Haverford College. Photo: Jackbauerinvc ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haverfordfounders.jpg)
Harvard University
University of Bonn. Photo: Daniel Tibi ( Dti ) | daniel-tibi.de, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University-bonn_2005-11-18.jpg)
Columbia University
Haverford College. Photo: Jackbauerinvc ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haverfordfounders.jpg)
Harvard University
University of Bonn. Photo: Daniel Tibi ( Dti ) | daniel-tibi.de, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University-bonn_2005-11-18.jpg)
Columbia University
William Webb Pusey III was born on November 16, 1910, in Wilmington, Delaware, to William Webb Pusey II and Edith White Lobdell Pusey. He attended Wilmington Friends School before beginning higher education at Haverford College. During the Second World War, he served in the United States Navy Reserve in naval intelligence, with wartime assignments associated with Washington, London, and Berlin.
Pusey attended Wilmington Friends School and earned a Bachelor of Science from Haverford College in 1932. He received an A.M. from Harvard University in 1933 and studied in Germany as an exchange scholar at the University of Bonn from 1934 to 1935. He completed a Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1939. Washington and Lee University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1983.
Pusey began his academic career at Columbia University, serving as an assistant in German from 1935 to 1937 and as an instructor in German and humanities from 1937 to 1939. He joined Washington and Lee University in 1939 as an associate professor and acting head of the German department, becoming a full professor and department head in 1947. He later held the Thomas Ball Foundation professorship in German from 1956 to 1960 and the S. Blount Mason Jr. Professorship from 1974 to 1981. From 1960 to 1971 he was dean of the College, a position that made him the institution's principal academic officer; during his deanship he supported expanded faculty salaries, broader arts-and-sciences offerings, and increased research opportunities. He served as Washington and Lee's acting president from 1967 to 1968 and also directed its Chinese Studies Program. After retiring in 1981, he was designated dean emeritus and S. Blount Mason Jr. professor emeritus. His scholarly work addressed German language and literature, military German, Washington and Lee's educational history, and the history of theater in Staunton, Virginia.
As dean of the College at Washington and Lee University from 1960 to 1971, Pusey helped lead major institutional changes, including improved faculty compensation, expanded arts-and-sciences offerings, and broader research opportunities for faculty and students.
Pusey developed a substantial body of scholarship on German literature and language, military German, Washington and Lee's educational history, and the history of theater in Virginia.
(Historical study of the educational program at Washington...)
1976(Study of the French writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier's rece...)
1939(German-language readings prepared in the context of milit...)
1941Pusey was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was also a member of Omicron Delta Kappa. His wartime service in naval intelligence was performed through the United States Navy Reserve.
Pusey married Mary Hope Smith on June 18, 1940; she died in September 1990. They had two daughters, Mary Faith Pusey Pankin and Diana P. Pickral. His parents were William Webb Pusey II and Edith White Lobdell Pusey.
