Faculty Hall of Fame 2020 Recipients Announced

Recorded Ceremony is now live

By California State University, Bakersfield

September 16^th, 2020

The Faculty Hall of Fame ceremony at California State University, Bakersfield looks different this year as “working from home” orders are still in place, but the message is still there – to honor university faculty members with a plaque and a photo to be housed permanently in the Walter W. Stiern Library.

This year, the celebration will transition to a virtual ceremony, which has already been pre-recorded and can be viewed on the Walter W. Stiern Library’s YouTube channel or on the Historical Research Center website.

This year’s inductees are:

Dr. Doug Davis, music department

Dr. Doug Davis arrived at CSUB in 1982 and retired in 2017. Dr. Davis provided the highest educational experiences. He not only taught music theory and composition he stared the Bakersfield Jazz Festival in 1987. Dubbed “Bakersfield’s Rite of Spring,” this event treated the community to the biggest names in jazz and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships for CSUB students majoring in music, liberal studies, and the sciences. He was named CSUB Alumni Professor of the Year (1987), CSUB Outstanding Professor (1989), and finally, winner of the highly competitive Wang Family Excellence Award for CSU Faculty in Visual and Performing Arts and Letters (2003). His exemplary work in music and especially with the CSUB jazz ensembles earned him the Jazz Educator Award given by the Kern County Music Educators Association (2000) as well as multiple awards from the Arts Council of Kern: Outstanding Contribution to the Arts (1993), Outstanding Contributions in Music (1999), and a 25-Year Award for the Bakersfield Jazz Festival (2002). His decades-long work in turning this festival into a high-profile event was also recognized with a Bakersfield Centennial Certificate of Achievement. Davis’ pieces have also received numerous awards, including an Ariel Composition Award for the furiously percussive piano work Stones, and the Michael Arenson Jazz Composition Award for B and Me. Several of his jazz compositions have also been recorded by jazz greats, including Larry Coryell, Chick Corea, and Bennie Wallace.

Dr. Robert Horton, geology department

Professor of Geology Emeritus, Dr. Robert Horton, served the university in many ways since 1984 before retiring in 2016. Dr. Horton taught more than 20 different course and received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Pacific Extension of the American Association of Geologists, the CSUB El Paso Natural Gas Award for Excellence in Teaching and was named CSUB Outstanding Professor. He also received the CSUB Bautzer Faculty Award for University Advancement and two CSUB Meritorious Performance and Professional Promise Awards. Dr. Horton has been very successful obtaining research support of 28 successful proposals, totaling over $8 million. Bob has an equally impressive record in service. He served ten years as department chair and two-and-a-half years as interim assistant vice president for Grants, Research, and Sponsored Programs (GRaSP). Dr. Horton served the community in many other ways, for 21 years Bob also served as director of the California Well Sample Repository on campus. In addition, Bob was instrumental in developing the geology graduate program, including the initial proposal to the CSU Chancellor’s Office. He has also served on many CSUB campus and school-wide committees.

Dr. Solomon Iyasere (deceased), English department

Dr. Solomon Ogbede Iyasere spent a distinguished 44-year career at CSUB, joining the CSUB faculty in 1972 after completing a Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, Hired as an assistant professor to teach Shakespeare and literary criticism, Solomon earned early tenure and promotion to associate professor in 1974 and became a full professor in 1978. He received the Millie Ablin Excellence Award in Teaching in 1985-86; the Exceptional Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching in numerous years; was a Wang Award and professor of the Year nominee; and was one of 50 professors selected nationwide by the American Association for Higher Education, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, for extraordinary leadership in teaching, scholarship, and service. Solomon developed and taught more than 35 courses in creative writing, world literature, Shakespeare, non-western literature, African literature, and African-American literature. He published extensively on the oral tradition in African and African-American literature, earning international recognition as a pioneering scholar of African literature, rhetorical critic, and essayist who distinguished Eurocentric and Afro-centric forms of literary criticism and devised a new approach, which he termed “cultural formalism,” to analyze African and African-American literature. He chaired the Department of English and Communications (1992-98), co-founded the Career Beginnings Program and the Ernest Williams, Jr. Scholarship Fund, and served on numerous departmental and university wide committees. Dr. Iyasere founded the literary journal Orpheus in 1975 and, since then, the works for more than 2,500 writers have been published.

