The College of Arts & Letters mourns the passing of John W. Eadie, who served as Dean of the college for 11 years from 1986 to 1997. He passed away on Nov. 20, 2025, at the age of 89.

A leading scholar of ancient Rome and its frontiers, Eadie came to Michigan State University in 1986 to become the fourth Dean of the College of Arts & Letters and a Professor of History. Serving as Dean, Eadie championed the arts and humanities and supported internationalization across the college. He was deeply committed to the university’s land grant mission and worked hard to extend the work and influence of the college in the greater Lansing area, across the state, throughout the country, and around the world.

In aid of his ever-widening vision for the college, Eadie established the Dean’s Community Council that assisted him in expanding the college’s reach as it served to raise funds in catalytic support for many an initiative of the college during Eadie’s tenure. As an example, working with the council, Eadie began the Celebrity Lecture Series in 1988. Later named the Signature Lecture Series, the signature program continues to attract students, faculty, and community members to hear and engage with top scholars, novelists, poets, and creative artists. Those invited during Eadie’s period as Dean, many selected by him arising from his wide reading and interests, included, among others, Arthur Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, E.L. Doctorow, Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer, Judith Jameson, Tom Wolfe, August Wilson, John Updike, Edward Albee, Susan Sontag, and MSU alum Richard Ford.

Eadie also launched the Jewish Studies Program and the Museum Studies Program, and he championed the MSU Museum and the Art Museum with their public facing missions. He supported the development of a strong School of Music, which was then part of the College of Arts & Letters, with its signature jazz program. Eadie had a deep personal interest in jazz and regularly collaborated with Dan and Amelia Musser, members of the Dean’s Community Council, as they established their own jazz series and weekends at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

With Eadie’s leadership and encouragement, the College of Arts & Letters was increasingly engaged internationally. Departments hired scholars who covered more of the world. Curricula and the college’s published research then expanded accordingly. Eadie worked hard to bolster the English Language Center, which enabled so many international students to develop the language skills necessary to thrive at MSU.

Eadie also supported a wide variety of faculty-led international projects, the largest of which was an engagement with the newly democratic Republic of South Africa. His work developed into the South African National Cultural History and Heritage Project. Funded by the Mellon and Ford Foundations, the project engaged over 300 young South African cultural heritage professionals, more than 100 of whom came to MSU over a three-year period.  

Recognizing the new opportunities that emerging digital technologies presented for the arts and humanities, Eadie helped incubate and build faculty-led efforts in this area.

“John Eadie’s pathbreaking support was vital in establishing the College of Arts & Letters and the university at the center of the emerging digital humanities field,” said Mark Kornbluh, former Chair of the History Department. “He encouraged us to bring H-Net to MSU and traveled to other universities to explore the potential for establishing a digital humanities center at MSU, efforts that resulted in the creation of Matrix.”

“John Eadie’s pathbreaking support was vital to establishing the College of Arts & Letters and the university at the center of the emerging digital humanities field.”

Mark Kornbluh, former Chair of the History Department

Eadie was a strong supporter of the research and creative missions of the college, and he worked hard to increase support for faculty scholarship and artistic endeavors. He worked collaboratively across three colleges to lead in the creation of MSU’s Center for Archeological Research. Recognizing the vital role that graduate education played in these efforts, Eadie restructured the college teaching budget to secure more funding for graduate education. He equally cared deeply about undergraduate education and was an indefatigable supporter of faculty curricular initiatives, including a wide-ranging reform of general education.

After Eadie stepped down as Dean in 1997, he served until 2001 as Senior Advisor to the Provost for International Activities. In that position, he continued his work in aid of the international reach of MSU, not to mention his own deep commitment to providing access to higher education for underserved populations, when he led an MSU team advising the United Arab Emirates on the establishment of a women’s university. That project was guided in mission by his similar work during his time at MSU with several of the HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). He retired from MSU in 2002, moving from mid-Michigan to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There, not surprisingly, he soon became a contributing member of the Santa Fe Council of International Affairs, now Global Santa Fe.

“Dr. Eadie’s impact on our college and the MSU community was far-reaching and profound. He was a visionary and dedicated leader with an unwavering passion for education,” said Thomas Stubblefield, current Dean of the College of Arts & Letters. “On behalf of the College of Arts & Letters, I extend my deepest condolences to his family and my sincere gratitude for his many years of service at MSU.”

“Dr. Eadie’s impact on our college and the MSU community was far-reaching and profound. He was a visionary and dedicated leader with an unwavering passion for education.”

Thomas Stubblefield, Dean of the College of Arts & Letters

Born on Dec. 18, 1935, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Eadie received his B.A. from the University of Arkansas in 1957, his M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1959, and his Ph.D. from University College, London, as a Marshall Scholar, in 1962.

Eadie’s pathbreaking research reshaped the understanding about the central importance of the vast, pan-European and Mediterranean frontiers and their ever-evolving nature to the Roman Empire. His scholarship ranged from close textual studies to archaeological investigations that he conducted or joined at sites across the far reaches of the empire, from England to Romania to Syria, often spending summers in a VW camper bus with his wife, Joan, and their children, Robin and Chris.

Eadie’s first academic appointment was at Wisconsin’s Ripon College as Assistant Professor of History from 1962 to 1963. He moved to the University of Michigan in 1963, where he remained until 1986. 

During his time at the University of Michigan, he served as Assistant Professor of History from 1963 to 1967, Associate Professor from 1967 to 1973, Professor from 1973 to 1986, Associate Chair of the Department of History from 1970 to 1971, Humanities-Arts Advisor for the Office of the Vice President for Research from 1974 to 1986, and Associate Dean of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies from 1984 to 1986. He also served on the Executive Committee of the Kelsey Museum of Archeology.  

As a scholar with wide, interdisciplinary interests well before interdisplinarity became a norm, Eadie chaired the Michigan Council for the Humanities from 1977 to 1980 and received that organization’s Distinguished Service Award in 1980. He also served as Director of the Consortium for Inter-Institutional Collaboration in African and Latin American Studies, and in 2001, he received the Ralph Smucker Award for advancing international programs.

Eadie was deeply honored to serve as Dean of the College of Arts & Letters and saw his linked administrative, teaching, and research service to Michigan State University as one of his greatest sources of pride and satisfaction in his long academic career. 

The College of Arts & Letters extends its condolences to Eadie’s family, including his daughter, Robin Crum, and her husband, Roger Crum; son, Chris Eadie, and his wife, Anne Darnton; and grandchildren, Raphael John Crum, Ilaria Novella Crum, and Evan James Eadie. Joan Holt Eadie preceded John Eadie in death in 2012, as did the couple’s first grandson, John Howard Crum, in 1994.