Donald L. Ball

Donald L. Ball was a Past Faculty member of the English Department at William & Mary. His appointments at the university: Instructor in English, 1960-1965; Assistant Professor of English, 1965-1969; Associate Professor of English, 1969-1976; Professor of English, 1976-1989; Professor of English, Emeritus, 1989. Please check our past faculty page for information about other faculty at the College of William and Mary.

Obituary Announcement

From a Faculty and Staff Announcement Email from Provost Michael Halleran on March 16, 2012:

"Dear Friends,

I write with great sadness to share the news that Donald L. Ball, Professor of English Emeritus, died on Friday, March 9.

Don Ball graduated from the University of Richmond in 1948 after serving three years in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific area. He received his Master’s Degree from the University of Delaware in 1951, and later, his doctorate at the University of North Carolina in 1965. In 1960 he joined the W&M faculty as an Instructor in the Department of English, and was promoted to full professor in 1976. With 29 years of devoted service, Professor Ball retired from the College in 1989.

During his time at William & Mary, Professor Ball developed and taught a wide variety of courses in language and literature. He specialized in the fields of composition, history of the language, and the early English novel, and made contributions to the scholarship in all three. His colleagues remember him as a conscientious teacher and advisor to his students. His sense of humor enriched his love of the unusual origin of words as he taught the history of the English language, and he often amused his office mates by reading excerpts from the eighteenth-century novels he taught. He was a kind and friendly man, and he was missed by his department colleagues after his retirement.

Professor Ball was not only active within the English Department and the College, he gave generously of his time to regional and national organizations. He was a member of the Williamsburg Kiwanis Club and served a term as its historian. An active member of Bruton Parish Church, he was a member of the choir, the Vestry and the Men’s Breakfast Group.

Don is survived by his wife, Barbara; four daughters: Helen Williams, Allison Miller, Ann Ball and Markley Rizzi; six grandchildren: Lucy and Clair Williams, Lillian and Erin Miller, and Tucker and Isabella Rizzi; and his brother, Dale. A memorial service will be held on Thursday, April 19 at 2:00 p.m. in the Wren Chapel followed by a reception in the Great Hall.

Sincerely, Michael"

Material in the Special Collections Research Center

• Guide for conducting research related to the College of William & Mary
• Donald Ball, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
• Alumni Gazette:
  • June 1989, p. 27 (picture only)
  • October 1960, p. 10
  • May 1978, p. 2
• Colleague:
  • 4/13/1971, p. 3
• W&M News:
  • 11/5/1974, p. 3
  • 2/4/1975, p. 6
  • 4/1/1975, p. 3
  • 3/30/1976, p. 4
  • 11/23/1976, p. 6
• Board of Visitors, Resolution at the May 1989 meeting, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.
• Faculty-Alumni File Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary.

External Links

• Department of English Website

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Questions? Contact the Special Collections Research Center at spcoll@wm.edu or 757-221-3090, or visit the Special Collections Research Center in the Earl Gregg Swem Library at William & Mary.

A Note About The Contents Of This Wiki

The information available in this wiki is the best available from known documents and sources at the time it was written. Unfortunately, many of the early original records of William & Mary were destroyed by fires, military occupation, and the normal effects of time. Information in this wiki is not complete as new information continues to be uncovered in Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center and elsewhere. Researchers are strongly encouraged to use the Special Collections search tools for their research as the information contained in this wiki is by no means comprehensive.