The Fount

Colonel Robert A. White, Professor of English, plans to retire at the end of calendar year 2007, culminating more than three decades of outstanding accomplishment at The Citadel. After earning his B.A. from Davidson College in 1965, his M.A. from The University of Georgia in 1969, and his Ph.D. from The University of Kansas in 1975, Prof. White progressed through the ranks at The Citadel as assistant professor (1976-1981), then associate professor (1981-1987), and finally full professor (1987 to date)-functioning throughout as a role model for students and colleagues alike. Prof. White served for several years as the English Department's graduate program director, and in that capacity helped to negotiate the formation of the Joint M.A. in English with the College of Charleston. He became English Department Head in 1990 and rendered outstanding service in that capacity until 1998.

Professor White has been an innovator in teaching-for instance, pioneering the use, among The Citadel's faculty, of various forms of computer-assisted instruction. Further, he has registered outstanding accomplishments as a scholar. He co-edited (with Prof. David Allen, of The Citadel's English Department) three scholarly books-Traditions and Innovations (1990), The Work of Dissimilitude (1992), and Subjects on the World's Stage (1995); and he was co-director for the Fifth Citadel Conference on Literature (1985), the Sixth Citadel Conference on Literature (1988), and the Seventh Citadel Conference on Literature (1991)-all three focusing on literature of the English Renaissance and Middle Ages. But perhaps Prof. White's greatest contributions have been in service to the college. In addition to serving on major faculty committees, including two search committees for Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost, he was general editor of the 1993-1994 SACS Self-Study and ten years later (2002-2004) performed massive service as Director of The Citadel's SACS Reaffirmation Office. In his even-handed, thoroughly professional dealings with students, colleagues, and others, Robert White has, throughout his career, upheld the highest traditions of The Citadel.