Search down to three for endowed chair
Texas history chairperson may be named Friday
By Lauren Hanvey
Staff Reporter

The history department could choose by Friday whom it will offer the new position of endowed chairperson in Texas history following a meeting, search committee chairman Gene Smith said.

The committee will make its recommendation and the department will vote on the candidates at the meeting, he said.

A search committee of three faculty members has been looking since fall at candidates for the new Erma and Ralph Lowe Chair of Texas History, who will work with the new Center for Texas Studies, Smith said. TCU alumna Mary Ralph Lowe gave a $1.5 million endowment to create the chair, which became official last fall.

“This person is going to be an asset to the department, the college, the university, as well as the center,” Smith said.

Lowe said she gave the grant because she wanted to add to TCU’s educational excellence.

“It was an opportunity to do a ‘first’ and I was astonished to learn that there was not a chair in Texas history in the world, much less (the University of Texas at Austin) or (Texas) A&M (University),” she said. “I think it’s very important to understand the past to get a grip on the future, which seems so uncertain.”

An endowed chair is salaried from the interest off the endowment, Smith said. With an endowment of $1.5 million, the chairperson’s salary will be more than $100,000, he said. The chairperson will also be given control of a small discretionary fund from the interest, he said.

According to the job description for the chairperson, the candidate should be a Texas history scholar with a good teaching and publishing reputation who has other professional achievements as well.

There were about 15 total applicants after the advertisements were put out, said Mark Gilderhus, professor of history and Lyndon Baines Johnson Chair of American History. He said this is a relatively small number, but that there are just not very many Texas history scholars.

The committee narrowed the candidates to its five favorites in early February then presented them to the history department, Smith said. The department picked the top three of those five for final consideration, he said. All three are from Texas, he said.

Each of the final candidates have now made a site visit to TCU, Gilderhus said. The last of them was here Wednesday and Thursday, he said. Each candidate was required to give a presentation of his research to graduate students and faculty, as well as meet with administrators and give a lecture in Texas history, he said.

“These on-site interviews are crucially important,” Gilderhus said.

Once hired, the new chairperson will begin as full professor at the start of the fall semester, Smith said.

This person will teach both graduate and undergraduate classes in Texas history and possibly other history topics, Gilderhus said. He will also work to raise money for the Center for Texas Studies.

“An endowed chair, very simply, is the best job on campus,” he said.

Lowe said she was excited to have the opportunity to create the chair position with the endowment.

“I hope this chair will first and foremost give students a chance to study with the best of all teachers, (and) to understand the beauty and complexity of Texas,” she said.

Lauren Hanvey