ON THE GRAPEVINE
David Goss Receives Marv Wilson Award
Bands Director David Rox Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Photo Mark Spooner ’14
K. David Goss, professor in the practice of history, has received the 2015 Marv Wilson Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities. Professor Goss, who gets rave reviews for his teaching, directs Gordon’s minor in public history and museum studies, which trains undergraduates to step directly into jobs in the museum field. He has leveraged long-standing relationships to help place Gordon students in internships with institutions such as the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem. In the last five years Goss has also produced two books focusing on late 17th-century Massachusetts, The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide and Daily Life During the Salem Witch Trials (both published by Greenwood Press). Currently he is writing a study of the interrelationships and activities of one generation of Victorian Boston’s social elite. While working with the Caleb Loring Scholarship Project in 2007, he was introduced to Mrs. Joanne Patton. As a result, the Patton Project was established, in which Gordon interns were invited to visit The Patton Homestead in Hamilton, and began cataloging the Patton Family Papers from the early 1800s to the present. These include the personal and military papers of both General George S. Patton Jr. of World War II fame and his son, Major General George S. Patton IV, a commander during the Vietnam War. So far, thirty-five interns have participated in the program, learning the professional skills of an archivist under the direct supervision of Patton Project archivist Carol Mori. In addition to having his name engraved on the award plaque in Frost Hall, Professor Goss will receive an additional $1,000 for funding expenses to enrich his teaching and scholarship in the coming year. The Marv Wilson Award was established in 2006 through the generosity of Gordon alumna Betsy Gage Pea ’79 and her husband, Barry. The award honors Dr. Wilson for his many years of passionate teaching, and encourages other faculty to strive for similar success in the classroom. Previous Wilson recipients are Drs. David Wick (history), Damon DiMauro (French), Mark Gedney (philosophy), Pilar Pérez-Serrano (Spanish), Ian DeWeese-Boyd (philosophy and education), Sharon Ketcham (theology and Christian ministries), and Graeme Bird (linguistics and classics).
The last concerts of the semester tend to have an air of celebration and accomplishment. The spring Pops Concert carried that tone, but with greater intensity as Dr. David W. Rox (pictured above, left), director of bands at Gordon College, was honored with the Chrisman Lifetime Achievement Award from the New England College Band Association (NECBA) in recognition of his significant contributions to the work of wind bands in New England. The award was presented to Dr. Rox by two distinguished conductors from other New England institutions, Max Culpepper of Dartmouth College and Douglas Nelson (pictured above, right) of Keene State College, during the Pops Concert at Gordon on May 3. Culpepper and Nelson are fellow members of the NECBA, of which Dr. Rox is past president. Dr. Rox has been lending his considerable talents to educating musicians at Gordon College since 1982—while also conducting bands and orchestras in communities and festivals across New England, and beyond. In 2005, he assumed leadership of NECBA’s selective honors festival, the New England Intercollegiate Band. From the stage to the classroom, Dr. Rox has taught, coached and mentored thousands of students over the years. His recognition by NECBA was the concert’s perfect grand finale.
FALL 2015 | STILLPOINT 9