 Shoshana Brackett/SDN Three educators were inducted to the Starkville Area Education Hall of Fame Thursday night. Pictured from left to right are inductees Dr. Robert Wolverton Sr., Dr. Patti Abraham and Dr. Joseph Brown. By SHOSHANA BRACKETT
Starkville Daily News
For their dedication to education, three long-time Mississippi State faculty members were inducted into the Starkville Area Education Hall of Fame Thursday night.
A joint effort of the Starkville School District and the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, the program honored Dr. Patti Abraham, Dr. Joseph Brown and Dr. Robert Wolverton Sr.
The Starkville Education Hall of Fame annually recognizes local educators, current or retired, who have achieved state, regional and national recognition for their work in education including teaching, research, writing, academic achievements and professional society participation.
During the program Thursday night, Michelle Amos, chair of the Chamber Advisory Board, said that honoring educators in the Starkville area is one way of “recognizing that education is the heart and soul of any community.”
When presenting Abraham with her certificate, Shelley Bock described Abraham as a lifelong learner and a model administrator, educator and teacher. Upon receiving her award, Abraham thanked her family and friends for their support.
“I’ve been very blessed for a lot of years with supportive friends and family, and this makes it even more special,” she said.
Carolyn Abadie presented the induction certificate to Brown, her father. “It’s just unbelievable,” Brown said of the honor. “I want to thank everybody here, and I sure thank all my previous mechanical engineering students who helped me with all my research.”
Armando de la Cruz, presenting Wolverton with his certificate, said Wolverton was the “quintessential professor.”
“It has been a wonderful, wonderful career,” Wolverton said. “I couldn’t think of a job that I was more suited for.”
After receiving their certificates, the inductees’ portraits were displayed along with portraits of the previous Starkville Area Education Hall of Fame members in the mezzanine at the Greensboro Center.
Forty-six local educators have been inducted into the Education Hall of Fame since the program’s inception in 1988, including William Graves, Janet Henderson, John Marszalek, Tina Scholtes, Kent Sills, June Barnett, Frances Coleman, Donald Downer, Paula Mabry, Larry Box, Anita George, Kay Krans, Pamela S. Hunt, Joe Ray Underwood, Fenton Peters, R. Dan Brook, Nellie Epps, Vernon Gifford, Frances Graham, Gloria Correro, Arnold Moore, Rosa Rogers Stewart, Dianne Faulk, Nancy Hargrove, Anne Bonner, Joe F. Thompson, Diana L. Turner, Jorja P. Turnipseed, Jerome A. Jackson, Sherry Seale Swain, James R. Thompson, Nelle D. Elam, Carolyn C. Williams, Jane Weygandt Lusk, Joan Mowry Butler, Clayton James, Paul Cuicchi, Herbert M. Handley, Lewis R. Brown, Robert M. Ford III, Andrew Lark, Warren Housley, Howard W. Miller, Theresa Bell Pitts, James H. Smith, Armando de la Cruz, Libby Cagle Pollard, Nancy Jacobs and Donald J. Mabry.
About the honorees...
Dr. Patti Abraham
Abraham has served for the past five years as director of the Research and Curriculum Unit at Mississippi State University and more recently has worked the Mississippi Department of Education’s Redesigning Education for the 21st Century Workforce.
Abraham has centered the bulk of her academic and professional career at MSU, receiving a bachelor of science degree in business education in 1975, a master of education degree in business education in 1978 and a doctoral degree in education in 1985.
Abraham began her teaching career as a business technology teacher in the Starkville School District in 1978. After 11 years teaching at Starkville High School, she became a faculty member at MSU in the Department of Technology and Education.
During her career, Abraham has led the effort to ensure all career-tech educators in the state are technology literate and effectively use technology as a tool for teaching. Her leadership has helped more than 100 on-line continuing education courses be made available to Mississippi educators.
Abraham also has worked in MSU’s RCU as a research professor, interim director and coordinator of professional development. She also held positions as professor in the Department of Technology and Education at MSU and director and teacher for Draughon’s Business College in Greeenwood, Greenville and Columbus. Abraham’s professional work includes many publications about technology and education. She also has handled multiple grants totaling millions of dollars. Abraham and her husband, Jimmy, have three sons, all graduates of SHS.
Dr. Joseph Brown
Brown, born in Gatewood, W.V., in 1928, graduated from Fayetteville High School in 1943, West Virginia University in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and Purdue University in 1952 with a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering.
His professional career includes teaching at WVU shortly after receiving a bachelor’s degree, 20 years in the aerospace industry as a structural engineer and engineering manager, teaching night classes at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles and working as a professor of mechanical engineering at MSU where he retired after 21 years.
As a Mississippi State professor, Brown taught engineering mechanics, mechanical design and thermodynamics. His professional work has also included authoring about 100 papers and reports, with one reporting the discovery of the mechanism of the fine structure constant published in 1970 by the MacDonnell Douglas Company.
Brown also has written 30 books on physics, biology and foundations of language. Published this year, his most recent book is The Chemistry and Mechanics of Human Aging.
For the past 17 years, Brown has managed the Book Mart Corporation and continued research in physics, biology and the foundations of language.
Dr. Robert Wolverton Sr.
Born in Shelbyville, Ind., and a graduate of Shelbyville High School, Wolverton earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors in the classics from Hanover College, a master of arts degree from the University of Michigan and a doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina in classics and ancient history.
Wolverton married Margaret “Peggy” Jester in 1952, and they have four children and six grandchildren.
Wolverton’s professional career includes teaching and administrative positions at the University of Georgia, Tufts University in Massachusetts, Florida State University, the University of Illinois, Miami University in Ohio, the College of Mount St. Joseph on the Ohio and MSU. Wolverton served as president at the College of Mount St. Joseph on the Ohio and vice president of academic affairs and head of the Department of Foreign Languages at MSU. He currently works as a professor of foreign languages at MSU.
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