Speaker - Robert D. King Founding Dean, College of Liberal Arts

Alan Turing was the greatest mathematician Britain produced in the twentieth century. After a brilliant start at Cambridge he became the leading light in the British code-breaking center at Bletchley Park, and he was instrumental in breaking the German ENIGMA cipher by inventing and constructing a prototype of the modern computer. This was key to the Allied victory in World War II. In 1952 he died tragically and alone, a suicide. This is his story. Robert D. King, from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, spent his career at The University of Texas. He was at various times Rapoport Chair of Jewish Studies, Professor of Linguistics, Germanic Languages, and Asian Studies, and member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He was Founding Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, a position he occupied from 1976-1993. He provided material support to Roger Louis in getting the British Studies Seminar off the ground in the 1970s and1980s; and he would like to pay tribute to Walter Wetzels for his commitment to British Studies over many decades.