SMU History Professor Honored with Professorship Bearing His Name

DALLAS, TX (04/14/2010)(readMedia)-- Glenn Linden, an SMU faculty member since 1968, is being honored with a professorship bearing his name, provided by a $1 million gift from an anonymous donor. The Glenn Linden Endowed Professorship will be based in the Clements Department of History in Dedman College.

Linden, University Distinguished Service Professor and associate professor of history, will retire in May after 42 years of distinguished service to the University. He says the new professorship "really caps my career. It's very humbling to receive this kind of recognition."

"This gift is an appropriate tribute to Professor Linden's role in teaching and inspiring countless SMU students to understand the complexities of the American Civil War," said Kathleen Wellman, chair of the Clements Department of History. "The gift will allow the department to preserve and cultivate Professor Linden's legacy of dedicated commitment to teaching and scholarship on this essential period."

SMU will conduct a national search to fill the position when earnings from the invested gift are sufficient to attract a scholar befitting this professorship.

With three degrees from the University of Washington, Linden began his SMU career as a faculty member in both history and education, later serving as chair of both departments - the Department of History from 1972-75 and the former Department of Education from 1975-78. He also has served as director of SMU's international programs and directed study programs in Spain, Paris, Japan and England. He has been president of the SMU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors for the past 20 years.

Linden's contributions to historic research and writing on the American Civil War, Reconstruction era and Dallas school desegregation have influenced scholars, educators and policy makers for 30 years. He is the author of several books, including Politics or Principle: Congressional Voting on the Civil War Amendments and Pro-Negro Measures and Desegregating the Dallas Schools, Four Decades in the Federal Courts.

In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Linden has been one of SMU's most active professors in service to the University. He has received numerous honors for teaching and service, including SMU's "M" Award, Willis M. Tate Award, Outstanding Faculty Award and the HOPE (Honoring Our Professors' Excellence) Award seven times. In 2007 he was awarded the University Distinguished Service Professorship, the first and only such designation at SMU, in recognition of his extraordinary service to the University.

Six years ago, Linden joined with the Rev. Michael Waters ('02, '06), then a Master of Divinity student in Perkins School of Theology, to found and organize SMU's Civil Rights Pilgrimage, an annual spring break trip through cities important to the civil rights movement.

"Even after I completed Dr. Linden's course in American history, we continued to talk about history and life," says Waters, who counted Linden as a mentor during his years as an undergraduate political science and religious studies major in Dedman College.

"We decided right away that we wanted the pilgrimage to be a real learning opportunity for students," Linden says. "As students talked to people who remember the movement and as they kept journals and wrote papers, the experience took on a life of its own. These students became a part of the process of fighting for change."

Waters, now a Doctor of Ministry candidate in Perkins School of Theology, is thrilled with the news of the new professorship. "An endowment that honors Dr. Linden will inspire the University to honor his legacy of excellence, both in academia and in building better communities," Waters says. "It will be a wonderful recognition of his legacy."

In honor of Linden's retirement, an informal celebration will be held at 4 p.m. April 15 in the basement rotunda of Dallas Hall, sponsored by the Dallas Chapter of AAUP. A conversation with Glenn Linden will take place at 3 p.m. April 30 in McCord Auditorium of Dallas Hall, sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Clements Department of History.

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