Willis Nutting joined the Episcopal Church In his late teens and eventually became an Anglican priest. He later converted to the Catholic Church, and though he studied in Rome for the priesthood, he discerned his lay vocation and returned to the U.S. and In 1936 accepted a position at the University of Notre Dame as an assistant professor of history. He became a leading figure in a Notre Dame version of the “back-to-the-land movement.” He retired from Notre Dame in 1970 and died in1975.