The William J. and Katherine L. Devers Family Endowment in Dante Studies was established in 1995 by Bill and Kittie Devers. A member of the College of Arts and Letters Advisory Council and former member of the College of Engineering Advisory Council, Bill is president and chief executive officer of Devers Group Inc., a consortium of computer companies providing application software to the publishing, utility, and other industries. Bill and Kittie have four children: Tripp, Karen Tragos, Deirdre Redding, and Connie (’90 JD) Falcone.

The Devers Endowment ensures Notre Dame’s position as one of the world’s leading centers for the study of Dante. By supporting academic programs, technological initiatives, a publication series, and new materials acquisition, the endowment enables the melding of traditional scholarship with new technologies. Computer initiatives include access to the immensely successful Renaissance Dante in Print exhibition, a project that will result in the inclusion of full Renaissance Dante texts online; another exhibition that does the same for the Medieval Institute’s collection of the Ambrosiana Library; and lastly, ItalNet, which incorporates these initiatives as its foundation and will create a massive database of Italian literature to be made available to scholars everywhere.

The Devers Endowment also makes possible an annual visiting professorship or conference. Finally, it allows the Hesburgh Libraries to build upon the outstanding Dante collection left by Rev. John A. Zahm, C.S.C.