Holy Cross Educator Named U.S. Professor of the Year

Holy Cross physics professor Robert H. Garvey today was named U.S. Professor of the Year for 2000 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Four national winners were selected, representing the following categories: outstanding baccalaureate college professor (Garvey), outstanding community college professor, outstanding master's university and college professor, and outstanding research and doctoral university professor. Each is recognized for their extraordinary dedication to teaching, commitment to students and innovative instructional methods.

Created in 1981, the U.S. Professors of the Year Program is the only national awards program that recognizes college and university professors for their teaching. This year nearly 500 faculty members were nominated by colleges and universities across the country. The Carnegie Foundation awards a $5,000 cash prize to each of the national winners.

Bob Garvey, an associate professor, has taught at Holy Cross since 1977. In addition to his work with Holy Cross students, he is the College's science coordinator, responsible for coordinating the partnership programs in science and mathematics with the Worcester Public Schools (WPS).

A graduate of Loyola College in Baltimore, Md. (1966), Garvey completed his M.S. in electrical engineering (1970) and his Ph.D. in physics (1974) at the Pennsylvania State University. Before joining the Holy Cross faculty in 1977 as an assistant professor, Garvey worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida. He was promoted to associate professor of physics in 1984.

A renowned teacher and scholar, Garvey has developed courses for non-science majors as well as a range of courses for physics majors. He is co-author, with Janine Shertzer, chair of the physics department, of a Sherman-Fairchild grant that developed the successful "Physics of Everyday Life" course. A member of the committee that created Holy Cross' First Year Program, Garvey served as the program's first director for two years.

"The way Professor Garvey enabled us to find connections between quantum physics, literature, religion and life still astounds me today," says Jaime L. Grande (Holy Cross Class of 1999) about the First Year Program seminar. She is now an aspiring teacher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

"His lectures in class, his thoughtful comments on our journal entries and papers, and his constant presence and companionship all illustrated an immense dedication to the liberal arts, to learning outside the classroom, and to motivating and caring for students," Grande continues.

Garvey is also a dedicated participant in Holy Cross’ programs in science with the Worcester schools. He teaches in the Youth Exploring Science (Y.E.S.) program, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer Science Workshop for WPS science and math teachers and co-developed a weather program for 400 sixth-grade students that he team teaches each May.

"He's unafraid to question the traditional approach in his search for a better way to teach," says his colleague Janine Shertzer, chair of the Holy Cross physics department. "His creativity and originality is matched by a seemingly endless supply of enthusiasm and energy."

A resident of Shrewbury, Garvey and his wife, Beverly, are parents of five children.