About Amherst Johnson Chapel North Wall

G. Henry Whitcomb was an Amherst College trustee from 1884 to 1916.

Oliver Boutwell Merrill was an Amherst College trustee from 1953 to 1959, and again from 1961 to 1978.

Henry Ward Beecher was one of the best-known clergyman, authors and social activists of the nineteenth century. Renowned for his extraordinary speaking skills, he championed a number of social causes during his lifetime, most notably abolition, women’s suffrage and religious reform. He also served as an Amherst College trustee.

John J. McCloy was an Amherst College trustee from 1947 to 1969, serving as Chairman of the Board from 1957 to 1969. As an attorney, statesman and banker, McCloy held a number of positions that influenced US domestic and foreign policy, including Assistant Secretary of War (1941–1945), President of the World Bank (1947–1949) and Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank (1953–1960). He also served as a member of the Warren Commission.

Arthur Pease was a professor of classics at Harvard and Radcliffe College, the University of Illinois, and, starting in 1924, Amherst College. He was appointed as tenth president of Amherst College in 1927. Noted as a respected amateur field botanist, he shared his findings in a number of scholarly journals throughout his life.

Julian Gibbs graduated from Amherst College in 1947. After working in industry for eight years, he taught chemistry at Brown University for twenty years, eventually becoming chairman of the chemistry department from 1964 to 1972. He became the fifteenth President of Amherst College in 1979 and continued his chemical research until his death in 1983.

Serving as president of Amherst College from 1984 to 1994, Pouncey previously taught at Fordham University and Columbia University, specializing in classical historiography. He is the author of a number of scholarly works, including The Necessities of War: A Study of Thucydides' Pessimism, as well as a novel, Rules for Old Men Waiting.

Biddy Martin served as president of Amherst College from 2011 to 2022. A distinguished scholar of German studies and the author of numerous articles and two books, Martin had served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 2008 and as Cornell University’s provost from 2000 to 2008.

A graduate of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., where she majored in English literature and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Martin earned an M.A. in German literature from Middlebury College’s program in Mainz, Germany, and her Ph.D. in German literature, in 1985, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Martin is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and holds honorary degrees from the College of William & Mary, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Doshisha University.