LEWISTON – Bates College Professor Richard Williamson has received the 2005 Sister Solange Bernier Lifetime Achievement Award.

Williamson, the Charles A. Dana professor of French at Bates, was given the award by the Foreign Language Association of Maine, a nonprofit organization that promotes and improves the teaching and study of foreign languages and cultures.

The award recognizes the career-long accomplishments of those who are approaching retirement and who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and leadership throughout their careers as modern and classical language teachers.

It was named for an association member whose career as a well-loved and well-respected French teacher spanned more than six decades.

Presenting the award to Williamson, FLAME President Laurie Littlefield described him as “a true treasure to foreign language teachers throughout Maine.”

A founding member of the association, Williamson “has been invaluable for years and has been a continuous supporter of language teachers in the state,” Littlefield said.

Williamson received the FLAME Leadership Award in 1989 and was named Outstanding Teacher of French in Maine by the American Association of Teachers of French in 1994.

The French government, in gratitude for his teaching French language and literature in the United States, named him Chevalier in the Order of the Palmes Acadmiques in 1997.

A resident of North Auburn, he and his wife, Deborah, have four children.

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