Prof. Martha Rainbolt Receives Tucker Distinguished Career Award

May 18, 1998

May 18, 1998, Greencastle, Ind. - Martha M. Rainbolt, professor of English, has been awarded the Frederick C. Tucker Distinguished Career Award. The annual award at DePauw University, first given in 1988 as a result of the generosity of former Chair of the Board Frederick C. Tucker, recognizes the achievements of senior faculty members who have made notable contributions to the University by their commitments to students, to teaching excellence, to their chosen disciplines, and to University service. The recipient receives a cash award of $10,000.

Dr. Rainbolt has taught at DePauw University since 1979 where she began as an assistant professor. She was promoted to associate professor in 1984, and to professor in 1992. During her tenure she served as chair of her department from 1987-1991 and she is currently director of the Honor Scholar Program, one of four special honors fellows program at the University. She has also served the faculty in several committee leadership capacities including chair of the Committee on Academic Policy and Planning, Faculty Development Committee, member of the Administration Committee and as Faculty Development Coordinator, a position to which she has just recently been appointed again.

Rainbolt is considered by her students and colleagues as an excellent teacher. She received numerous nominations from her colleagues for the Tucker Award. Her colleagues applaud her facility in the classroom for "creating communities day after day, semester to semester, involving students in their own learning, guiding them with her distinctive combination of concern, honesty, insight, and excitement, so they discover the meaning and joys of literature along with the skill and self-confidence of writing well."

Her colleagues also note her gift of mentorship, not just to new faculty but to senior faculty, male as well as female. She is also highly regarded because of the attention and support she has given to many part-time faculty. A colleague noted "she gave them a greater sense of their worth as teachers...she helped the rest of us recognize and value what they do with us and for us."

In 1989 Rainbolt was recognized by the Sears Award for Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership; she was also been named outstanding humanities professor by DePauw students.

Rainbolt received her bachelor's degree from Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, and her master's and doctorate from the University of Missouri. Her professional affiliations include the Modern Language Association, National Council of Teachers of English, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, National Women's Studies Association, Jane Austen Society of North America and the Aphra Behn Society. In addition to her accomplishments in the classroom and her service to her University community, Dr. Rainbolt has also published numerous articles in her field of eighteenth and nineteenth century literature.

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