NewsRelease

Alumna Establishes Excellence Fund for English Department

GREENSBORO – A $100,000 gift from Neil and Sue Sigmon Williams of Atlanta has created a new fund to provide professional development opportunities for the Department of English at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The gift establishes the Marc Friedlaender English Faculty Excellence Fund. It will be used to endow the professional development of English Department faculty members early in their careers with preference given to non-tenured faculty.

Awards will be available for travel, research and pre-publication expenses of scholarly writing.  Faculty may use awards from the fund to attend conferences, create new courses and pursue other scholarly interests.

 “The reason the emphasis is on non-tenured faculty is that Sue Williams wanted to make sure that members of the English department faculty continue to develop,” said Dr. Denise Baker, head of the UNCG Department of English.

“The emphasis here is more on scholarship than teaching, and faculty who are active in scholarship can use that to influence their teaching in the classroom.”

Funds will be used, for example, to finance trips for research and other scholarship costs associated with work toward publication. The first award, in the amount of $2,000, will go to Dr. Annette Van, who will travel to London this summer to study records about Victorian drama in the British Library.

The fund recognizes Dr. Marc Friedlaender, an English professor at Woman’s College from 1937 until 1957, when he left to teach at Vassar College. During his time at Woman’s College, he worked to assist the development of the writing program, including the writer’s forum, which attracted well-known poets and novelists such as Robert Penn Warren and Robert Lowell.

He also worked to expand the writer’s forum to include music, painting and sculpture, an effort that made an impression on Williams.

“The way he called all the arts together had an influence on people’s lives,” she said. “It certainly made a great impact on me. That’s what has informed my life, and I think it’s something the world needs today.”

For that reason, Williams wanted to establish the fund with the hope that it might grow with gifts from others who want to continue Friedlaender’s legacy, and who want to help young faculty.

A Phi Beta Kappa, graduate of Woman’s College, Williams received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1958 with certification to teach secondary education.  Raised in Charlotte, she has lived in Atlanta since 1961. In 1981, she earned a Master of Music in vocal performance from Georgia State University.

Williams is a published poet who has taught English and history in high schools, and voice at Kennesaw College and in private lessons. Her husband, Neil Williams, is an attorney, and corporate and foundation director.

The gift will be part of the Class of 1958’s 50th anniversary gift.

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