Volume 65: Issue 5
Brevard College
For hearts and minds as large as the mountains.
Friday, April 11, 1997
Dr. Charles P. Teague is elected president
Press Release
BC News Bureau
The next president of Spartanburg
Methodist College will be Dr. Charles
Porter Teague, a veteran dean and
professor of religion at Brevard College
in Western North Carolina, where he
currently serves as senior vice president
and dean of faculty.
Spartanburg Methodist College
Board Chairperson, Phillis Delapp,
announced Dr. Teague’s election
following a meeting of the college’s
Board of Trustees on Wednesday
morning, April 2, in Spartanburg, S.C.
Teague will assume his new office in
July 1997, following the retirement of
President George D. Fields, Jr., who
has headed the college since 1976.
“It is a great honor to be selected as
the 6th president of Spartanburg
Methodist College,” said Teague.
“Although it is difficult to leave my
alma mater and our many friends at
Brevard College and in the community,
I look forward to the challenges and
opportunities which lie ahead. Filling
the shoes of President Fields is the
greatest professional challenge I have
ever faced. I am confident that with the
help of the trustees, faculty and staff at
Spartanburg, the College will flourish
and grow as we move into the 21st
Century.”
Founded in 1911, Spartanburg
Methodist College occupies a 110-acre
campus on the outskirts of Spartanburg.
Dr. Teague, an alumnus of Brevard College, has been a part of the
campus academic life for thirteen years. (Photo by Tom Nebbia)
It offers a two-year curriculum leading
to associates degrees, including an
emphasis in nursing. It currendy has
approximately 65 faculty, over 800
students, and 8,000 active alumni.
Born in 1945 in Asheville, Teague
earned his A.A. degree from Brevard
College and his B.A. degree from High
Point College. He received his Master
of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry
degrees from the Candler School of
Theology at Emory University and
pursued postdoctoral studies at Princeton
Theological Seminary and the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Ordained as a minister in Western North
Carolina Conference of the United
Methodist Church, he served briefly in
an active ministry, then spent twelve
years at High Point College (now
University) as chaplain and professor in
the department of religion and
philosophy.
In 1984 Teague returned to Brevard
College as chaplain and professor of
religion, was subsequently named its
outstanding teacher, and eventually
served in virtually every academic
leadership post at the college, from
tenured professor to chairman of the
humanities division, acting dean of the
college, executive director of continumg
education, dean of academic planning,
vice president of academic affairs, and
dean of faculty. He frequently led
workshops in leadership development.
His hobbies include golfing,
woodcarving, and fly-fishing. His wife,
Daune Ward Teague, is an elementary
school teacher in the Transylvania
County Schools. Their daughter, Julie,
is a senior at Elon College.
About Teague’s new post, Brevard
College President J. Thomas Bertrand
commented, “We rejoice in this new
opportunity for our friend and
colleague, though we will miss him. Dr.
Teague has brought high standards,
balance, and good judgment to his work
over the last 13 years at Brevard
College, where he has recently led our
faculty through a dramatic curricular
transformation as we have become a
four-year college. It has been one of the
privileges of my academic life to work
side by side with this fme man. He is an
excellent example of how our United
Methodist colleges continue to raise up
excellent new leaders, ready to take on
the challenges of leading our institutions
into the future.”
Brevard launches expeditionary learning
Windy Gordon
Psychology Professor
Brevard College, in partnership
with businesses and individuals from
Brevard and Transylvania County, is
pleased to announce the selection
process for our inaugural expeditionary
learning semester. For the fall semester
1997 the College will send seven
individuals, as teachers and students, on
3 river journey from the birthplace of
*he French Broad River in Transylvania
County to the city of New Orleans at
^ mouth of the Mississippi River,
^ough the trip the group will study
I rivers, meet the people who reside
along the rivers, speak on behalf of the
^''ers place in our envirormient, and
marvel at seeing 2000 miles of our
country from the seat of a kayak.
Participants in this trip will be
expected to continue their learning
throughout the trip. The students will
develop individual study programs to be
“For the fall semester of
1997 the college will send
seven individuals on a river
journey. ”
approved by the faculty from their
major areas. This academic work must
be integrated into the process of
traveling 20 to 30 miles per day m a
kayak. Broad interdisciplinary plans
for this coursework are preferred.
The participants will also be
teachers at the 60 to 70 programs built
into the itinerary for this trip. Along the
four rivers the group will identify
partner communities within which they
stop for evening programs. While each
stop will be brief, filling only one
evening on the journey, the content of
the presentations and the skill of the
presenters must be top notch. Thus, the
participants must be comfortable
speaking to groups, even very large
groups, and dealing with reporters from
both print and broadcast media.
Finally, a trip of this distance will
certainly place physical and emotional
demands on everyone. Each participant
must be willing to prepare for 100 days
of paddling six to ten hours per day.
Expertise in kayaking is not a
prerequisite but the participants must be
comfortable around the water and with
the idea of spending three months on
rivers. As the group approaches New
Orleans the Mississippi River will be
very large and very powerful. The
group must be physically and
emotionally prepared to deal with the
real risks of that enviroimient.
The College invites all interested
students to submit a letter of application
to be considered for membership m this
trip. The letter should speak specifically
to the following;
( Cont.on p.6 “rules for applying” )