Retiring Thiel professor to receive emeritus status at Sunday’s commencement
For immediate release May 3, 2006

GREENVILLE, PA – Thiel College will pay special recognition to retiring faculty member Dr. James Bloomfield at the college’s 132nd spring commencement Sunday, May 7 at the William A. Passavant Memorial Center.

Bloomfield, professor of history, will be awarded professor emeritus status during the ceremony. Bloomfield is retiring after 41 years at Thiel College.

Prior to his 1965 arrival at Thiel College as an instructor in the History Department, Bloomfield was an instructor at Temple University from 1962-1965 and Muhlenberg College from 1959-1961.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Muhlenberg College in 1957, his master’s degree from Lehigh University in 1959 and his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.

Bloomfield has served as chair of the History Department, was one of the founding members of Thiel College’s Western Humanities Program and currently is a member of Faculty Council and the Honors Committee.

He is a member of the American Historical Society and the American Association of University Professors.

A member of First United Methodist Church, he and his wife, Janet, have one daughter, Elizabeth.