The Ciceronian Society is proud to announce our first conference award: The William G Batchelder III Memorial Award for the Study of Place.
William G Batchelder III passed away on February 12, 2022, after a long illness. Bill had been a legislator in Ohio from 1968 to 1998. After serving as a Common Pleas and State Appeals Court Judge, he returned to the Ohio House in 2006. In 2011, he realized his lifelong dream of becoming Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. Throughout his long career in public life, Bill was motivated primarily by his love of place, particularly his love of Medina County and of the State of Ohio. When he was asked to run for Congress he declined, because he had no interest in leaving Ohio.
Bill was a financial supporter of the Ciceronian Society and even attended our meeting at Hope College in 2018. He revered our themes of Tradition, Place, and Things Divine, but his family believe it is particularly appropriate to honor his love of “Place.” For this reason, in collaboration with the Society the family has created the William G Batchelder III Memorial Award for the Study of Place.
Each year, a paper submitted to our annual conference focused on our Society’s theme of “Place,” broadly construed, will be chosen to receive the William G Batchelder Memorial Award for the Study of Place by the board or a select sub-committee thereof. The Batchelder family will pay $500.00, with the funds first dedicated to conference registration, and with the remaining funds from the prize being allotted to the award-winning scholar’s accommodation at the conference.