Chambers Contributes $100,000 to Establish History Professorship

Dr. Richard Chambers of Montgomery has contributed $100,000 with the intent to establish The Richard Leon Chambers Endowed Professorship. Additional funds have been pledged from his estate. The professorship will be endowed when it reaches the minimum level of $500,000 and will be used to employ a scholar who specializes in Middle Eastern culture and Islamic religious studies, specifically in the “modern era” of the post-7th Century studies that would include the Ottoman Empire and Turkish civilization. Chambers earned his bachelor’s degree in 1950 and his master’s degree in 1956 from The University of Alabama. He is retired from the University of Chicago, where he taught Turkish history and language from 1962-95. This fall Chambers will be on the UA campus to present a public lecture on Middle Eastern history.