David Halliburton, professor emeritus of English and founder of the Center for Teaching and Learning, died June 2 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 80.

Halliburton began teaching in the English Department at Stanford in 1966 and published on literature and philosophy.

His final and best known book, “The Fateful Discourse of Worldly Things,” was intended as a two-volume set, but Halliburton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease while working on the second volume, which made it difficult to complete. His writings have been compiled with plans for posthumous publication.

In 1975, Halliburton founded the Center for Teaching and Learning, one of the first centers to promote the advancement of college and university teaching.

Halliburton served in the U.S. Armed Forces from 1953 to 1957, and later received a doctorate in English from UC Riverside. While working as a reporter at the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, he met his wife, Mary Ann, also a reporter with the Press Enterprise. They were married for 54 years.

According to Halliburton’s son, Murphy Halliburton, as reported by the Stanford News Service, his father had never lost interest in the news and read the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle daily.

Halliburton’s memorial service will take place at the Stanford Humanities Center on Aug. 23.