Chalmers MacCormick ’52

Chalmers MacCormick ’52 died on September 27, 2007, in Aurora, New York.

Born on April 17, 1928, in Framingham, Mass., he prepared for college at Framingham High School. He served in the U.S. Army from 1946-48 as a cryptographer. He entered Bowdoin in 1948 and became a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity, graduating cum laude in 1952. He received a master of arts degree from Harvard University in 1953, studied at the University of Tübingen in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar in 1953-54, and earned a Ph.D. in Religion and Theology from Harvard in 1959. He was a professor of the history and philosophy of religion at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., from 1958 until his retirement in 1992. Sabbatical leaves enabled him to travel and study in England, India, and at General Theological Seminary in New York City. He was a communicant at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Aurora, and was a member of the Ithaca Community Chorus and the United Ministry Choir. He is survived by his wife, Elisabeth Koelln MacCormick, whom he married in 1953; three sons, Christopher W. MacCormick of Aurora, N.Y.,Thomas C. MacCormick ’78 of Deggenhaustal, Germany, and Ethan A. MacCormick ’84 of Aurora; two daughters, Kathryn Roth of Stuttgart, Germany, and Marian MacCormick of Raleigh, N.C.; two sisters, Margaret de Forest of Santa Barbara, Calif., and Jean Renjilian of Newtown, Conn.; and five grandchildren.