Title: Francis Xavier Winters | October 12, 1933 – February 28, 2021
The Edmund A. Walsh School mourns the passing of Francis Xavier Winters, Emeritus Professor of Ethics and International Affairs in the SFS from 1972-2007. Francis Winters passed away on February 28, 2021, at the age of 87.
Francis Winters’ scholarly work was dedicated to the study of ethical issues in international affairs. He was the author of several books on the ethics and dynamics of national security policy, including Ethics and Nuclear Strategy (Orbis, 1977), The Year of the Hare: America in Vietnam: January 25, 1963-February 15, 1964 (University of Georgia Press, 1997), and Remembering Hiroshima: Was it Just? (Routledge, 2009). His scholarly articles appeared in many venues, including The Review of Politics, Theological Studies, Etudes (Paris), The Month (London), Streven (Antwerp), Survival (London), Razon y Fe (Madrid), Commentary, The National Interest, and The National Review. He also published essays in many newspapers and journals of opinion including The Times (London), Liberation (Paris), Die Presse (Vienna), The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, and many others. In recognition of his research and publications in the fields of ethics and national security, Professor Winters was elected to the Council on Foreign Relations (New York) and to the International Institute of Strategic Studies (London) in 1986. He lectured on various Cold War issues at The U.S. Army War College from 1976 to 1989 and occasionally at the other Senior War Colleges, as well as at the Department of State and the CIA.
Initially holding a position in the Theology Department, Professor Winters accepted a joint appointment as a Core Faculty member in the Walsh School faculty in order to assist then Dean Peter Krogh in rebuilding and revitalizing the School in the early 1970s. Wholly committed to honoring the legacy of Father Walsh, Prof. Winters anchored the School’s approach to ethics and foreign policy. In many public gatherings that opened with an invocation or closed with a benediction, Francis Winters delivered inspiring and uplifting devotions for those assembled. For more than three decades, he taught courses on theology, religion, ethics, and international affairs to successive cohorts of Georgetown students. He was also the inaugural professor in the Krogh Honors Scholar Program, named for Dean Emeritus Krogh. In 2007, at the time of his retirement, Prof. Winters was awarded the Constantine E. McGuire Medal in recognition of his many years of dedicated service to the School of Foreign Service and the University.
After his retirement, Prof. Winters continued to teach courses on ethics and international affairs as an adjunct emeritus professor for a time and he served as mentor to students in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program. Prof. Winters’ dignified presence, his enormous generosity, and his exemplary collegiality will be greatly missed.