Retired Faculty and Staff Association

New Distinguished Professors Emeriti     Gary Carman, Wilbon Davis, Joan Hays, and Bob Northcutt were honored on May 25, 2007, when the Texas State University System Board of Regents designated them as Distinguished Professors Emeriti.

Gary Carman Wilbon Davis Joan Hays Bob Northcutt      The Distinguished Professor designation is the ultimate promotion, i.e., the most prestigious internal award, a Texas State faculty member can receive.  Authorized by Chapter V, Section 4.9 of Regents' Rules and implemented by Academic Affairs Policy and Procedure Statement 6.01, this title is bestowed at or after retirement "upon a very select number of tenured faculty members." Nominees must have held the rank of Professor for at least ten years and have made significant contributions to teaching, scholarship, and service.      Nominations start at the departmental level and move through traditional academic channels to the President. Once approved on-campus, the nominee's department prepares a resolution summarizing his or her accomplishments, four copies of which ultimately go to the Board for formal action and signatures. For Texas State nominees a ceremony recognizing the new distinguished professors is held at the Regents' meeting in San Marcos, usually in May. Later, most often at the fall faculty convocation, the President presents a framed copy of the resolution to the honoree.         Since this program was initiated in the late 1970s, only forty faculty have been awarded Distinguished Professor status.  This LIST includes many of the most prominent Texas State faculty  of the last quarter century, generally teacher-scholars who in an earlier era would have been considered when naming buildings. All have devoted their academic prime to this institution, a combined total of twelve hundred years of service--an average of thirty years per professor. Actually, this average is an understatement because so many have continued to serve after retirement through the Modified and Phased Retirement programs which extend careers but somehow do not get counted.      The Distinguished Professor title is granted in perpetuity, so holders are assured of at least a footnote in future institutional histories. Privileges which accompany the honor include use of the title; membership (without vote) on the appropriate departmental, graduate, school/college, and university faculties; and listing in the annual faculty/staff directory and biennial catalog.      Gary Carman, during his twenty-six year career at Texas State, was MBA Director and Head of the Financial Planning Curriculum in the McCoy School of Business and served his colleagues as a Faculty Senator and the community as a Registered Investment Advisor.      Wilbon Davis, as boy and man, student and professor, has spent most of his life at SWT/Texas State. Initially a physics and mathematics major, he was one of the key players in the evolution of computer science from a small sub-discipline in mathematics to a flourishing modern Computer Science Department, one of the oldest in the state.      Joan Hays developed the Dance Program at Texas State in the 1970's and ultimately obtained approval for a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Dance in 1998. A talented teacher-mentor, an able performer, a prolific choreographer, she was also active in faculty governance at all levels.      Bob Northcutt taught at Texas State for forty-two years, 1964-2006, distinguishing himself as an able chair of the Mathematics Department; an extraordinary teacher, a winner of the Presidential Execllence in Teaching Award; and an active leader and participant in departmental, university, and  professional committees. Click on an icon below to read the full Board of Regents Resolution.