May 12, 2000

Murphy awarded Williamson Prize at commencement

Dr. Teresa Burns Murphy has been awarded the 2000 Lamar Williamson Prize for Excellence in Teaching. The award was announced at Lyon College commencement exercises May 6.

The Williamson Prize is given annually by Lyon College to the faculty member deemed to be most outstanding in four categories: professional competence, scholarly ability, exemplary humane and Christian values, and contributions to the community.

Murphy, assistant professor of education at Lyon, is the 21st Lyon professor to receive the prize, which was established in 1979 by the Lyon Board of Trustees in memory of Lamar Williamson (1887-1974) of Monticello, Ark., a distinguished lawyer, businessman and civic and Presbyterian Church leader, who attended Lyon College from 1901-1903 and remained a friend of the college the rest of his life.

Murphy received a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s in education from Harding University. She received an Ed.D. degree in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in English/language arts from the University of Memphis.

She began her teaching career at Searcy High School, where she taught English from 1978-83. She was selected Teacher of the Year there in 1979-80. She also taught English at Oil Trough High School for a year before coming to Lyon College in 1985 as academic coordinator of the APPLE Project. She was director of the APPLE Project from 1986-88.

She was an adjunct instructor at Lyon from 1988-94 and was appointed assistant professor of education in 1998.

She is also a published writer of fiction and winner of the 1996 WORDS: The Arkansas Literary Society Award for Fiction. She was selected to participate in the 1997 Sarah Lawrence College Summer Seminar for Writers.

Her community activities include being a member of First Presbyterian Church in Batesville, the Lyon College Board of Church Advocates, and the Batesville Preservation Association Board from 1993-96.

Dr. Murphy’s mother, Mrs. Madeline N. Burns, a retired mathematics teacher at Batesville Junior High School, was the recipient of the 1999 Lyon College Friend of Education Award.

The Williamson Prize confers upon the recipient a silver cup and a stipend from a memorial fund, both of which were given by J. Gaston Williamson of Little Rock in honor of his father. The winner of the prize presents a public lecture at a convocation the following academic year.

Class of 2000 receives diplomas at commencement

On Friday night, the traditional baccalaureate service was held in Brown Chapel. Dr. Duncan S. Ferguson, president of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities and associate director of the Higher Education Program Area for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). was guest speaker.

Dr. John M. Peek joins Lyon College as dean of faculty

Lyon College President Walter B. Roettger announced May 5 the appointmentof Dr. John M. Peek as vice president for academic services and dean of the faculty at the college.

“We are delighted that John Peek will be joining us,” Dr. Roettger said. “He is a proven faculty leader and a talented classroom teacher. His experience and judgment are a good match with the current and anticipated needs of Lyon as we move into the new millennium.”

Peek, currently associate dean of Centenary College in Shreveport, La., will succeed Dr. J. William Moncrief, who will retire on June 30. Peek is also a professor of political science at Centenary and will serve in that capacity at Lyon as well.

Peek was selected following a five-month nationwide search.

“I look forward to helping Lyon College continue to enhance its academic program,” Peek said, “and to helping the institution achieve a growing regional and national reputation as a superior liberal arts college.”

He said his family was excited about the opportunities offered by Lyon and Batesville and was looking forward to moving here this summer. His wife, Mieko Uchida Peek, is an adjunct instructor in Japanese at Louisiana State University at Shreveport. They have two sons, Ken, 20, a student at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and Kevin, 11.

“I will work with various members of the community to make Lyon College better and to further develop the mutually beneficial relationship between the college and the community of Batesville,” Peek said. He said he also wants to meet with Lyon students to get their input and to make sure their needs are being met.

As associate dean at Centenary, Peek has had broad leadership responsibilities in the administration of the academic affairs of the college. Recent assignments have included direction of the college’s reaccreditation process, supervision of institutional resarch, and leadership of the assessment program. Heavily involved in the college’s strategic planning, Peek also oversaw the conversion to a new administrative computing system and was engaged in evaluating Centenary’s study-abroad program and its summer programs.

Born in Iowa City and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Peek received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Northern Iowa and his Ph.D in political science from the University of Kansas in 1985. His teaching appointments include Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., and Jobu College in Japan, where he taught English as a second language.

He joined the political science faculty at Centenary in 1986. An international studies scholar with expertise in Japanese and Asian studies, he is the author of more than 30 published articles and reviews. He has also written several papers and articles about human rights issues in Japan and Asia.

He became associate dean at Centenary in 1998, where he previously had chaired the Social Science Division.

Centenary College of Louisiana is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River. A selective institution with many similarities to Lyon, it has an enrollment of about 850 undergraduate students and 140 graduate students.

Summer work hours begin next week

If you have any questions, call Clarinda Foote, personnel director, at x-327.

Lyon College Campus Calendar

7 p.m. UACCB Commencement             Brown Chapel

This is the last regularly scheduled GreenSheet for the summer. "Special editions" may be published as needed during the summer. Regular weekly publication will resume next fall.