S. Lane Faison Jr. *32

S. Lane Faison Jr., an art historian who was an inspiring professor at Williams College from 1936 to 1976, died Nov. 11, 2006. He was 98.

In announcing his death, the president of Williams said, "His [Faison's] legacy will forever be spread far and wide through the countless students he turned on to art." Many of his students later went on to become directors and curators of major U.S. museums.

Faison graduated from Williams, earned a master's from Harvard, and a master of fine arts from Princeton. He taught at Yale before joining the Williams faculty in 1936, where he was chair of the art history department from 1940 to 1969. He was also director of the Williams College Museum of Art from 1948 to 1976, and retired as the Amos Lawrence Professor of Art at Williams.

In 1945, he was an art-rescue officer for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and curated thousands of artworks that had been stolen by the Nazis and stored in a salt mine.

Faison married his wife, Virginia, in 1935. She died in 1997. He is survived by four sons, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.