by Jim Davis
What do a murder in a small West Virginia town, the legal career of Indian nationa Mohandas Gandhi, healthy lungs, and vehicle emissions have in common?
They are all topics being researched or taught by WVU faculty members who hold endowed chairs or professorships, distinguished positions created by private donations to the University.
More than 30 professors hold endowed faculty positions at WVU. These positions act as academic magnets, attracting additional faculty members, students, and research assistants who wish to study with and learn from a distinguished professor. Faculty members named to the positions have the opportunity to research areas of interest and help improve the standing of their schools, colleges, and departments.
"With endowed chairs and professorships, WVU can compete with other universities in having outstanding teachers, scholars, researchers, and creative and performing artists on its faculty," says Provost Gerald Lang. "Through the generosity of many benefactors, the University has been able to attract and retain renowned faculty members at many of its 13 colleges and schools.
"A significant feature of endowed faculty positions is that it allows our faculty members to further advance their research," Lang adds. "This will enable WVU to maintain its standing as one of the nation's top 100 research universities, as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching."
Ronald Lewis has been an Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of American History since 1993. The position was created with an endowment from the Eberly Foundation of Uniontown, Pa.
Lewis, a professor in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences since 1985, says additional funding he receives as a distinguished professor will aid him in a book he is writing about an 1893 murder in Tucker County, W.Va.
Lewis has been researching the slaying of Frank Thompson, a lumber baron from Maine. Thompson was killed at a Parsons train station by Robert Eastham, a local jack-of-all-trades at odds with Thompson over the businessman's attempts to gain a monopoly in the region's timber industry.
"Despite the fact the murder occurred in front of 200 people, three juries wouldn't convict Robert Eastham," Lewis says. "Why they wouldn't convict him is the story. What you have is a conflict between a modern 20th century northern capita culture and an earlier 19th century Jeffersonian Republican culture based on local customary rights."
There is also a Confederate vs. Yankee element to the story, Lewis says. Eastham, who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, was eventually found guilty of manslaughter. Before he served any jail time, however, the local sheriff, himself a Confederate sympathizer, spirited Eastham out of town and put him on a train bound for his family home at Front Royal, Va. He lived the rest of his life there.
Lewis, who teaches courses in West Virginia and Appalachian history (and regularly reviews books on these topics for West Virginia University Alumni Magazine), has already written one book with the help of research funds from his professorship. Transforming the Appalachian Countryside: Railroads, Deforestation, and Social Change in West Virginia was published in 1998 by the University of North Carolina Press.
"What it's about is how the railroads came in and allowed the huge timber to be carried out and how that changed West Virginia agriculture, environment, politics, law, the economy, and a way of life," he says.
Charles R. DiSalvo is the Woodrow A. Potesta Professor of Law. The position, which he has held since 1989, was made possible with an endowment by Potesta, a Fairmont attorney.
DiSalvo says funding from his professorship is enabling him to do detailed research for a book he is writing about the law career of Indian nationa Mohandas Gandhi.
Gandhi was a lawyer in South Africa before becoming the leader of India's movement for independence from Great Britain, says DiSalvo, who has been a professor in the WVU College of Law since 1979. There was a large Indian population in South Africa when Gandhi practiced law.
"Nobody's written a biography of Gandhi's life in the law, and it's an important period in his life because his experiences as a lawyer in South Africa brought him into the struggle for human rights for Indian people," he says.
"Furthermore, because Gandhi only agreed to represent truthful clients in just causes, he developed a tremendous reputation with judges, other lawyers, and the public for only bringing honest, meritorious cases," DiSalvo adds. "Consequently, he was in enormous demand as a lawyer. My hope is that this biography will put before American lawyers the example of a lawyer whose formula for success centered around integrity and truthfulness."
The project involves extensive research, DiSalvo says. "It requires, for example, that thousands of newspapers from the 20 years during which Gandhi practiced be read," he says. "The Potesta professorship provides me with funds with which I can hire student research assistants to help me read the newspapers and other extensive bodies of materials. It's really made it possible for me to write this book."
DiSalvo teaches courses in trial advocacy, civil procedure, and bioethics in the College of Law.
Dr. Daniel Banks has been an N. LeRoy Lapp Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care for the past five years. The professorship was made possible by an endowment from Lapp, a professor emeritus in the School of Medicine; contributions by faculty members in the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; and support from members of the community.
Banks, a professor and section chief in the School of Medicine, says funds from his professorship go toward physician training and improvements in the pulmonary and critical care section.
"This allows us to develop this section and to develop the careers of the young doctors who come to work with us," says Banks, who has been at the School of Medicine since 1988. "We've had physicians from other countries come and train with us, and I've sent some of our trainees to such schools as Harvard to take specialty training in areas that we cannot offer here.
"The Lapp professorship has also provided financial support, allowing time to pursue additional research," he adds.
Banks is quick to note, however, that this faculty position has special meaning beyond the financial assistance it brings to him and his department.
"Dr. Lapp was my teacher, and he's such an excellent physician," he says. "I'm very pleased to occupy a teaching position named after him."
Nigel Clark, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor, is among the newest distinguished faculty members at WVU. Clark assumed the George B. Berry Chair in Engineering on July 1. The position was created with an endowment by the late George Berry, a 1958 WVU chemical engineering graduate, and his widow, Carolyn.
Clark—who specializes in the study of alternative fuels, engines, and emissions-says he wants to use his new position to expand on his research.
"Although the area of emissions from vehicles is an engineering issue, it ends up being impacted by public policy and health issues and ultimately ends up being controlled by law," says Clark, a faculty member in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources since 1983.
"My vision is to move my research beyond engineering and look at it from a more multi-disciplinary perspective," he adds. "This would involve working with investigators in other colleges and examining such issues as health effects associated with vehicle exhausts."
Clark would also like to use his influence to persuade other engineering faculty members at the college to collaborate on various projects. For example, he says, mechanical and electrical engineers could work together on engine control systems.
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