French Family Science Center room 2231 will be named the James S. Bonk Lecture Hall in memory of Duke chemistry professor James Bonk.
Bonk taught chemistry at Duke for more than 50 years, starting in 1959, and was known for teaching introductory chemistry classes. Bonk died in March 2013 of prostrate cancer at the age of 82. The Board of Trustees approved the naming on March 1 and a naming ceremony is anticipated in early October, said vice president and University secretary Richard Riddell.
“[Bonk] loved Duke. Basically Duke was his whole life after he came here,” Professor of Chemistry Steven Baldwin said. “He did a spectacular job teaching, and lots and lots of students remembered him. It was almost a rite of passage for a lot of kids.”
Baldwin said Bonk touched the lives of many people, including more than 20,000 students that he taught, and one of his foundational courses fondly came to be known as ‘Bonkistry.’
“Faculty and alumni alike have felt for some time that Bonk's unparalleled contributions to the quality of our undergraduate program and his impact on so many students deserved a tribute of this magnitude,” wrote Stephen Craig, professor and department chair of chemistry. “Bonk set the standard for introductory chemistry courses."
Craig added that several introductory chemistry courses, including Chemistry 101, 110, 201 and 202, are taught in that lecture hall.
Baldwin described the room to be named Bonk Hall as “beautiful” and said it has a capacity of 165 people, the only room in FFSC with a capacity more than 25. He said Bonk tended to teach larger classes, including freshman chemistry classes of approximately 300 students and Chemistry and Society, a course Bonk developed intended for 100-200 students.
“If you’re going to name a room after him, it seems reasonable that the room would reflect the kind of teaching that he did,” Baldwin said.
Craig emphasized how student-centered Bonk's approach to teaching was.
“He was a master lecturer that could engage a room of hundreds of students, while also being one of the best one-one-one advisers our department has ever had," he wrote.
Baldwin said Bonk was very student-oriented and a very caring man. He said Bonk was also very involved in the tennis program at Duke, often providing housing for some of the tennis players on scholarship. He was also responsible for the earlier versions of the athletic tutoring programs that exist currently.
Bonk left a gift of two million dollars supporting the chemistry department and one million dollars to support Duke's tennis program in a bequest last year.
“Befitting of Jim's legacy, his gift will ultimately touch hundreds of Duke students each year and many others across the country and the world,” Craig wrote.
The funds will provide direct support for teaching innovation in addition to contributing towards training graduate students in their teaching careers.
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