The Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Professor Award was established on October 31, 1979, at both Randolph-Macon College and Virginia Wesleyan College by the late Mrs. Virginia Clarke Gray Backus (and her children, Samuel Nelson Gray, Jr. and Virginia Lee Clay) in memory of her husband, an alumnus and former trustee of R-MC and former trustee of Virginia Wesleyan. Mrs. Gray was the sister of former Virginia Wesleyan President Lambuth Clarke.
Although called the Distinguished Professor Award, this prize was established to honor the faculty member or senior administrator selected by the president as the person who has made a distinguished contribution to the institution. Intended to be each institution's highest honor, the president solicits nominations and reviews nominees with the vice president for academic affairs and former recipients of the distinguished award.
Recipients
2023
Terry Lindvall
2022
Deirdre Gonsalves-Jackson
2021
Linda Ferguson
2020
Susan Larkin
2019
Travis Malone
2018
Taryn Myers
2017
Paul Ewell
2016
William McConnell
2015
Clayton Drees
2014
Aubrey L. Westfall
2013
Victor R. Townsend
2012
Sara A. Sewell
2011
Craig S. Wansink
2010
Rita E. Frank
2009
Kathy S. Stolley
2008
Douglas A. Kennedy
2007
William J. Ruehlmann
2006
Karen A. Bosch
2005
Thomas R. Fanne
2004
Susan Wansink
2003
Lawrence D. Hultgren
2002
Joyce B. Easter
2001
Theodore M. Vial, Jr.
2000
Douglas A. Kennedy
1999
Neil P. Ramsey
1998
Clayton Drees
1997
Craig S. Wansink
1996
Linda L. Logan
1995
William J. Ruehlmann
1994
Steven M. Emmanuel
1993
William M. Jones
1992
Linda A. Ferguson
1991
Douglas A. Kennedy
1990
David G. Garraty
1989
Kathy Merlock Jackson
1988
Daniel W. Graf
1987
Edmund D. Carlson
1986
Betty Jefferson Harris
1985
William A. Sturm
1984
Daniel W. Graf
1983
Charles L. Kessler
1982
Edmund D. Carlson
1981
Betty L. Jefferson
1980
William R. Shealy