Retiring professors honored for service to the University
The UTC Faculty Senate and the entire campus community recognizes the following retiring faculty members for their outstanding service to the University:
John Alvis, Accounting and Finance
Craig Barrow,
English
Marvin Ernst, Political Science, Public Administration, and
Nonprofit Management
P. K. Geevarghese, Sociology, Anthropology and Geography
Anne Johnson, Human Ecology
Edgar Shawen, English
Sue Stacy, Management
Dr. John M. Alvis, CPA and George M. Clark Professor of Accounting,
joined the UTC faculty in 1984. He was the recipient of the Sam M. Walton “Free
Enterprise Fellowship,” awarded by the Students in Free Enterprise. He
was named Outstanding Teacher by the College of Business, and Outstanding Accounting
Teacher by the Eta Kappa Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi Honorary Accounting Fraternity. The
Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants awarded Alvis “Article
of the Year” in 1997. Alvis earned a B.S. in Accounting from Jacksonville
State University; he received the M.A. in Accounting from the University of
Alabama; and he received the Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University
of Arkansas with major emphasis in accounting. Alvis is a member of the
Tennessee Society of Accounting Educators, Financial Executives International,
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, American Accounting Association,
and Beta Alpha Psi. He is serving on the University Faculty Senate.
He has held numerous positions with professional organizations, such as president
and treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Society of Accounting
Educators and a board member of the Financial Executive International Chattanooga
Chapter.
Dr. Craig Barrow, George Connor Centennial Professor in American
Literature, has had a career of 36 years at UTC. Barrow earned both a
B.A. and M.A. in English from University of Chicago, and the Ph.D. in English
from University of Colorado. While Barrow has served on many committees
at UTC, been president of Alpha and the local chapter of the National Council
of Teachers of English, and chaired eight conventions, most of his work has
been in teaching and research. He has received four teaching awards, two were
at the University of Colorado and two at UTC, one from the SGA and the other
last year from the College of Arts and Sciences. In his career at UTC,
Barrow has taught nearly 40 different courses. He participated in many postdoctoral
seminars run by the NEH at such schools as Dartmouth, Stanford, Northwestern,
and California Berkeley as well as a number of Mellon seminars at Vanderbilt. Barrow
is the author of over a hundred articles and essays, many reviews, the editor
of two collections of essays, “Politics, Society, and the Humanities” and “Gender,
Race, and Identity” along with a book on Joyce and film, “Montage
in James Joyce’s Ulysses.” In 1985 he was elected to the UTC Council
of Scholars, and in 1991 he received the College of Arts and Sciences Research
Award.
Dr.
Marvin Ernst, Political Science, Public Administration, and Nonprofit
Management, earned the B.A. in Social Science. He received the master’s
degree in sociology from the University of South Dakota, and the Ph.D. in
Sociology with an emphasis in Gerontology at Oklahoma State University. Ernst
became Associate Provost for UTC Graduate Studies, Research, and Program
Evaluation and was appointed Professor of Human Services in 1987. In 1994,
he returned to the classroom and has continued to teach and serve as coordinator
of the Human Services Program. He agreed to serve on the MPA graduate faculty
and assisted the MPA program to achieve national accreditation. Ernst
chaired the committee that wrote the institutional self-study for SACS and
served as Acting Head of the newly created School of Social and Community
Services that housed the Human Services, Criminal Justice, and Social Work
programs. He served seven years on the Faculty Senate, three as president.
Dr.
P. K. Geevarghese, Sociology, Anthropology and Geography, has been
a member of the UTC sociology and anthropology faculty since 1968. Throughout
his professional career, Geevarghese’s areas of research have included
theology, religious history, and economics. Geevarghese graduated with
distinction from Leonard College in Jabalpur, India, with degrees in theology
and organized social research. He earned the Highest Honor and the Award
for Organized Social Research from the Leonard College Graduate School in
1958. He went on to earn a B.D. from Serampore University, West Bengal, India.
Geevarghese also studied religious history at the Union Theological Seminary,
New York City. In 1961, he earned an M.A. in sociology and anthropology from
Miami University, Ohio. He was awarded the Ph.D. in sociology, anthropology,
and agricultural economics from Ohio State University in 1961. His
areas of publication and research have included the Time Dollar Concept and
other economic developments. In 1988, St. Paul’s Mission Press published
his book, A New Economic Order: A Revolutionary Plan to Eradicate Poverty
from the World, which was later translated and republished in Malayalam.
Articles written by Geevarghese have covered such topics as communism in
India, changes in the caste system, the emergence of capitalism in the Third
World, and the Indian Orthodox Church. During his tenure at UTC, he has taught
in the areas of the sociology of religion, social and cultural change, and
others.
Dr. Anne Johnson, Human Ecology, completed her undergraduate
degree at the University of Chattanooga, she taught elementary students in
an inner city Atlanta school. She later took a job in Winder, Georgia, and
won a scholarship to take classes as part of a NDEA Institute. She enrolled
at the University of Georgia, earning her M.Ed. in Elementary Education/Early
Childhood Education in 1967 and her Ed. D. in 1969.
She joined the faculty of UTC in 1974 in Education. Since 1993, she has been
in the Department of Human Ecology. Johnson has served as president of
the Tennessee Association for the Education of Young Children and also serves
on the board of the Southern Early Childhood Education Association. The Tennessee
Association for the Education of Young Children has honored Johnson, as has
the Kappa Delta Pi Honorary Education Society. She has conducted numerous workshops
and conferences and is published extensively. Johnson received a sabbatical
from UTC to work at Headquarters for the U.S. Air Force in Europe as a teacher
trainer for the European Command. In the summer of 2004, she received a Fulbright
to China.
Dr.
Edgar Shawen, English, received his B.A. from the University
of Virginia and his M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale. He joined the UTC faculty
in 1970. He specializes in British Literature—especially early English
drama and literature of the English renaissance—and Shakespeare, and
he recently introduced a course in Japanese fiction. He has served as a pronouncer
for Project READ and area spelling bees for many years. He was selected Outstanding
Advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences and just recently received the
UT National Alumni Association Outstanding Teaching Award. Shawen has
been a member of the Renaissance Society of America. He has been a presenter
or moderator for many organizations, including the Southern Humanities Council
and the Tennessee Philological Association.
Dr. Sue Stacy, Management, has published thirteen computer
application texts with SouthWestern Publishing Company and West Publishing
Company. She came to UTC in the fall semester of 1998 as a computer education
consultant for the College of Business Administration. In that capacity she
developed the course BMGT100 Computers in Business, which became a core requirement
for business majors and also served as the computer literacy requirement for
other university students. In 2000 she was hired as Professor of Management
and has continued as a full-time faculty member since that time. Stacy
is now ending forty two years of teaching. She received her Ph.D. at Georgia
State University, her Master’s at the University of Missouri, and her
undergraduate degree at Southeast Missouri State University. Along with
her faculty duties, Stacy served alongside her husband, former Chancellor Bill
Stacy. She initiated the Town and Gown Ball to benefit the UTC Classroom Enhancement
Fund, raising nearly $100,000 for classroom furnishings.
May 8, 2006
