MONMOUTH, Ill. — Monmouth College president Mauri Ditzler has announced that professor Ken McMillan will hold the Frederick H. Pattee Chair in Political Economy and Commerce.

The Pattee Chair is a new professorship at the college. Professor Michael Connell remains chair of the political economy and commerce department.

Promoted to full professor last spring, McMillan, who is in his second teaching stint at Monmouth, rejoined the faculty in 1999 after having taught business and economics from 1989 to 1994. For four of those five years, he was voted the college’s Most Outstanding Teacher.

A native of nearby Bushnell, McMillan earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural science and agricultural economics from the University of Illinois in 1967 and 1969, respectively.

Prior to coming to Monmouth in 1989, McMillan was active in government and politics. He served as the chief speechwriter for Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz in 1973-74. From 1977 to 1983, he was a Republican state senator in Illinois, and he ran for U.S. Congress in 1982 and 1984. In the 1982 primary election, he defeated incumbent Tom Railsback before falling by 6 percent in the general election to Lane Evans.

McMillan was the founding president of the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Foundation and has served on its board for 25 years. Between his stints on the Monmouth faculty, he was the corporate secretary for Country Companies Insurance and executive director of information for the Illinois Farm Bureau. He remains active in agriculture today, raising Suffolk sheep on his farm outside Monmouth.