wfn.org | Division of Higher Education honors excellence

["Office of Communications"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

Date: July 14, 2000
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
E-mail: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

00a-37

	ST. LOUIS (DNS) – The Division of Higher Education of the Christian 
Church (Disciples of Christ) has named Dr. Michael W. Santos, professor of 
history at Lynchburg College, as recipient of the 2000 T.A. Abbott Award 
for Faculty Excellence. 

	Division of Higher Education President Dennis Landon will present the 
award Aug. 27 on the Lynchburg College campus in Lynchburg, Va.  

	In his 15 years at Lynchburg, Professor Santos has displayed a passion 
for teaching, research and social outreach.  A winner of the Shirley 
Rosser Award for Excellence in Teaching, he also founded the Lynchburg 
College Symposium Readings Program.  He serves as director of the Center 
for the History and Culture of Central Virginia and is editor of The 
Central Virginia Chronicle: A Journal of History and Culture.  He helped 
found the Lynchburg College chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and organized 
St. Paul's Episcopal Church's Jubilee Ministry Center, a neighborhood 
youth and literacy center.  A member of Heritage United Methodist Church, 
he also helped establish that congregation's Family to Family mentoring 
program which helps local families move toward financial 
self-sufficiency.

	The T.A. Abbott Award, presented now for the 17th consecutive year, was 
established through a gift to the Division of Higher Education from the 
descendants of the Rev. T. A. Abbott, an administrator and faculty member 
at Culver-Stockton College who died in 1914. Nominees must be full-time 
teaching faculty at Disciples-related institutions of higher education. 
Criteria for selection include quality of teaching, personal example and 
commitment to the integration of Christian faith and learning.

	Santos is the fourth Lynchburg faculty member to receive the award; 
others were John R. Scudder, Jr. in 1986, G. Kenneth West in 1989 and 
Philip H. Stump in 1996.

	Santos will receive an engraved plaque and a cash gift of $1,000, the 
latter to be used for expanding his personal library, developing new 
courses or continuing his education or research.
____________

Previous T. A. Abbott Award recipients are:

1999  	Dr. Edward H. Sawyer, Culver-Stockton College
1998  	Dr. Anantha S. Babbili, Texas Christian University
1997  	Dr. Paul H. Jones, Transylvania University
1996  	Dr. Phillip H. Stump, Lynchburg College
1995  	Dr. G. Philip Points, Transylvania University
1994  	Dr. Mildred Onelle Hogstel, Texas Christian University
1993  	Dr. Bob J. Frye, Texas Christian University
1992  	Dr. John A. Sperry, Jr., Culver-Stockton College
1991  	Dr. Larry E. Grimes, Bethany College
1990  	Dr. Samuel Thomas Niccolls, Hiram College
1989  	Dr. G. Kenneth West, Lynchburg College
1988  	Dr. Lorene Holmes,  Jarvis Christian College
1987  	Dr. Kenneth T. Lawrence, Texas Christian University
1986  	Mr. John R. Scudder, Jr, Lynchburg College
1985  	Ms. Damaris Peters, Hiram College
1984  	Dr. Richard B. Kenney, Bethany College

	

                                               -- end --