A. Bartlett Giamatti
‘60 B.A. ‘64 Ph.D.
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YSEA Hall of Achievement
Meritorious Service to Yale University – Awarded 1987
Bart Giamatti grew up in South Hadley, MA near where his father, Valentine Giamatti, founded the departments of Italian and Spanish languages at Mount Holyoke College. Bart graduated from South Hadley High School, took a year at Andover, and then entered Yale University with the class of 1960. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English, then earned his Ph.D. four years later.
Bart Giamatti was a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan and also a Spenserian scholar of note. Except for a brief defection to Princeton, his teaching career was in English and at Yale. He was a well liked teacher, a mentor to students recognized by his appointment as master of Ezra Stiles College. He was elected president of Yale in 1977 at the age of 39 – the youngest president ever of this storied institution.
In a lecture on “Science and the University”, Giamatti stated, “Science is at the core of the University’s mission to foster the disciplined imagination.” After a period of neglect of engineering at Yale, Giamatti reemphasized science and engineering course requirements for a Yale undergraduate degree. He acted to restructure and strengthen the Department of Engineering forming a Faculty of Engineering to oversee separate departments of chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and applied physics.
In 1986, Bart Giamatti left Yale to become President of the National League and, in 1989, he ascended to become Commissioner of Baseball. He was stricken with a fatal heart attack at a young age. Major League Baseball rededicated its research center at Cooperstown, NY as the A. Barlett Giamatti Research Center to commemorate a life of achievement dedicated to love of learning and baseball.
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