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Awards / Honors

CSU's Holmes Rolston honored at London ceremony

May 31, 2012
By Tony Phifer

University Distinguished Professor Holmes Rolston is honored for a long career of scholarly work in philosophy.

Holmes Rolston, an emeritus professor of philosophy and University Distinguished Professor at CSU, was honored Friday at a ceremony at the British Academy in London.

Rolston and six other world-renowned scholars were brought together for an event honoring the seven living men who have received both the prestigious Templeton Prize and delivered the Gifford Lectures. Roslton, 79, was given the Templeton Prize in 2003 and delivered the Gifford Lectures in 1998.

“I’ll be in pretty neat company,” Rolston said before departing. “The other guys being honored know a lot of things I don’t. The seven of us will be part of a forum, and we will interact with each other. It should be a wonderful experience.”

Four decades at CSU

Rolston, who grew up in Virginia, came to CSU more than four decades ago and developed a love for the university and the environment.

“I grew up thinking that the East Coast was the center of the earth and that everything important happened there,” he said. “When I came to Colorado, I thought I would go west to the cow palace for a few years, have myself some fun and then go back where the action is.

“As it turns out, the action is here when it comes to environmental issues. CSU is a good mix of a university where professors do a lot of hard thinking, and a beautiful landscape. I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods developing my environmental philosophies, and that’s what kept me here.”

Prolific writer, thinker

Roston, known as the "Father of Environmental Ethics," has written seven books, contributed to several others and produced more than 100 scholarly articles. He has lectured on every continent, and just last year was still teaching at a university in Taiwan.