Humanities Endowments Honor Retiring Professors

Teaching awards are one way that students and alumni can honor professors who have most influenced them, but what do you do for faculty who have won multiple teaching awards and who are retiring? Last spring, several groups of alumni decided to show their appreciation in a way that will extend into the future and directly benefit students by establishing three endowments in the humanities named after professor of English David Minter and his wife, Caroline; professor of English Alan Grob; and professor of art and art history William Camfield.

“While visiting with alumni these past couple of years,” says Jeanette Zey, director of development for the School of Humanities, “I’ve been surprised at the frequency they’ve mentioned at least one of these three honored professors. The most-expressed emotions are admiration and gratitude.” The three scholarship endowments will enhance student undergraduate education and student life and strengthen faculty, all priorities in the Rice: The Next Century Campaign. As of the end of June, about 165 alumni and close friends have contributed more than $600,000 to honor these distinguished scholars. All three professors retired this year.

The purpose of each endowment is unique, and the Caroline S. and David L. Minter Endowment, in fact, is Rice’s first endowment to specifically support undergraduate excellence in the English major. Minter began teaching at Rice in 1967, and in addition to being an exemplary teacher and scholar, he served as department chair and interim provost, vice provost, and university librarian. The Minters also were masters of Baker and Jones Colleges. Income from the endowment will provide flexible support for the English department’s teaching mission and will be allocated each year to student prizes and to the most meritorious educational projects proposed by students and faculty. This fund is not a scholarship, but instead may support student prizes for the best papers or projects, student trips to libraries and archives for senior theses, students interested in working with faculty on research projects, and the development of new courses for the English major.

For more than 40 years, Alan Grob was not only a great teacher of literature at Rice but a voice for those who could not speak for themselves. The Alan Grob Prize will be awarded annually to the Rice undergraduate who, through service to the larger community, has demonstrated the most devotion to the needs and interests of the economically and culturally disadvantaged and whose activities exemplify the values of community and service that Grob lived and so eloquently sought to teach. Grob first learned of the newly endowed prize at his retirement party in April. Prize recipients will be selected by the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.

William Camfield, whose career at Rice started in 1969, originated and nurtured the current internship course that sends a number of Rice students to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, each semester. The William A. Camfield Fellowship will provide support to allow one Rice undergraduate per year to spend two semesters in a working internship at the museum. This new fellowship was a surprise to Camfield when it was announced at his retirement reception at the Menil Collection in May. The fellow will be selected by a committee established by the chair of the Department of Art and Art History.

For more information on the Caroline S. and David L. Minter Endowment, the Alan Grob Prize, or the William A. Camfield Fellowship, contact Jeanette Zey at 713-348-4675 or jzey@rice.edu.