Endowed Chairs, Professorships and Dean’s Fellows

Endowed chairs, professorships, and Dean’s Fellows are faculty positions supported by an endowment fund established by the Board of Trustees for that specific purpose. The Franklin College Board of Trustees has established a minimum investment of $1,000,000 to fund an endowed named faculty chair, $500,000 to fund an endowed professorship, and $250,000 to fund an endowed Dean’s Fellow.

The income from that endowment may be used to cover the salary and benefits of the faculty member appointed to these positions and such other costs – such as research assistance, secretarial assistance, other related personnel costs, travel, teaching materials, equipment, books, supplies, etc. – which are related to the work of the faculty member and the department.

Throughout higher education, these positions serve two primary purposes, regardless of the particular institution or academic department involved.

  1. They provide financial support through an endowment for teaching, research and service in a specified academic field by the incumbent of the position. In some cases this endowment relieves the regular budget of expenses already committed by the institution. In other cases, such an endowment enables the institution to undertake new or additional activities which it otherwise would be unable to assume.
  2. These positions lend prestige to the individual faculty member holding the them, to the specific department or program and to the institution generally. To the extent this latter purpose is served, better faculty, more and better students, more gifts and grants and more publicity may result from the presence of these positions.

Faculty Chairs, Professorships and Dean’s Fellows:
Roger D. Branigin Chair in History
Charles A. Deppe Endowed Chair in Biology
Mildred Mickel Hoover ’23 Dean’s Fellow in Chemistry
Maurice V. and Rose S. Johnson Chair in the Humanities
Robert and Elizabeth Johnson Professor of Leadership
Edna B. Lacy Chair in Business and Entrepreneurship
Roscoe W. Payne Chair in Philosophy and Psychology
Eugene C. and Nina Mason Pulliam Chair in Journalism
A.J. Thurston Endowed Chair in Music
E. Don and Joyce Tull Chair in Business and Management
Charles B. and Kathleen O. VanNuys Dean’s Fellow in Religious Studies
Elmon and Lucile Williams Chair in Law and Public Service
Leo T. and Leah Jackson Wolford Dean’s Fellow in Mathematics