Member of the university of massachusetts amherst faculty for 30 years, during which time he taught over 15,000 students, received distinguished teaching award. The universitys honor for teaching and published most of the 17 books that he wrote over the course of his career. Todays Event Features distinguished colleagues and former students who will address oates as a biographer, as a public intellectual, and as a professor and colleague in the classroom, in his books, and as a contributor to documentaries like ken burns civil war. Professor oates was, dedicated to bringing first rate historical scholarship to a broad public outside the academy. And he inspired many of his students pursue careers themselves as professors and writers. And now it is my great pleasure and honor to introduce the chancellor, the university of massachusetts amherst, Kumble Subbaswamy or swami, as he is known, became the 30th leader of the University Massachusetts amherst in july 2012. A physicist by training swami is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of arts and sciences and has spent almost entire professional life at Public Research universities over the past ten years. Under his leadership, the university has moved up significantly in national rankings, making Umass Amherst one of the fastest rising tier public universities in the Research Universities in the country. During my quarter century on the faculty of Umass Amherst, there been six chancellors and swami is both the longest serving and most of the six leaders. It has been my good fortune be a Department Chair while he has led the campus, please join me in welcoming chancellor swami. Brian, thank you so much for the kind introduction and its been a pleasure to work with you as well. Brian, good morning and thanks everyone for joining us. As we celebrate the life and legacy of dr. Stephen oates, eminent professor emeritus, history, public intellectual, prolific Award Winning biographer. On behalf of the entire campus community, i offer an especially warm welcome to our prominent guests. Thank you all for being as well as for contributing to todays events. In march 97, dr. Oates, interviewed on cspan, his then recently published book the approaching fury voices of the storm, 1820 through 1861. When asked about unique approach to examining the period of history, he said, quote, im trying to tell the story of the civil war, the coming of the war and war itself from the shifting perspective of 18 to 20 different characters and i was inspired to do this by the fiction of william faulkner, who told us that the best storyteller is the storytelling that eschews the ominous, omniscient narrator and that lets you see the world through the eyes of specific characters. Dr. Oates continued the we perceive things causes us to behave the way we do. It us to act the way we act and causes us to think the way. And things the way we do. Its common sense. But in most history books is left out. You one point of view and its the authors and we forget the points of view of the people involved input. What dr. Oates modestly referred to as common sense is his profound respect for varying perspectives, voices and an understanding that through this inclusiveness we can more deeply appreciate the of the human condition and thereby more fully explored the past. While this understanding shaped his research and writing, we only need to look at this the spectrum of perspectives represented today and then on the todays panels to know dr. Oates lived these values. Were here today because Stephen Oates as your friend, teacher, our favorite historian, lived his life, committed to valuing every voice and our stories. In closing im very pleased to share that the family of Stephen Oates has made a commitment to place personal and professional papers at the umass libraries and the robert cox special Collections UniversityArchives Research center. We are truly honored and excited about this commitment to ensure that. Dr. Oates legacy will be at umass and made accessible to new generations of students and scholars. Dr. Oates, his papers will join many of the other esteemed that we have in this research center, including w. E. B. Dubois, horace bond and daniel ellsberg. We thank the oates family for their trust and partnership. And once again, thank you, everyone, for joining us. As we celebrate the distinguished life and legacy of stephen. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Chancellor swami, for those gracious remarks. Id now like to invite a greg oates and Aaron Rubinstein to just say a few remarks about professor oates. His papers. Well, to follow is difficult as it is. Chancellor swami is really exciting announcement about placement of Stephen Oates papers with the special collections at umass at the Umass Amherst libraries. I and i know i am representing the entire in saying that this is Incredible Opportunity for us as youll see over the course of the day, professor oates had a profound impact on. So many historians and so many lovers history and so many who have been affected by learning the history of the events of the many areas that that professor oates covered. But i think whats particular vital and important is be able to preserve that for a new generation of students and scholars and for to understand not only the impact and the power. Professor oates, as a research and the results of his approach to capturing that history, but also to show the and the experience of a historian. And that, i think, is to inspire new generations of historians as well and to be able to participate in that