

WHEREAS, Mrs. Shannon was in every way the "first lady" of the University from 1959 to 1974, serving the institution in countless ways and advancing its cause; and

WHEREAS, Mrs. Shannon's service to the University was recognized in 1972 when she received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award; and

WHEREAS, Mrs. Shannon's lifelong interest in learning was represented by her service on the boards of trustees of Sweet Briar College and Rhodes College, by her participation as a founder of The Learning Center in Charlottesville and by the foundation which she and Mr. Shannon and others created, The Edgar and Eleanor Shannon Foundation for Excellence in the Charlottesville-Albemarle Schools; and

WHEREAS, Mrs. Shannon died in Charlottesville on March 3, 2000;

RESOLVED that the Board of Visitors celebrates the life and achievements of Eleanor Bosworth Shannon, particularly her service to the University of Virginia, notes with profound sorrow her death and expresses its deepest sympathy to her family.