Honorary Degree Recipient

Christopher Collier '51, historian, author and educator, taught school in Connecticut and at Teachers College, Columbia University, before becoming a professor of history, first at the University of Bridgeport and then the University of Connecticut.

A scholar of early American history and the Constitution, Collier authored Roger Sherman's Connecticut: Yankee Politics and the American Revolution (1971), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Collier also wrote a popular history of the creation of the Constitution titled Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787 (coauthored with his brother, James Lincoln Collier) and, in 2003, All Politics is Local: Family, Friends, and Provincial Interests in the Creation of the Constitution.

Working again with his brother, Collier has reached beyond the academic community, collaborating on several history books and historical novels for young readers, beginning with the award-winning My Brother Sam is Dead, which won a Newbery Honor Award in 1975 and was nominated for a National Book Award. Their book Jump Ship to Freedom was named a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies in 1981 by a joint committee of The National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council.

Collier served as Connecticut State Historian from 1985-2004, and in that capacity promoted the study of and appreciation for that state's history among both historians and the general public. He also served on the Connecticut Historical Commission (now the Connecticut Historic Preservation Council) and on the board of the Connecticut Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History.

Collier received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He will receive the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.