This will be the last school year for seven faculty members from across campus, each of whom are retiring.
Among those who are retiring at the close of the 2018-19 year are:
- Dr. Malcolm Coco, professor of human resource management
- Dr. Rob Byrd, associate professor of information technology and computing
- Dr. Loyd Goldsmith, professor of education
- Dr. Becky Hammack, dean of the School of Nursing
- Dr. Robert McKelvain, professor of psychology
- Dr. Jim Nichols, professor of biology
- Dr. Terry Pope, professor of finance
Nichols, who has been the longest serving faculty member in the Department of Biology with 37 years on faculty, said the most unique aspect of his time teaching at ACU has been how the students turned into friends. He has devoted time to various research projects, has been a faculty sponsor for Alpha Kai in past years, served as chair of the department and once worked as the director of the New Faculty Mentoring Program for about 10 years, along with working with various specializations of biology.
“That’s kind of what happens,” Dr. Nichols said. “Everybody has a course or two that are their specialties, but they have to do some other things that are kind of outside their bounds initially.”
Hammack, who has served seven years as a faculty member at the university and became the first dean of the School of Nursing in 2013. Hammack oversaw the establishment of the school after the university had participated for decades in a consortium nursing program with Hardin Simmons and McMurry universities called the Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing. She said that she hopes to continue her involvement in contributing supplies to a missionary plant in Mexico and is considering teaching online through ACU Dallas.
She said ACU has been the best place she has ever worked out of her 42 years in nursing education.
“There is a lot of reasons for that,” Hammack said. “There is a sweet spirit of students, faculty, staff and everyone that works at ACU.”