11/06/98
Contact: Charles Alexander, chair, Ohio University Distinguished
Professor Committee (740) 593-4344
Editors: Photographs of new Distinguished Professors Robert J. DeMott and the late Edward W. Stevens Jr. may be downloaded from the Web at: http://www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/DEMOTT.JPG and http://www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/STEVENS.JPG
ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University will name two new Distinguished Professors at the annual Honor's Convocation at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 in Grover Center Auditorium.
The Distinguished Professor award will be presented to Professor of English Robert J. DeMott. Former Professor of Education Edward W. Stevens Jr., who died in late May, will receive the university's highest faculty honor posthumously.
The award, established in 1959, recognizes scholarly accomplishment, professional reputation and contribution to the university. A lifetime designation, it provides one quarter of professional leave and the privilege of naming one student annually to receive a Distinguished Professor Scholarship.
An internationally respected critic and editor of American literature, DeMott is best known for his work on the novelist John Steinbeck. In addition to editing the Library of America Series on Steinbeck, DeMott's scholarly criticism and extensive biographical research into the creative processes that shaped Steinbeck's work have earned him widespread acclaim.
DeMott's publications have won numerous awards, including the 1998 Nancy Dasher Book Award from the College English Association of Ohio for his book "Steinbeck's Typewriter: Essays on His Art," published in 1996. His book "Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath,'" was chosen in 1989 as a New York Times Notable Book and reviewed in major national newspapers and scholarly journals throughout the United States. He also is a published poet.
Selected by a committee of past Distinguished Professor recipients, DeMott also has been recognized for his dedication to teaching. In 1996, he won the Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Arts and Sciences, and in 1997, he was the recipient of the Jeanette G. Grasselli Faculty Award. He also has received the Outstanding Graduate Teacher Award and was selected by students to receive the University Professor Award. DeMott currently directs the English Department's Honors Tutorial program.
"Ohio University Distinguished Professors must be outstanding in both teaching and scholarship, and certainly Robert DeMott has demonstrated his excellence," said Ohio University President Robert Glidden. "He clearly is the kind of model professor' that one expects Ohio University's Distinguished Professors to be."
DeMott joined the Ohio University faculty in 1969 after earning his doctorate in American literature from Kent State University. During his years of teaching, he has directed more theses and dissertations than any other current member of the Department of English. Four of these doctoral theses have been published as books, the most recent one dedicated to him.
"His creative output, his mastery of editing, his steadily productive and definitive critical voice in Steinbeck studies, and his influence as a professor and mentor for over a quarter of a century to coming generations of Americanists, trace a career that is a model of range and achievement," wrote Professor of English Susan Crowl, who nominated DeMott for the award.
Professor of Education Edward W. Stevens Jr. is being honored posthumously for his study of the history of education. A nationally and internationally recognized scholar, he taught at Ohio University for 27 years.
Stevens' special interest was the history of literacy and his work has been published in numerous books and academic journals. Even though his writings had an historical focus, the issues he discussed have great relevance to issues of the 1990s, said former Professor of Education Karen J. Viechnicki, who nominated him for the award. Viechnicki left the university in June to accept a position as dean of the College of Education at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
In addition to writing and teaching, Stevens was active in local literacy projects in Southeast Ohio. He received numerous literacy and research grants and served as director of the Adult Basic and Literacy Education Regional Resource Center and the Ohio Appalachian Literacy Project. In February, the Ohio University Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the Center for the Study and Development of Literacy and Language, a project sponsored by Stevens.
"The late Ed Stevens was well known nationally and internationally for his literacy efforts and he had authored or co-authored three widely respected books and numerous articles for scholarly publications," Glidden said. "He also was revered as a stimulating and caring teacher. The Distinguished Professors' Committee recommended that Professor Stevens be awarded Ohio University's highest faculty honor posthumously and, having known Ed Stevens and his contributions to the university, I was pleased to comply with its recommendation."
In her recommendation, Viechnicki wrote that Stevens had a reputation for being an excellent thinker and problem solver, and was a leader in curriculum change in the college and a conscientious mentor of young faculty.
"In an unassuming manner, Ed Stevens taught many lessons about the role of the professor in the academy," Viechnicki wrote. "Our entire learning community should acknowledge his scholarly accomplishments and his life dedicated to literacy. He was truly a professor for the 21st century."
