Charles Allen Weeks

Charles Allen Weeks

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Charles Allen Weeks, Ph.D., age 84, died unexpectedly at home Friday, July 15. Born in Highland Park, MI, Dr. Weeks was the only child of Charles and Harriette Weeks. Although reared on a farm and ever a friend of agriculture and lover of nature, early on he showed signs of a strong scholarly bent, going on to earn an A.B. at Dartmouth College, an A.M. at the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. at Indiana University. Foregoing a career in the foreign service, he chose to devote himself to the dual track of teaching and scholarly endeavor. Although having taught at the college and university level, somewhat surprisingly for a man of his erudition, he found his real calling in secondary education. In this regard he taught at a number of distinguished independent schools around the country before moving to Jackson and making a long and productive commitment to St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.

During his years of service (1979-1997) he pioneered the school’s distinctive humanities program, served as head of the history department, twice won the Mississippi Economic Council’s Star Teacher Award, and mentored a host of promising students. In the scholarly arena, Dr. Weeks, who was fluent in Spanish, made his mark as an acknowledged expert in Latin American history and the early colonial period of the mid-South region. Recipient of an independent study fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he authored numerous scholarly monographs and contributed to various document collections (often the fruit of pleasant hours spent at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History).  In addition, he produced several well-received books, among which were The Juárez Myth in Mexico, Paths to a Middle Ground, and most recently (with Christopher Pinnen) Mississippi: A Borrowed Land.

Beyond his professional life, Dr. Weeks was a man of many parts. An accomplished flutist, he greatly enjoyed both art and music.  Indeed, one of his joys was faithful attendance at concerts of the Mississippi Symphony. Also, for many years Dr. Weeks spent several months each spring in Vienna, Austria, where he indulged his twin passions of concert-going and cycling, often taking lengthy rides on his foldable bicycle along the Danube. Those who knew Dr. Weeks found him a singularly kind, gentle, but quietly gregarious soul, who like Chaucer’s Oxford clerk “would gladly learn and gladly teach.”

He is mourned by his numerous friends and former students, who for him constituted a family. A faithful communicant at St. Andrew’s Cathedral (305 East Capitol St.), he will be interred in the Cathedral’s columbarium in a committal service on August 24 at 11:00 am.

There will also be a memorial service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School on October 1 at 11:00 am in the Chapel of St. Andrew the Apostle (Ridgeland campus) to remember and celebrate his life. Those wishing to honor Dr. Weeks may make memorial gifts either to St. Andrew’s Cathedral (P. O. Box 1366; Jackson, MS 39215) or to St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (370 Old Agency Road; Ridgeland, MS 39157 or on-line at

www.gosaints.org/memorialgifts) for the Dr. Charles A. Weeks Endowment Fund supporting need-based scholarships.






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