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CORVALLIS - An Oregon State University faculty member has been elected president of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society for 1998-99.

David Robinson, the Oregon Professor of English at OSU, will preside over the organization, which is devoted to the study of the works of the American philosopher and poet. During his term as president, he will help the Emerson Society make plans for a national program in 2003 to mark the bicentennial of Emerson's birth.

Nearly 200 years after his birth, Emerson remains an important figure.

"Emerson's place as a founding American thinker was secured through his championing of individualism and self-reliance as fundamental virtues, and his belief in the spiritually regenerative qualities of the natural world," Robinson said.

Robinson also directs the American Studies program at OSU.