Washington College Magazine
Three Professors Retire
Above: Facing the happy prospect of retirement, history professor Robert Fallaw intends to travel.
Below: Philosophy professor J. David Newell will devote more time to sailing the Chesapeake.
In the flurry of traditional end-of-year celebrations, the faculty retirement party in the Hynson-Ringgold House garden is one of the highlights of the season. Here, in that brief lull between final exams and Commencement, the College community gathers to celebrate the art of teaching and the beloved practitioners who have become ingrained in the fabric of Washington College.
This spring, friends and colleagues bade farewell to W. Robert Fallaw, the Everett E. Nuttle Professor of History who taught American history for 35 years, J. David Newell, the long-time chair of the philosophy department who taught for 36 years, and Susan Tessem, an accomplished artist retiring after 33 years who was instrumental to the design, planning and creation of the Constance Stuart Larrabee Arts Center.
W. Robert Fallaw, a graduate of Duke University with a Ph.D. from Princeton, joined the history department in 1970 as an associate professor and Director of American Studies. He received tenure in 1974 and was promoted to full professor in 1978. From 1988 to 2002, he served as chair of the Department of History and in 1998 was named the Everett E. Nuttle Professor of History.
Professor Fallaw also holds the distinction of being initiated into the Kappa Alpha fraternity as a faculty member, an honor he earned by serving as faculty adviser to Washington College's chapter. Known for his broad command of American history—and a soothing Southern delivery—Professor Fallaw can discourse on early American history as if he lived every minute of it.
One of his former students succinctly appraised his virtues as a scholar and teacher thus: "History is not about what happened. It's not even about what people thought happened. It's about what Bob Fallaw says happened."
A noted ethicist, J. David Newell came to Washington College in 1968 as an assistant professor of philosophy. He was promoted to associate professor in 1976 and to professor in 1984. He later served as chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion from 1987 to 2002.
Art professor Susan Tessem finds contentment designing and painting in her studio.
Newell always sought to bring philosophy's moral insights and logical methods into practice through public and professional spheres, whether conducting seminars for the world's business and political leaders through the Aspen Institute, instructing the nation's next generation of military leaders at West Point, or serving on hospital committees struggling with the thorniest moral dilemmas presented by the rapid developments of modern medicine.
He is a recipient of the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Gold Pentagon Award for meritorious service to Washington College.
Susan Tessem taught at the University of Michigan, University of South Florida, University of Maryland, and University of Delaware before joining the faculty of Washington College in 1973. Later promoted to associate in 1979 and to full professor in 1991, she served as Chair of the Department of Art from 1995 to 2000. As the only professor of studio art at the College in the 1970s and '80s, she taught an array of courses, developing many to meet established requirements for studio art students.
The proof of her commitment is seen every year at the now celebrated the Student Art Exhibition—a tradition she inaugurated.
"Sue's own paintings are astonishing in their design and color and brush work," remarked Bob Day in tribute, "and those of us who own them are forever delighted to have such company in our homes."
Tessem's work has been exhibited at such institutions as the Norfolk Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Henri Gallery, American Institute of Architects, and the Easton Academy of Art.
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