Gerald Francis, executive vice president and professor of mathematics, Anne Bolin, professor of anthropology, Michael Calhoun, professor of health and human performance, and David Crowe, professor of history, will all receive emeritus status upon retirement.
President Leo M. Lambert has announced that the following faculty will receive emeritus status upon retirement this year:
Gerald Francis
Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Executive Vice President Emeritus and Provost Emeritus
Gerald Francis joined Elon’s mathematics department in 1974 as an assistant professor. He served as department chair from 1977-83. He was promoted to associate professor and then professor before becoming dean of academic affairs in 1983. A year later, he became vice president and dean of academic affairs and was named provost and vice president of academic affairs in 1994. During his 15 years as provost, Francis was a principal architect of Elon’s curriculum, and it was his vision that led to the establishment of the School of Law, the implementation of the four-hour course credit system and the move to both the Southern Athletic Conference and the Colonial Conference. In 2009 he became Elon’s first executive vice president with administrative responsibilities, including day-to-day supervision of admissions, athletics, university communications and special projects as assigned by the president. He received the Daniels-Danieley Award and the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ outstanding leadership award.
Anne Bolin
Professor Emerita of Anthropology
Anne Bolin has written and edited four books as well as 35 articles and book chapters since she started at Elon in 1988. She is co-editor of the five-volume encyclopedia, “The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality,” which will be published this year through Wiley-Blackwell Press. She was an Elon Distinguished Scholar and was awarded the Elon Senior Faculty Research Fellowship 2009-11. Since publishing an ethnography of transsexuals in 1988, she has become a leading authority in the discipline of anthropology and worldwide for the study of gender, sexuality and embodiment. She has taught 19 different courses in three departments at Elon and helped develop many of the anthropology courses. She was the founder of the Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies (PERCS) and a founding member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Advisory Council. She also proposed, created and developed the anthropology major and minor at Elon.
Michael Calhoun
Professor Emeritus of Health and Human Performance
Michael Calhoun joined the Elon faculty in 1985 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor of heath, physical education and leisure in 1990 and professor of health and human performance in 1996. He served as chair of the department from 2008 to 2010, has served on all of Elon’s major committees and has held leadership positions on the Academic Council, Curriculum Committee, Ad Hoc Committee on Tenure Process, Independent Major Review Committee, North Carolina College Conference of Professional Preparation in Health Education and Physical Education, North Carolina Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, North Carolina Association for the Advancement of Health Education and Health Education Leadership Conference. He also developed new courses in his academic discipline and general studies. He has made noteworthy contributions to teaching, service and his academic discipline, and he has received the School of Education faculty awards for service and teaching.
David Crowe
Professor Emeritus of History
David Crowe, who holds joint appointments in the Elon University School of Law and the Department of History and Geography, is the author or editor of a dozen books, including, “War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: a Global History,” “Crimes of State, Past and Present: Government-Sponsored Atrocities and International Legal Responses,” “The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath” and “Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind The List.” Crowe was awarded the V. Stanley Vardys Presidents’ Prize for Books on Baltic Studies by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies for his earlier “The Baltic States and the Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938-1940.” He also has published numerous book chapters, articles, and reviews on international law, Russia, the Roma, the Holocaust, Jewish history, and Central and East European history. He is the recipient of the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies’ 2010 Richard Stites Senior Scholar Award and Elon’s Distinguished Scholar Award. He has been a visiting scholar at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and has taught at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He is president emeritus of the Association for the Study of Nationalities at Columbia University and currently serves as chairman of its Advisory Board.