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Professors Arthur Conway and Robert Baerent |
Retired Randolph-Macon College Professors Arthur Conway (
biology) and Robert Baerent (
German) were each presented with a Faculty Certificate of Appreciation at the Society of Alumni Luncheon on Friday, September 25, 2010. The awards were presented by Whitney Forstner ’98, president of R-MC's Society of Alumni.
Arthur Conway Professor Arthur Conway, whose specialty is developmental biology and histology, joined the faculty at R-MC in 1979. In 1982, 1989 and 1991 he was awarded the Thomas Branch Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1994 he was awarded the Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Professor award, and in 1989 he was awarded the Chenery Research Professorship.
Conway served on the executive committee of the faculty, the committee on admissions, credits and academic status of students, the retention committee and the pre-medical advisory committee at R-MC. From 2001 until his retirement in 2009 he served as the director of R-MC’s Honors program. He is the author of numerous publications and a member of many professional organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society for Developmental Biology, the Sigma Xi Science Honor Society and the Virginia Academy of Science.
In addition to his other courses, Conway taught several First-Year Experience colloquia while at R-MC. He and his colleague Robert Baerent were the first R-MC professors to teach an
Honors program course at the college.
Conway earned his B.S. from the College of William & Mary and his Ph.D. from the University of Miami in Florida.
Robert Baerent
Professor Robert Baerent joined the faculty at Randolph-Macon College In 1972. During his tenure at the college he twice received the Walter W. Craigie Teaching Endowment. In 1978 he received the Thomas Branch Teaching Award, and in 1988 he received the Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Professor Award.
Baerent also received a Fulbright grant, two National Endowment for the Humanities grants and a Mellon grant. In 1983 he received a Fulbright grant to study in Germany and in 1995 he founded the Marburg-Randolph-Macon exchange program. In 2004 he was awarded the Goethe Institut and American Association of Teachers of German Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Service to the Learning of the German Language.
Baerent is a member of Delta Phi Alpha (a German honorary fraternity), the Modern Foreign Language Association and the American Association of Teachers of German. At R-MC, he chaired the Committee on the Faculty for five years. He also served on the strategic planning committee, the executive committee, the review board of the honor’s council and the curriculum committee. Until his retirement in 2009, he served as chair of the German Department. His areas of specialization include German fairy tales, German social history, German 19th- and 20th-century novels and German literature of the Baroque.
Baerent earned his B.A. from the University of Maryland, his M.A. from the University of Kentucky and his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut.