The Emeritus College is involved in many exciting projects around the University and outside of it. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about any of these!
Click on any of the following or scroll down to learn more.
Alumni-Emeriti Teacher CelebrationBreakfast/Lunch Discussions
Connection with AROHE
Distinguished Emeriti Spring Reception
Dorm Chats
Emeritus College Newsletter
Emory Mural
Heilbrun Fellows Fall Reception
Holiday Party (Toys for Tots)
Lifelong Learning Collaboration
Living History
Meet Emory's Movers and Shakers
Museum Tours
Orange Gallery
Retirement Seminar
Sheth Distinguished Lecture
Spring Symposia
University Involvement
Women's Conversations/Men's Stories
Writers' Group
Please make sure you are getting a copy of our newly designed, full-color newsletter each semester by ensuring that we have your correct, current email address on file. Contact Charity if you have any questions or comments, or if you would like to receive a hard copy. You may also download a PDF version of our newsletter.
The Writers' Group was established in order to provide support, encouragement, and help in the process of writing for enjoyment. Some of the participants are writing scholarly works, some novels, some poetry, some short stories. All writers are encouraged to be a part of this group, which meets the second Tuesday of each month. Participants submit a sample of current work and the group discusses it at the following meeting. If you would like to find out more, please email Gene. Monthly submissions should be sent to Bob Milledge.
Connection with the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE)
The Emory Emeritus College has been active in AROHE since its recent origin. Former Directory Eugene Bianchi served a three year term as president of AROHE and new Director Nan Partlett continues to represent the Emory Emeritus College with this organization, which includes university retirement organizations from the U.S. and Canada. Its purpose is to develop and enhance retirement organizations to serve their schools, individual retirees and the wider community. For more information on AROHE, please visit the AROHE website.
AROHE Start-Up and Development KitThe Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE) has prepared a “Start-up and Development Kit” to guide individuals who seek to set up faculty or staff retirement organizations at their host institutions. The Kit summarizes the experiences of members of successful retiree groups and presents guidance on how to begin and maintain a retiree organization. Included in the document are sample by-laws, strategic plans, and histories of active organizations.
Individuals or organizations desiring a copy of the Start-Up and Development Kit should contact Janette Brown at jcbrown@usc.edu or write her at: USC Emeriti Center, 3715 McClintock Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0191.
The EC is involved in many ways throughout the Emory University community. One visible involvement is the presence of several EC representatives on University-wide committees. Doug Unfug (History) served as our representative to the Faculty Council for several years, and Yung-Fong Sung (Medicine) has recently taken over his position. Robert Kibler (Neurology) participates in the Environmental Forum. Please contact us if you would like to become involved in representing the Emeritus College in some capacity!
Our breakfast and lunch discussions remain a favorite regular monthly activity. The discussions are held in the MARIAL Conference Room in Building A of the Briarcliff Campus (415E) and include a topic and presenter who leads the discussion. Breakfasts are from 9:00-10:30 AM every first Monday of each month and lunches are from 11:30-1:00 every third Monday of each month. Please contact Charity if you would like to be a speaker, or for further information about the series.
Women's Conversations/Men's Stories
The popular and successful program with the Center for Women at Emory “Continuing the Conversation on Mid and Late Life Transitions” brings together Emory emeritae and senior women faculty and staff 4-5 times a year. One of the most important aspects of this group is the validation that the attendees feel in navigating transitions into the next phases of their lives.
We recently initiated a similar program for male retirees and senior faculty entitled “Men’s Stories." Inspired by the popularity of the “Women’s Conversations,” this program aims to provide an opportunity for men to meet several times a year to discuss questions of transition and meaning brought on by retirement and later life.
If you are interested in participating in either of these regular groups, contact us for more information.
Lifelong Learning Collaboration
In collaboration with Emory Center for Lifelong Learning and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Emory, the EC supplies speakers for lectures and courses for senior citizens. For information please contact King Mengert at 404.727.5489. You may also visit the OLLI website.
Working closely with the Residence Hall Association, this program brings retired faculty back to campus to share their wisdom with undergraduate students by engaging in informal chats in the dormitories. The chats provide an informal environment for dialogue between the two groups and are held at individual residence halls, arranged and advertised by the dorm coordinators. Contact us if you are interested in participating in this exciting and relatively new program.
The Living History Project is a collaboration with the Special Collections division of the Woodruff Library and the Emory Audio-Visual Department. It consists of professionally taped audio and visual interviews with Emory emeriti with the goal of chronicling Emory’s history. These videotaped records become part of the permanent collection on the history of Emory in the Woodruff Library. You may see selected videos on our website.
If you would like to participate in a session for this program, please contact Julianne Daffin or call 404.377.9855.
While at our previous location in the Briarcliff Campus, the EC opened its offices to exhibit the works of those professors, retired or active and their spouses, who have a gift for the creative arts. From its opening on September 25, 2003 until our move in May 2008, the Gallery displayed the talents of dozens of artists (including 3 paintings by President Jimmy Carter), with a new exhibit offered each semester. Our most recent exhibit was a photography exhibit, “Love, Broadly Construed,” spotlighting Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman’s work (Professor Emeritus, Radiology) and featuring the work of several other Emeriti.
Members, spouses, and “Friends” periodically enjoy group tours to the High Museum of Art, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, the William Bremen Jewish Heritage Holocaust Museum, and the Michael C. Carlos Museum. If you are interested in helping plan one of these events or finding out more about the next one, contact us.
Dr. Bianchi served on the Public Art Committee for the Emory Mural Project. Faculty, students, and staff were invited to develop a design for a mural to be painted on the retaining wall below the track next to the Woodruff Athletic Center on Dickey Drive. A contest-winning design, a collaboration of faculty and students, was chosen by the committee. The general theme for the mural was “The Spirit of Emory” and the opening ceremony was held Commencement Weekend, 2007.
Above: A portion of the completed Mural. (Photo: Gene Bianchi)
Meet Emory's Movers and Shakers
Annually, the EC holds a luncheon to offer opportunities for top administrators of Emory to hold one-on-one conversations with Emeriti. Newly named President James Wagner and Provost Earl Lewis have each participated in these programs. On September 6, 2006, Mike Mandl and Jen Fabrick shared “Visions of the Future at Emory: Long-term Campus Planning.” Gary Hauk spoke about “The Once and Future Emory” on September 25, 2007, and has kindly made a PDF version 
of his talk available for download.
Spring Reception for Distinguished Emeriti Awards
Each spring, the EC hosts a reception honoring the achievements of distinguished emeritus faculty from across the University. An ad-hoc committee evaluates the nominations for this award and four members of the Emory Community are chosen to receive accolades through appropriate panegyrics and the presentation of a commemorative certificate. The honorees’ families and friends are invited to attend. 2008 honorees were Herbert Benario (Classics), Betty Connell (OB/GYN), William Murdy (Dean, Oxford), and Theodore Runyon (Theology). This year's awardees are Andre Nahmias (Pediatrics, nominated by Barbara Stoll), Perry Sprawls (Radiology, nominated by Carolyn Meltzer), Ted Weber (nominated by Ted Runyon), and Ali P. Crown (nominated by Marianne Scharbo-DeHaan), who received the inaugural Distinnguished Service Award. The reception will be held on September 1, 2009.
Fall Reception for Heilbrun Fellows
Each fall, the EC holds a formal reception to honor the year’s recipients of the Alfred B. Heilbrun Jr. Distinguished Emeritus Fellowship. After an independent committee review of applications, two fellowships are awarded to emeritus faculty in Arts and Sciences. The reception provides the opportunity to acknowledge the recipients’ continuing research and scholarship beyond retirement.
