Randolph-Macon’s professors represent the convergence of superb teaching, distinguished scholarly research and exceptional minds at work. They are the foundation for life at the college, attracting our brightest students, engaging them with new ideas, and, ultimately, propelling them towards a trajectory of lifelong inquiry and learning. The College considers the continued establishment of faculty endowments a high priority and a vital component in the continued attraction of outstanding students and dynamic new faculty. With such endowed professorships, we shall retain, reward and promote the energies of first-rate professors and scholars, and in doing so, we will empower them to seek new knowledge which, in turn, will capture the imaginations and fire the minds of our students as they become aware of new worlds, simultaneously drawing on and developing the unique, fundamental strengths of Randolph-Macon College.
The I. N. Vaughan Professor of History was established in 1898 by Mrs. Emma Lee Vaughan in memory of her husband, Isaac Newton Vaughan, a Richmond tobacco dealer, and a member of a prominent Ashland family. This Professorship honors a member of the Randolph-Macon College History Department. Recipients are:
- 1900-1908 William Edward Dodd, from the University of Leipzig
Vaughan Professor of History and Political Science
- 1908-1917 Charles Henry Ambler
Vaughan Professor of History and Political Science
1915 Yellow Jacket dedicated to Ambler
- 1918-1946 Early Lee Fox
Vaughan Professor of History and Political Science
- 1946-1961 William Alexander Mabry
Vaughan Professor of History and Government
- 1961-1992 George Brown Oliver
Vaughan Professor of History
Retired
- 2007- Mark G. Malvasi
Vaughan Professor in History
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The Stephen Watts Professorship grew from the Stephen Watts Fund, to which Dr. Watts, a surgery professor at the University of Virginia and an 1896 graduate of Randolph-Macon College, contributed both during his lifetime and upon his death. Dr. Watts directed his endowment to the “development and advancement” of the Biology Department. To honor Dr. Watts’ vision, on September 13, 1979, the Stephen H. Watts Professorship in the Physical Sciences was established.
- 1979-1993 William Schuyler Miller
Stephen H. Watts Professor of Physical Science
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The Charles J. Potts Award was established in 1995 by the Board of Trustees to recognize Charles J. Potts’ generous, unrestricted bequest to Randolph-Macon College. Mr. Potts attended R-MC and was a member of Phi Delta Theta and the Franklin Literary Society and earned his law degree from the University of Maryland Law School.
- Howard Davis
Charles J. Potts Professor of Political Science
- Bruce Michael Unger
Charles J. Potts Professor of Political Science
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Alexis Gordon Ingram, Class of 1961, established the A. G. Ingram Chair in English in 1998 to recognize a senior member in the Department of English. Mr. Ingram, a member of Kappa Alpha Order, joined the U.S. Navy as an officer candidate after college. Before his retirement in 1998, Mr. Ingram was the senior vice president and investment officer at Wheat First Union where he had been a broker for 30 years.
- Ritchie D. Watson, Jr.
A. G. Ingram Professor of English
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The Paul H. Wornom, M.D., Chair in Biological Sciences was established in 1999 by Dr. Paul Wornom, a member of the Class of 1937. After earning his M.D. at the University of Virginia, Dr. Wornom, from 1954 until his retirement in 1989, was a self-employed physician specializing in the family practice of allergies, arthritis and immunology, based at Hampton General Hospital. He has been a member of the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, the Medical Society of Virginia and the American Association of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, where he served as president of the Southeastern Section in 1978. His brothers, Herman '23, John '29 and Marchant '33 are all R-MC alumni. His nephew, Charles Wornom '64, is also an alumnus.
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The Dudley P. & Patricia C. Jackson Professorship in Chemistry was created in 2000 by the estate of Patricia Custer Jackson, Class of 1945. Mrs. Patricia Custer Jackson, a noted plant physiologist, was the retired branch chief of plant physiology and biochemistry with the United States Department of Agriculture, and was a founder of the American Society of Plant Physiologists. Her interests were varied, however and included membership on Randolph-Macon’s Board of Trustees, activity sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and participation as an alto singer in the Laural Oratorio Society, Columbia Choral Society, and Mount Zion Church Choir. Her husband, Dudley P. Jackson, was a member of the Class of 1944. After graduating, he continued to Medical School and worked as a physician until his retirement.
- Serge Schreiner
Dupley P. & Patricia C. Jackson Professor of Chemistry
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The Edward W. Sesse Professorship in Business and Economics was set up in 1999 in memory of Edward W. Sesse, a Businessman who graduated in the class of 1929.
- C. Barry Pfitzner
Edward W. Sesse Professor of Economics
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The Robert Emory Blackwell Professor of Humanities is named in honor of Dr. Blackwell, the distinguished 10th president of Randolph-Macon College. Professor Robert Emory Blackwell was elected president and held the position until his death in 1938. He entered Randolph-Macon at the age of 14 as a member of the first student body in Ashland. Except for one year of study in Europe, he spent 70 years on campus as a student, instructor, professor, and president.
- M. Thomas Inge
Blackwell Professor of the Humanities
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