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Dr. Randolph Tate retires from Evangel University, named professor emeritus

Published on Jan 29, 2013 by Jennifer Hall

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Dr. Randolph Tate has retired from the humanities department at Evangel University after 27 ½ years of service. He has been awarded the status of professor emeritus.

Tate, professor of humanities, has been teaching for 43 years. Sixteen of those years were spent in public schools on the secondary level before he started working at Evangel in 1985. He was Evangel’s recipient of the 2011 E.M. and Estella Clark Award for Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Service.

“As department chair, I have appreciated Dr. Tate’s highly professional approach to all academic matters,” said Dr. Nathan Nelson, chair of Evangel’s humanities department. “His clear thinking and wise speaking have helped department faculty to understand and resolve many emergent issues, so we will miss his particular brand of counsel. Dr. Tate’s retirement constitutes a major loss in our department.”

“Perhaps this sounds like a cliché, but I have enjoyed the intellectual challenges generated by my colleagues and students,” Tate said. “They have been instrumental in making me a better and, hopefully, smarter person.”

Tate holds a Doctor of Philosophy in humanities from Florida State University, a Master of Divinity from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Georgia Southern University.

Professional work and publishing

Tate is an evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association for Colleges and Schools. He has served on the HLC’s Accreditation Review Council for the last five years.

Tate also serves on the editorial board for a series of encyclopedias from the Oxford University Press and recently published an article on “Postmodern Biblical Interpretation” for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation.

He also recently had the second edition of his Handbook for Biblical Interpretation released by Baker Academic.

Tate will continue to teach one class during the spring 2013 semester, and possibly one class for the fall 2013 semester. During retirement, he plans to travel, write poetry and play golf, in addition to spending more time with his grandchildren.

Evangel University is a private, Christian university of arts, sciences and professions. With an enrollment of more than 2,000 students from all 50 states and abroad, Evangel offers more than 100 undergraduate academic programs and nine master’s programs.