Recent honorees have included Lawrence Clever (Chemistry) and Robert Kysar (Religion) for the year 2007, and Robert Detweiler and David Hesla (both from the Institute of Liberal Arts) for 2008. Detweiler and Hesla were honored at a reception in November 2007.
Honorees for 2008 are (L to R) Dana Greene (Dean Emerita, Oxford) and Ted Weber (Professor Emeritus, Social Ethics) with a reception held Friday, November 14th, 2008. The program for this reception contains a list of selected publications by previous Fellows made possible by the Heilbrun Fellowship.
Sheth Distinguished Lecture/Luncheon
Thanks to a generous gift from Dr. Jagdish and Madhu Sheth, the Emeritus College presents an annual lecture, featuring speakers from within and around the Emory community. Past speakers have included Dr. James Laney and Dr. William Foege. In 2006, President Jimmy Carter spoke about his book, Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis. Dr. Frans de Waal, C.H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior, engaged attendees in April 2007 with a lecture drawn from his book Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved. The 2008 lecture was given Tuesday, March 11 by Dr. Susan Allen, concerning “The 800-lb. Gorilla: HIV and Genocide in Rwanda.” Dr. Allen is Professor of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and Director of the Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group. Dr. Allen has made a transcript of her talk and her Power Point Presentation available for your convenience.
On April 14th, 2009, in Governor's Hall of the Miller-Ward Alumni House, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey, Professor of English and Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair at Emory, presented a lecture, poetry reading, and book signing. Natasha Trethewey is author of several collections of poetry, including Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin), for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. A transcript of her lecture is available as a PDF and you may listen to an audio version as well.
Above (L to R): Madhu Sheth and Natasha Trethewey
Each year the EC, in conjunction with Human Resources, hosts a Retirement Seminar for senior faculty. Representatives from TIAA-CREF, Fidelity, and Vanguard along with other experts in the fields of finance, health and fitness offer insight into healthy retirement living. All senior faculty are invited to attend. A PDF version of the retirement seminar brochure may be downloaded at your convenience if you missed the last seminar or misplaced your copy of this helpful information.
In April 2007, the Emeritus College, along with the Center for Women at Emory and the Emory Alumni Association co-sponsored a symposium entitled “Transitions: Revitalizing Later Life.” The intent of this event was to provide a forum to discuss the often neglected aspects of later life, namely issues of social, psychological, and spiritual well-being. Guests included retired and senior faculty, staff and alumni.
Our symposium in April 2008 encouraged reflections on “Emory in the Community: Past, Present, and Future.” This year's symposium was organized in conjunction with many others across the University, including the OUCP, the Office of Community Service at Oxford, Emory Alumni Association, Volunteer Emory, the Center for Ethics, and the Center for International Programs Abroad. The program lists many of our speakers with the exception of Virginia Tester, from the School of Nursing, who unfortunately was added too late to be included on the printed program. The keynote address was given by Dr. Gary Hauk, who has been kind enough to provide a copy of his notes for those interested in reading more about Emory in the Community.
Alumni – Emeriti Teacher Celebration
The Emeritus College presents an annual evening celebration recognizing outstanding professors and their departments or units. Alumni, emeriti, and current students and faculty are invited to join in a night of dialogue and camaraderie. We celebrated “Religion at Emory” in 2006, with a panel of speakers representing Candler School of Theology, the Department of Religion, Graduate Division of Religion, and the Department of Religious Life.
In 2007, former deans and retired faculty from the Goizueta Business School and the Department of Economics were recognized and honored at the Alumni-Emeriti Teacher Celebration, and speakers and video presentations celebrated the past, present, and future of these two units.
In December of 2003, the EC held its first annual holiday party, a social gathering to which all members, spouses, and friends of the Emeritus College were invited. Each person was asked to bring a gift for the United States Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. This has become a popular yearly event, and every year we donate many dozens of toys, and have a great time doing it!
