Whitlatch joined the Knox faculty in 1966 and has twice won Knox's Philip Green Wright-Lombard College Prize for Distinguished Teaching. He has directed, designed, or performed in more than 50 theatrical productions at Knox. In 1970 he helped create Knox's Repertory Theatre Term, an innovative "total immersion" undergraduate theatre curriculum. For the 1998-99 academic year, he is serving as director of the First Year Preceptorial Program. Whitlatch's research interests include the links between acting, psychology and the philosophy of mind and consciousness.
Whitlatch received his BS with honors from Denison University and his MA and PhD from the University of Illinois.
A native of Freeport who had a distinguished career in insurance with Economy Fire and Casualty Company, Robert A. Seeley graduated from Knox in 1951. The Seeley professorship, endowed by a bequest from Mr. Seeley's estate, is named in memory of his parents, Robert M. and Katherine A. Seeley. His mother was a member of the Knox Class of 1922 and a descendent of Sylvanus Ferris, one of the founders of Knox College and the city of Galesburg.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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