Educator, Author, Philanthropist
In 1962, while working towards his Ph.D. in the history of religion at Harvard, Arthur Bellinzoni received a call from the president of Wells College, inviting him for an interview for the position of instructor in religion. Wells, a women’s college in Aurora, New York, was a safe haven for someone who was wrestling with being gay. Teaching religion at Wells for 38 years enriched Bellinzoni as much as it enriched his students. The only course he ever failed was Retirement 101 in June 2000, as he continued to serve in multiple roles at Wells for the next 24 years until the college closed in June of this year.
Bellinzoni has served on the board of directors of the United Way of Cayuga County, as president of the board of directors of the Cayuga County Community College Foundation, as chairman of the Auburn Memorial Hospital Planned Giving Committee, on the board of directors of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, and for the past 30 years on the board of People For the American Way, based in Washington, D.C., an organization founded by Norman Lear that promotes the full range of human rights. Bellinzoni’s field of scholarly expertise is first and second century Christianity, in which he has published 10 books.