Tag: Faculty

Bio – Olson, Reginald Dennis

Olson, Reginald Dennis

                                        Murmurmontis 1982

Born: September 11, 1942 (Cleveland, OH)

Died: April 23, 2017 (Mount Pleasant Retirement Home, Monroe, OH)

Education:

    • B.A. Ohio State University, 1964
    • B.D. Garrett Theological Seminary, 1968
    • M.A. Ohio State University, 1969 (Sociology, focusing on the Sociology of Religion)
    • Ph.D. Ohio State University, 1971
    • M.S.W. West Virginia University,

Taught:

  • Associate Professor of Sociology 1979-86
  • Professor of Sociology and Social Work 1986-88

Notes:

  • Rode the midnight bus from Columbus, OH to Washington, D.C. in 1963 and was present for the Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech.
  • January, 1969 to March 1971: Teaching Assistant in Sociology of Religion, and Social Problems, Ohio State University
  • September 1971 to 1979: Assistant Professor, Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio
  • 1972-1978: Assistant Professor, Ohio University, Zanesville, Part-time
  • January 1979 Sabbatical research at the World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Created the West Virginia Wesleyan Peace Award, which he personally presented to:
      • 1985 (April 13) Senator Jennings Randolph for his work to establish the United States Institute of Peace
      • 1985 (November 11) Jimmy Carter for the Camp David Peace Accords
      • 1987 (November 10) Retired Admiral Eugene Carroll, Jr. of the Center for Defense Information
      • 1988 (May 13) United Methodist Council of Bishops for their letter, “In Defense of Creation: The Nuclear Crisis and a Just Peace.”
  • Executive Director of the Campus Ministry Center (now the Interfaith Center) at Miami University (Oxford, OH) where he worked diligently for peace and justice initiatives, mediation and conflict resolution practices, and interfaith understanding.
  • He and his wife were active in the national (Methodist) Reconciling Ministries Network.
  • In 2002 he and his wife, Barbara, moved to Mount Pleasant Retirement Community (Monroe, OH) where they pursued political activism, community education, and justice issues.
  • Reginald and Barbara were activists, pushing for openness and reform within the United Methodist Church and worked to change the church’s official policy that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. They advocated for a fully inclusive and loving church for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities at four international General Conferences between 2000 and 2012.

Carter, Jimmy and Reginald Olson 1979-82

Sources:

  • Murmurmontis
  • Sundial
    • Summer/Fall 1988

If you know this person and have information, stories, or photographs you would like to submit for consideration, please email historian@wvwc.edu.

PLM 1/20/2019

Bio – Peterson, Fredrick Alvin

Peterson, Fredrick A. (Hiner Photo - 3)
Photo by Hiner

Born: June 23, 1920 (Sheboyan, WI)

Died: April 18, 2009 (Clarksburg, WV)

Education:

  • B.A. Mexico City College
  • M.A. Mexico City College

Served:

  • Director of the Center for Latin American Studies 1964-1985

Taught:

  • Assistant Professor of Anthropology 1964-69
  • Associate Professor of Anthropology 1969-78
  • Professor of Anthropology 1978-85  
  • Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies, Emeritus 1985-06

Notes:

  • Authored or co-authored 6 books
  • 40 Articles Published
  • Served in the Army during World War II
  • Took 13 students to University of Americas workshop in Mexico City in 1966

Sources:

PLM 10/29/2018

Cloud of Witnesses

Faculty and Student Body in 1928
WVWC Faculty and Student Body in 1928

In the making of the DreamersAndGiants.com website, and in teaching WVWC History, I spend a good bit of time reading about the people who have taught here through the years. Occasionally I come across photographs of these people in places that are very familiar to me!

WVWC Faculty 1954-55
WVWC Faculty 1954-55

The 1954-1955 faculty is seen here in the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library where I have spent so much time. As a Library Science student, many of my classes were here as well as my work-study.  Having worked in this building as a professional librarian from 2001-2017, it is safe to say that I know this building very well. To see a photograph of people like Dr. Ralph Brown, President Scarborough, Professor David Reemsnyder, and Professor Nellie Wilson sitting in that space is quite fascinating for me.

Faculty of WVWC ca Late 1950s
Faculty of WVWC ca Late 1950s

This group of people has always been of the highest academic stock, as a look at any of the college catalogs can attest. Here is the catalog for this particular year as an example. They have taught thousands of students and provided guidance and helped to shape the college as well as those students. They have served on countless committees, developed many new programs, and advised student groups of all kinds. They have hosted students in their homes and taken them on trips that have opened the world. Their teaching was not all done in a classroom.

Faculty in Atkinson Chapel
Faculty in Atkinson Chapel, 1958

 

President Stanley H. Martin poses on the front steps of the Annie Merner Pfeiffer with the faculty in the early 1960s. Another place that I have passed several thousand times myself, not knowing that this photograph existed. This cloud of witnesses has been here before me.

WVWC Faculty 1971
WVWC Faculty 1971

This 1971 photograph in front of John Wesley, a familiar landmark today, includes some of those very iconic names and some more recent ones like William Mallory, who just retired last year. This is the group that I remember from my college years, and many of these people played a major role in my education and prepared me for my career.

WVWC Faculty Procession ca mid-late 1970s
WVWC Faculty Procession ca mid-late 1970s

Time marches on. But the work that they have done is not a thing of the past. It lives on in the hearts and memories of their students. And, sometimes, if you listen closely, they still have much to teach us.

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