Dr. Charles McCall (deceased), political science department

Dr. Charles McCall was a founding faculty member who joined CSUB in 1970 and retired in 2003. In 1976 he served in President Gerald Ford’s administration as director of the White House Editorial Staff Research Office. He and the research staff were responsible to provide background information for President Ford’s speechwriters on people, places, and issue of concern, and to check the President’s speeches, statements, and White House messaging for accuracy. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. Dr. McCall named the E.C. Reid Professor of Political Science at CSB in 1978. Dr. McCall also taught at CSB’s Academic Village. The idea of “the village” was to integrate interdisciplinary studies and university life in all aspects, including living on campus and create an environment where students would have a more meaningful educational experience. In addition to his service as faculty member and department chair, he also was a member of the College Council (Academic Senate) and its executive committee. He was chair of the council on Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, the renown academic center for survey research at the University of Michigan. He chaired the Western Political Science Association’s Committee of Department Chairpersons and was a special representative to the American Political Science Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics and Academic Freedom.

Dr. Robert Negrini, geology department

Dr. Robert Negrini arrived at CSUB in 1985 after graduating from UC Davis with a Ph.D. in geology and retired in 2015 as professor of geology emeritus. Dr. Negrini received a number of teaching awards, including the Distinguished Educator Award from the Pacific Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists; the “Hall of Fame” Award for Outstanding Teaching from the Kern County Alliance of Business; and CSUB Outstanding Professor. He has a remarkable record of mentoring students and involving them in high quality research. Dr. Negrini has a strong record of publishing with students. Since 2014 Rob has published research papers with eight student coauthors in several highly–regarded, international, peer-reviewed journals. Mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in research takes sincere commitment and enabling students to bring their research efforts to full fruition through publication. Rob’s service to the university included his leadership as founding director of the CSUB California Energy Research Center, as well as establishment and founding director of center for research excellence in science and technology at CSUB. Dr. Negrini was also vice-chair of the Academic Senate at CSUB. He also served as both vice-president and president of the San Joaquin Geological Society and has also been an active member of the Pacific Cell of the Friends of the Pleistocene.

Dr. Oliver Rink, history department

Professor of History Emeritus Dr. Oliver Rink joined CSUB in 1975 and retired in 2012. Dr. Rink earned his doctorate in history from USC and specializing in Dutch Colonial America. Dr. Rink taught the upper-division courses, senior seminar, Colonial America, Revolutionary America, European Colonialism, and Historical Geography, in addition to the Graduate Reading Seminar in Early American History. He had many writing accomplishments and writing accolades. Just to mention a couple, his 1986 monograph was the winner of the New York Historical Association’s “Best Manuscript,” award and the Hendricks Foundation’s “Best Book” award. Dr. Rink also authored multiple articles and book reviews for peer-reviewed journals, including the American Historical Review, the William and Mary Quarterly, and the Journal of American Ethnic History. He served two terms as chair of the history department and as the department’s graduate coordinator. Outside of the History Department, his numerous service commitments included assistant dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, chair of the Academic Senate, chair of the Budget and Planning Committee, chair of the Humanities Chair’s Council on General Education, and chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee of the Academic Senate. Indeed, in 2004 Dr. Rink was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award, which recognized his substantial record of service to CSUB.

The Faculty Hall of Fame recipients are determined by the selection committee made up of the Library Dean (chair), five faculty members (each representing one of the four schools and a librarian and selected by their perspective school dean), an at-large representative, one Student Affairs representative, one student selected by Associated Students, and either one member of the CSUB Alumni Hall of Fame or an appointment by the Alumni Association.

Requirements of the faculty to be nominated, include: A faculty member will be eligible to be nominated for the Faculty Hall of Fame if that faculty member has fully separated from working at CSUB, or has died; An eligible faculty member must have been effective in the three areas established by the university for the evaluation of faculty – service, scholarship and teaching and an eligible faculty member must have excelled as outstanding in at least one of the above areas.

Nominations are welcome by any member of the CSUB community, including students, past students and alumni, current and past faculty and staff, and any associates, supporters, friends, or partners of the university. Self-nominations are not allowed.