An Honorary Doctorate in Honor of a Great Christian Educator

Tom Scovel, [email protected]  

On October 23, 2006, Trinity Western University (TWU), located near Vancouver, Canada, conferred an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries on Earl Stevick, a prolific and greatly respected scholar and teacher in the TESOL profession for many decades. Because of Earl's current physical limitations, I was asked to participate in this ceremony on his behalf, and it was an enormous honor and pleasure for me to play a small role in this important celebration.

The conferral was part of TWU's annual commencement exercises for their School of Graduate Studies, and among the graduates from various programs receiving their master's degrees were seven students getting their MA's in TESOL. Earl wrote a moving address for this convocation, where he reflected back on some of the transitions that have taken place (and in which he has played a vital role) in foreign language pedagogy during the some fifty years of his professional career. Because my only task was to read the text which Earl had artfully prepared, I somewhat jokingly told Earl that I was happy to play "Aaron" to his "Moses"!

Bill Acton and Carolyn Kristjansson, two very active faculty members of TWU's MATESOL program, were instrumental in developing a special relationship between their program and Earl. They were able to arrange for Earl to visit TWU a few years back, and they have given him continual support over the years. Earl was also generous in donating his collection of books and professional papers to the university. Immediately after the TWU convocation, Carolyn flew to Virginia, where Earl currently resides at an assisted living center, to join Earl's friends and family in a splendid celebration of his 83rd birthday. During this party, Earl was presented with the honorary degree and hood and was able to watch a video of the TWU convocation which had been held only a few days before.

Earl concluded his commencement address with a verse from the famous seventeenth century hymn "If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee", by Georg Neumark, and I think this is also a fitting way to conclude this brief report about the events honoring a Christian scholar and teacher who has been so influential in our profession and has served as a symbol of discipleship.

If thou but suffer God to guide thee,
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He'll give thee strength whate'er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trusts in God's unchanging love
Builds on the rock that naught can move¹ .

Note
¹ Translated from German by Catherine Winkworth in 1855. Visit http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/f/ifyouwil.htm for the complete English lyrics and a contemporary English version of this and two other verses of the hymn.

Tom Scovel is a professor in the Department of English at San Francisco State University in California, where he teaches courses in the MATESOL program.