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I NEWS INSIDE MOREHOUSE, OCTOBER 2012 John Handy Named Faculty Member of the Year Anne Watts, associate vice president for Academic Affairs; John Williams ‘69, dean of the Division of Business Administration and Economics; John W. Handy, professor of economics; President Robert M. Franklin 75; Willis B. Sheftall ‘64, interim provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs E conomics professor John Handy keeps saying he is ready to retire, but each day he realizes one thing. “1 just can’t do it,” Hand}' said with a laugh. “I just can’t leave the classroom. I’ve been teaching for more than 40 years. I just love teaching.” That dedication is just one of the reasons Handy was given the Vulcan Materials Company Teaching Excellence Award as the Morehouse Faculty Member of the Year for 2012-13. Handy is the ninth person to win the award. “In recognition of outstanding contributions to under graduate education, student learning and campus life, the Vulcan Material Company and the Georgia Independent Colleges Association are pleased to present their teaching excel lence award to.. .one who is a scholar, author, proposal writer and program director, community volunteer, who has been leading on many fronts and teacher of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds who sing his praises the world over,” said Anne Watts, associate vice president for Academic Affairs. A Bronx, N.Y. native, Handy has been at Morehouse for 25 years, starting in 1978 when he directed the Manpower Human Resources Program. He also started a college preparatory pro gram for high school juniors and seniors. He left Morehouse to work at Clark Atlanta University, where he and then-president Thomas W. Cole Jr. started one of Atlanta’s first community development corporations, the University Development Corporation. That group spear headed residential and community development in the Atlanta University Center area. Handy came back to Morehouse in 1992 to become chair of the economics department, a post he held until 2007. Handy hired his successor - his former student, Gregory Price ’82. Handy has continued to be active nationally and locally in community development activities. “The reason I got into economics in the first place was because I was interested in community economic development,” he said. “I was always interested in housing development and housing opportunity.” Though he isn’t a Morehouse graduate, Handy’s family has deep ties to the Atlanta University Center. His mother grew up in a house that still stands behind Davidson House. His uncle was former president Hugh Gloster’s classmate. And the females in his family all went to Spelman. But what keeps Handy at Morehouse are the students, espe cially those who come back after establishing successful careers to say thank you. “There’s nothing better,” Handy said. “That makes me feel like I’ve done something or accomplished something. There’s no other field where you can get that. It’s like hitting a home run.” ■ NEWSBRIEFS Morehouse Ranked Among Top 20 in Sending Seniors to Teach for America Morehouse has been ranked as one of the nation’s top feeder schools to the Teach for America program. Eleven members of Morehouse’s class of 2012 will be part of Teach for America this year, putting the College among the top 20 small colleges and universities. Since 1997,97 Morehouse graduates have taught as corps memebers. Teach for America recruits and develops college graduates to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to end educational inequity. This fall, more than 10,000 corps members will teach in 46 urban and rural regions across the country. Benefits Fair Begins Open Enrollment Period for Health/Dental Plans The Morehouse College Benefits Fair, which will be held on Oct 18, serves as the beginning of the open enrollment period for health and dental benefits for faculty and staff. The Benefits Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Exeutive Conference Center. A number of health/ dental vendors will be on hand to answer questions and discuss their services. A light lunch will be provided. The open enrollment period runs from Oct 18-Nov. 1. For more information, call Human Resources at (404) 215-2656. Woodndf Unary Offers Extended Hons for NSd-Terms The Robert W. Woodruff Atlanta University Center Library will have extended hours during the week prior to and the week of mid-term exams. Beginning at 7:30 am. on Oct 1, the library will be open 24 hours. It will be open from noon to midnight on Saturday, Oct. 6 and beginning at noon on Sunday Oct 7, the library will be open 24 hours a day from Oct 7-12. A shuttle will operate after midnight from the library to the Atlanta University Center residence halls during extended hours. PASSAGES Hoeun Chung Brought Chapel’s Blank Walls to Life BY VICKIE G. HAMPTON THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY that brought dozens of highly acclaimed art pieces to Morehouse began at an unlikely location: Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta. In 1982, while window shopping—which included the typical flashy fads and trends of mall culture—the newly appointed dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Lawrence E. Carter Sr., came face to face with beautiful, authentic art. “At the back of the mall, I came across some of the most magnificent, gorgeous portraits I had ever seen,” Carter recalled. The artist was Hoeun Chung, a Korean who had come to the states less than a decade earlier, but who was already making a name for himself. He greeted his curious visitor with warmth and youthfulness, said Carter. Carter, in turn, introduced himself to Chung as the dean of the most prominent religious edifice in King’s honor. He went on to explain that the Chapel had lots of wall space, but no stain glass windows or, for that matter, a portrait of King. “I explained that I wanted something large and differ ent from what anyone had ever seen.” And Chung delivered. The portrait depicted King in a Boston University graduation robe—something never before painted. The massive portrait included the faces of prominent civil and human rights activists, including King’s mentor and former Morehouse president Benjamin E. Mays; Booker T. Washington; and individuals who had worked alongside King during the civil rights movement. “I was literally blown away,” Carter recalled. Then Carter asked the hard question: “How much?” Chung answered: “You can’t afford it.” When Carter heard the fee - $25,000 - he concurred. “However,” Chung continued, “I’m going to give it to you on permanent loan.” “That was Chung’s gift to Morehouse College,” Carter said recently, explaining the legacy Chung, who died in August, has left at Morehouse. Over the next three decades, Chung almost single- handedly turned the blank walls of King Chapel’s cor ridors and vestibule into the breath-taking International Hall of Honor, one of the nation’s largest collection of oil portraits of the world’s most revered prophetic social engineers, nonviolence practitioners, peace advocates and civil and human rights leaders. Of the Hall’s 177 portraits, Chung painted 174. The subjects run the gamut from international peacemakers such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi to alumni change agents such as Maynard Jackson ‘56 and Otis Moss Jr. ’56. Hoeun Chung with a self-portrait that now hangs in the International Hall of Honor Throughout his career, Chung was a sought-after artist whose work was displayed in public buildings, corporate boardrooms, and colleges and universities nationwide. In 2006, Coretta Scott King personally selected him to paint a larger portrait of her late husband to replace a smaller rendering that had hung in the Georgia State Capitol for 32 years. Chung made the portrait 50 per cent larger. And though Chung mostly painted from pictures and stand-ins (Carter donned the Boston University gown for the King portrait) the portraits are routinely praised for their lifelike quality. “It is like [Chung] took a picture with his eye and transferred it to the canvas,” said Carter. ■