Alex McNeil was named 2014 Oxfordian of the Year on September 14, the final day of the SOF Annual Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Immediate past SOF President John Hamill said McNeil made last year’s unification of the Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship possible because of his willingness to step into the breach when needed. Hamill stated:
The main, specific reason Alex was awarded the Oxfordian of the Year by the SOF was because his volunteer activities for the SOF became the main financial reason we could justify unification to the memberships of the Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship. Alex volunteered his time to be the editor of the Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter and the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship office manager — with its multiple duties — and has done it excellently. This saved the organization $18,000! These are funds that we can use for other things such as the printing of Brief Chronicles, and help fund the Research Grant Program. Alex is always there when we need him and as such the SOF owes much gratitude to him.
McNeil says:
I am thrilled to be named Oxfordian of the Year. It’s truly an honor to receive an award that has been given to such notables as Justice John Paul Stevens. I never expected to become interested in the Shakespeare authorship question, but reading Charlton Ogburn Jr.’s The Mysterious William Shakespeare in 1992 changed my life. I’m convinced that winning the authorship battle will take decades, but each of us needs to do whatever we can to advance the cause. For me, that means editing the quarterly newsletter and running the office for the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. Being retired gives me the time for these tasks.
The SOF’s new President, Tom Regnier, highlighted McNeil’s long service in the Oxfordian cause, including as a founding board member, past president, and most recently treasurer, of the Shakespeare Fellowship. Regnier stated:
Alex has edited or co-edited the newsletters for the past several years and is the developer of Oxfordian Jeopardy! which has been played at a number of conferences over the years. He has written a number of articles for Shakespeare Matters as well as several chapters in A Poet’s Rage, the recently published volume edited by Bill Boyle. A highlight of his career was being chosen as one of the delegation that presented Justice John Paul Stevens with the 2009 Oxfordian of the Year Award at the Supreme Court.
McNeil said that was an exciting day for him:
That was in the fall of 2009, when the Oxfordian of the Year was jointly awarded by the Shakespeare Fellowship and the Shakespeare Oxford Society. It took a lot of back and forth with [Justice Stevens’s] office to make the arrangements. When they finally said “be here November 12 at 2 pm,” we didn’t negotiate. Tom Regnier and I represented the Shakespeare Fellowship. Matthew Cossolotto, who was Shakespeare Oxford Society president, couldn’t make it, so Michael Pisapia and Melissa Dell’Orto represented the SOS. After giving the award to Justice Stevens, the four of us were given a private tour of the Supreme Court by an intern. That was pretty cool, too.
In addition to his work on the Shakespeare authorship question, McNeil is also passionate about the pop music of the Sixties. He is host of the radio program “Lost and Found,” broadcast every Friday on WMBR in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Oxfordian of the Year Award was previously given jointly by the Shakespeare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare Fellowship. This year’s award is the first given by the unified Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship.
A complete list of all Oxfordians of the Year is available here.
[published Sept. 19, 2014, updated 2021]
