Who Were Your Favorite Teachers at NC State?
On May 8 Todd Klaenhammer, a food bioprocessing and nutrition sciences professor at NC State, received the O. Max Gardner Award, the top faculty honor the UNC System awards. The night before the Alumni Association also recognized 18 outstanding faculty members at NC State for excellence in the classroom, in the laboratory and in the field. Check out this year’s winners and a list of past winners here.
Did you have any of these professors in a class? Tell us what you remember about them. And let us know know which professors you had at NC State who made an impact on you and who deserve to be recognized. Who were the teachers who inspired you? The teachers who went out the way to help you? The teachers who taught you something that stuck? The teachers who stood out? Leave a comment, and let us know.
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Dr. Kathy Krawczyk was always willing to listen and offer advice.
Jason Swarts, a professor in the Master of Science in Technical Communication program in the Department of English. I always appreciated Jason’s passion for teaching, the clarity of his lesson plans (it was always clear to me why we did a particular assignment once we’d done it), and his approachable, nurturing demeanor.
Dr. Wendell H. McKenzie, who taught Genetics in Human Affairs, stands out after 20 years as being one of the most engaging, passionate, and intelligent professors that I recall having at NCSU. For a non-science major, his class was one of the highlights of my years at state and I still recall much of what he taught. I’ll never forget the little girl with Down Syndrome who he brought to class so that we could realize that a genetic ‘defect’ is more than just a description - it’s about real people with gifts and challenges like us all. What a blessing he was!
Dr. Alex DeGrand, professor of History, was a friend and an inspiration to me. His expectations for his students were always high. He delivered passionate lectures, which enlivened the classroom and engaged his students. Dr. DeGrand’s door was always open to discuss class materials, advice on future classes or simply to chat about history, politics, and life. I took three courses with Dr. Degrand, Modern European Diplomatic History, Fascism, Reaction & Revolution and Europe in Crisis: 1890-1917. Today I teach AP European History to high school juniors and seniors. I still use something from each of Dr. DeGrand’s classes in my own classes, and I hope that I inspire my students as much as he inspired me.
My favorite teacher was Dr Gordon Newby, Professor of History during the 70s and 80s. He made the subject interesting enough that I switched majors from Design to History, and he further convinced me to pursue postgraduate studies in Ancient Near Eastern History.
Ultimately, capitalism got in the way of my studies, and I never completed my degree. However, my studies aided my “extracurricular” pursuits later in life, when I became Executive Director of The American College of Heraldry (http://www.americancollegeofheraldry.org).
Dr Newby is chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University, and former director of Emory’s Institute for Comparative and International Studies.
He is the author of “A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam,” Oxford/Oneworld Press (2002), “The Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction and Study of the First Biography of Muhammad” (1988), and “A History of the Jews of Arabia” (1989), and dozens of scholarly articles.
Newby’s main academic focus is the history of Jews, Muslims and Christians from the rise of Islam to the present. As a result, he is able to provide perspective on many of the world’s conflicts, including the Arab/Israeli situation and the attacks against the United States and the resulting war on terrorism. With a background as an historian, Newby also sees the big picture of the region as a whole. (”If you think there are problems in the Middle East now, wait until the water runs out.”)
Newby oversaw Emory’s funding as one of 15 U.S. Department of Education Middle East undergraduate resource centers and is a passionate advocate for educating the public. He talks about the long-term benefits of U.S. citizens understanding the world and the social aspirations of its people. Because much of the American public is uninformed about the world, says Newby, there is a disconnect between our government’s foreign policy and what we as Americans believe to be right. According to Newby, the American people are not informed enough to demand that our government and our businesses operate abroad in the same manner we expect them to at home.
Previously he was on the faculty at North Carolina State University (1976-92), a research affiliate at Harvard (1974-76), and on the faculty at Brandeis (1967-76) and Washington State University (1966-67).
Newby earned his Ph.D. (1966) and M.A. (1964) in Mediterranean studies at Brandeis University, and his B.A. in philosophy (cum laude) at the University of Utah (1962).
By far my favorite teach was Dr. Forrest Hentz, in the Chemistry department. He was funny, interesting and a fascinating prof. He was the only person that really helped me understand chemistry and I actually liked it!
The late Tim McLaurin for Creative Writing. He brought poisonous snakes to class, showed us his tattooos and snakebites, and instilled a belief in “writing what you know.” He will be missed.
Dr. Charles Boss was my favorite professor. He has a twisted sense of humor that I always enjoy. He made Analytical Chemistry II interesting, fun, and memorable. He went out of his way to help me understand the electronics portion. He always had candy available in a dish on his desk.
There were two great teachers who inspired me to become a writer. The first was Rod Cockshutt, a former newspaper reporter who was a long-time lecturer in the English department. He taught the first copy-editing class I ever took and my senior seminar, and several other journalism-related classes. He remains a major influence on my writing and reporting abilities, and someone I consider a great friend.
I still remember the handshake he gave me in front of the for the reporting I did for the Technician on a big court story going on in the mid-1980s. It might have been the nicest compliment I ever received in nearly a quarter century of reporting.
Rod usually wore a bowtie and always had a carnation in his jacket lapel. On the final class of every semester, almost every student wore a carnation to class.
The other professor who I really enjoyed was Dr. William Beezley, a history professor who specialized in Mexican and Central American history. Beezley was also a soccer official who frequently worked college games throughout his time in Raleigh.
One of the classes he taught was History of American Sports, which chronicled all forms of athletics from colonial times to modern day. I had this class with my good friends Devin Steele and Scott Keepfer, as well as a long list of NC State athletes. Basketball player Chris Washburn was in the class with us, as well as most of the soccer team.
Beezley, who wrote “The Wolfpack: Intercollegiate Athletics at North Carolina State University,” didn’t take the class that seriously. We got extra credit for wearing appropriate clothes on Hawaiian shirt day, or going on the class outing to a Durham Bulls game. But he did have some strict rules. He reduced papers one letter grade if you misspelled his last name on the cover page and one letter grade for every time you used the word “very” in a paper.
He’s in Arizona now, but I had coffee with him not long ago at Cup of Joe’s on Hillsborough Street.
Both those guys loved what they taught and helped me develop a passion for learning and writing that I still have now.
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It has got to be Dr. Haugh. He teaches with dry wit that lightens up an otherwise challenging subject. In the end you find yourself knowing a lot more about your own problem solving skills. His exams were fair and to the point even though one could make them harder than they needed to be.