Arthur Holmes

Born and raised in England, Arthur F. Holmes enrolled at Wheaton College in 1947. Shortly after graduating in 1950, Holmes was asked to join the faculty at Wheaton College in 1951, a position that he held for 43 years until he retired in 1994. During his tenure at Wheaton College Holmes championed the causes of Christian higher education, and the field of Christian philosophy. Because of his striving, Holmes became the director of philosophy at Wheaton College in 1957, and managed to have philosophy granted its own department in 1967, as previously all philosophy courses were run under the care of the bible department. While Holmes was teaching philosophy and acting as chair of the philosophy department, he was also actively involved with many campus events: he help direct the honors program for 10 years, Wheaton College's annual Philosophy Conference was started with his help, he served on long-range planning committees for the future of Wheaton College, he was the director for the Faith and Learning seminars, and much more was done with his help and supervision. During those busy years he managed to write many books and articles on philosophy, higher education, and the Christian education, several of which have become classics in their own right.