Dr. Gill Receives Prestigious Potts Professorship
President Robert Lindgren is proud to announce that Dr. Beth Gill has been named the Charles J. Potts Professor in Social Science at Randolph-Macon College.
“Professor Gill is a highly valued member of our R-MC community,” said President Lindgren. “Dr. Gill's energy and dedication to our students is renowned, and her passion for the liberal arts and for this terrific College is both legendary and contagious.
Since her arrival as a faculty member in1996, Dr. Gill has served in many capacities at the college including chair of the Department of Sociology, interim associate dean, associate director of R-MC's First Year Experience Program, a member of the Presidential Search Committee, and chair and member of numerous college committees. She has also been honored with several important awards including the Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Professor Award and the Thomas Branch Award for Excellence
“I am truly humbled and honored to be considered for this prestigious award,” said Dr. Gill, “and in particular, to follow in the enormous footsteps of those before me to include Bruce Unger.”
The Board of Trustees established the Potts Professorship in 1995 in recognition of Charles J. Potts, a 1932 alumnus of Randolph-Macon College, and in gratitude for his very generous unrestricted bequest to the College. Mr. Potts was a graduate of the Bedford Academy and spent his professional life as a lawyer in Salisbury, Maryland.
Professor Gill succeeds two exceedingly distinguished holders of the Potts Professorship. The initial recipient was Dr. Howard Davis, appointed in 1995. He was the founder and first chair of the Political Science Department. Professor Davis served as Dean of the College between 1970 and 1977, and recruited many highly qualified faculty members, several of whom are still teaching at R-MC. The second holder of the Charles J. Potts Professorship has been Dr. Bruce Unger, who became the Potts Professor in 2000 and held the position until this fall. Professor Unger served as chair of the Political Science Department and Acting Dean of the College. He was awarded the Thomas Branch Award for Excellence in Teaching six times, an unprecedented number, as well as the Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Professor Award, the silver medalist for the Professor of the Year Award from the Council for Advancement and Support for Higher Education, the Exemplary Teaching Award from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, and the prestigious Outstanding Faculty Award from the Council of Higher Education of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“Beth represents the very finest of our faculty at Randolph-Macon College,” said Provost Bill Johnston. “She has earned this recognition through her outstanding work; she is a creative and inspiring teacher and one that brings out the best in her students. Her scholarly work is first rate, and she has, from the first moment she began at Randolph-Macon, been a leader in her department and across the College through exceptional committee work and other service.”
Over 100 colleagues, board members and friends of Randolph-Macon attended this special ceremony on Friday, October 5 in the McGraw-Page Library, to celebrate the formal installation of Dr. Gill as the new Potts Professor. Members of the Potts family also attended the ceremony to include Dr. Margaret A. Weekes, Mr. Potts’ grand niece; her husband, Frederick Allen; and Dr. Weekes’ mother, Eleanor Weekes.