yShD6

PEOPLE
Faculty Retirees
Share Memories, Make Plans
by William Nunnelley
Lowell Vann • Art
Art professor Lowell Vann says he will miss academia in
retirement, but he doesn’t plan on letting the change interfere with
his artistic output. “I am in the process of getting a home-based
studio ready for pottery production, and I’m working on improvements
to the painting studio space,” he said in mid-May. “Having
both spaces at home will facilitate production, especially with the
ceramic cycle.”
Dr. Vann completed 45 years on the Samford faculty in May,
36 of which he served as art department chair. Along the way, he
received all three of Samford’s major teaching awards: the John H.
Buchanan Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, the George
Macon Memorial Award and the Jennings B. Marshall Service Award.
He celebrated his final commencement by carrying the mace at
graduation in May. Vann developed the wooden mace for the late
Dean John Fincher in the 1960s.
Vann said he would miss his interaction with students, “seeing
their progress, especially their advancing and maturing in studio
classes, and their development from entry until graduation.”
One of the highlights of his career, he said, was his participation
in the Cornerstone curriculum project in the early 1990s. The
project involved faculty from various disciplines and evolved into
today’s core curriculum. He also is proud that one of his recommendations,
Easter Monday, was adopted by the academic affairs
committee. This has been meaningful to students, enabling them to
more easily celebrate Easter at home with their families.
Vann was recognized this spring for his contributions to the
establishment of Samford’s international program. He also led in
development of interior design and graphic design programs that
have become the base of art department offerings.
Vann said he would continue his interest in international travel
in retirement. Already on his horizon are trips to Great Britain this
summer and to Italy in 2015.
Marione Nance • Biology
Biology professor Marione Nance wrapped up 41 years of
teaching this spring. She said her tenure produced special memories.
One involves being the youngest in a class she was teaching.
“I had just turned 22 and was teaching labs that had mainly
seniors or students with a degree who were coming back to get a
pharmacy degree,” she said. “Within a year or so, once the nursing
school joined Samford, I also had older LPN [licensed practical
nurse] students coming back to get their RN.”
Nance initially taught Biology 325 labs, the only microbiology
course Samford offered at the time.
Other special memories include helping revise a new faculty
constitution as senate chair, “the privilege of carrying the mace” and
being named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers multiple
times by students. She is proud of the success of the bio-disaster drill
she initiated and coordinated in 1999, and thankful for Samford’s
support of the exercise.
Nance said it was exciting when a student would tell her she
taught the student’s sister or brother. “And when they say you taught
their parent, you can reply, ‘See, they survived.’ But when you are
concerned that the next time a student will say, ‘You taught my
grandparent,’ physically and mentally, it’s time to move on,” she said.
Nance said she would miss her Samford family. “From the
people who waved as my toddlers ran across Samford’s lawn to the
faculty, staff and students who gave, not hours, but days and personal
resources to help restore some semblance of normalcy to my life
after the recent flood, there is no way that I can thank or even
acknowledge all who influenced more than two-thirds of my life.”
Martha Ralls • Education
Education professor Martha Ralls counts it a privilege to have
worked with future secondary teachers during their undergraduate
years at Samford. “They arrive in their sophomore year during initial
admission interviews nervous and unsure, and they leave at the end
of their senior year teaching confidently in grades 6–12 classrooms,”
she said. “What a transformation and such a delight. . . . It will be
hard to leave this experience.”
Dr. Ralls has taught in Samford’s Orlean Bullard Beeson School
of Education for 27 years. She was a public school teacher in
Georgia before that. Now, she looks forward to spending more time
with her children and grandchildren.
Ralls said it was “a marvelous experience” going into schools for
clinical observations of her current students and being met in
hallways by former students, “now enthusiastic teachers, and
sometimes even principals and other administrators.”
Among the highlights of her Samford career, she said, was
working with colleagues throughout Howard College of Arts and
Sciences to design the general education program, Cornerstone,
which evolved into today’s core curriculum.
Ralls has a retirement plan that includes taking care of 22 acres
of land on South Shades Crest Road left to her by her parents,
“planting more trees and hydrangeas, keeping up with my
bird-watching and gardening journals, and maybe continuing to
18 • Seasons • June 2014