campus from downtown Waterville to a 900-acre site on the edge of the town, as well as building 27 new campus buildings, more than doubling the numbers of faculty and students, increasing the endowment from $1 million to $8.5 million, and increasing the annual budget from $400,000 to $2.5 million. He also founded both the art and music departments. After stepping down from his position of president in 1960, Bixler became a visiting lecturer for the State Department and also helped to set up a liberal arts program at Thammasat University in Bangkok in 1962. He has published extensively, including six books, numerous pamphlets and brochures, essays, contributions to books and periodicals. Awards and honors The Bixler Art and Music building at Colby is named in his memory. Bixler received honorary degrees from many institutions: a D.D. from Amherst College; L.H.D.s from Union College, Wesleyan College, Bates College and Harvard University; LL.D. from the University of Maine, Brown University, Bowdoin College and Colby College; a D.C.L. from Acadia University in Nova Scotia; and a LITT.D. from American International College. Personal life In September 1917 he married Mary Harrison Thayer, Smith College class of 1917, the daughter of Hiram Harrison Thayer and Harriet A (Carpenter), of Westfield. They had four daughters. Bixler died of pneumonia at the age of 90 at his daughter's home in Weston, MA. Publications References External links Julius Seelye Bixler Papers at the Smith College Archives, Smith College Special Collections 1894 births 1985 deaths Amherst College alumni United States Army personnel of World War I Academic staff of the American University of Beirut Presidents of Colby College Yale University alumni Smith College faculty Harvard University faculty Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts 20th-century American academics