'The students have always come first': Gardner-Webb professor retires after 42 years
In 1981, Harrison Ford brought the fictional archeology professor Dr. Indiana Jones to life on the big screen in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Boiling Springs and Gardner-Webb University already had their own Dr. (Tom) Jones, professor of Biology, and his career is not that dissimilar to the fedora-wearing action hero.
On Sunday, May 1, Dr. Tom Jones’ colleagues in the Natural Sciences Department gave him an Indiana Jones themed celebration, as he is retiring after 42 years of teaching at GWU.
“It’s one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make, and I wake up some days and still wonder if I am making the right one,” Jones said. “I am nervous that I won’t find anything as exciting and fulfilling as teaching.”
Ironically for someone who has been at GWU for more than four decades, Jones originally only planned to be in Boiling Springs a short time.
“I actually followed my wife Miriam here when she got a job in the library,” Jones said. “We were only going to stay a year, two at the most and then move on, but then Boiling Springs and GWU became home, and we are still here.”
When asked what made it home, Jones was quick to answer.
“The students and the community,” he said. “When I first started, we lived just off campus and would walk to work. Back then there was only one TV per dorm. It wasn’t all that uncommon for us to come home and have students in our house watching TV. They all knew where the key was. We knew all the students, and this was a tight-knit community.”
Education news: Grant money leads to renovations at GWU library, students 'love the space'
After two years teaching part time, Jones became a full-time professor in 1982. He admits that while trends in academia have changed over the past 40 years, his teaching philosophy has stayed the same.
“The students have always come first,” Jones said. “At the same time, I am not afraid to push them to learn. Some colleges today, all they are focused on is GPA. I’ve always felt that getting a good grade is not as important as a student learning something that they can take with them. When things finally click for a student, you can see it on their faces. They are beaming. That makes it all worth it. That’s why I’m still teaching.”
To further push students of all academic disciplines, Jones took over the GWU Honors Program in 1996. Not only does the program offer an advanced curriculum, but also the opportunity to travel and gain valuable life experiences outside the classroom.
“The best piece of advice I could give a student, or anyone for that matter, is travel, travel, travel travel,” he said. “It gives you experiences you can’t have any other way. The best time to travel is when you are in college. You have the time, and you can do it cheaply.”
Jones says that a few things have changed around GWU over time.
“We have grown and that’s a good thing,” he said. “But we have lost some of that sense of community that made us so special. Back in the ‘80s, all the faculty used to sit down to eat lunch together in the faculty dining room. We would have great conversations every day. That does not happen anymore.”
Higher education: Honors Experience at Gardner-Webb gives high schoolers shot at university life for a week
Even with the changes at the university, the decision to retire was a tough one.
“I have had my retirement letter written for a few years, but I just could not turn it in,” Jones said. “I can not imagine myself doing anything else. Even now, I have my doubts as to whether I did the right thing. There are students I feel like I have to stay and see them graduate. I hate to leave them.”
It was Jones’ daughter Nikki who gave him the push to finally retire.
“She pointed out that there were always going to be students that I hated to leave and if I had that attitude, I would never retire,” Jones said. “I’m 73 years old, and I have some minor health issues. I want to be able to do other things while I still can.”
Much like Indiana Jones, GWU’s Jones plans to spend his new free time traveling the world.
“Miriam and I have already started making a list,” he said. ”We want to meet family that live in Norway and Scandinavia. I’ve really gotten interested in art lately, so we want to visit Italy and then go to Australia and New Zealand. We also want to be involved with the National Park Service, but we love this area. We will come back here.”
As his career at GWU winds down, there is one lesson Jones hopes his students and colleagues never forget.
“I love them,” an emotional Jones said. “I truly do. We don’t say that often enough in today’s society, but we need to. I have loved my time at Gardner-Webb, but most of all I love the people I have worked with and all my students. I want them to know that.”
This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Gardner-Webb professor Dr. Tom Jones retires after 42 years
