Medievalist and professor at Williams College. Stoddard was the son of lawyer Charles Nowell Stoddard and Elizabeth Snow (Stoddard). He attended Eaglebrook School and Deerfield Academy before entering Williams College. At Williams he attended courses in art history by Karl E. Weston, graduating in 1935. He married Jean Wilson Read in 1936 (d. 1988) and entered Harvard University to pursue his doctorate in art history, returning to teach at Williams in 1938. At Harvard Stoddard studied under Chandler R.