Franklin wins Jefferson Award

by Lew Harris

Jimmie L. Franklin, a Vanderbilt professor of history since 1986, was awarded the 2000 Jefferson Award during the fall Faculty Assembly Aug. 31.

Photo by Neil Brake
Jimmie L. Franklin, professor of history, was awarded the 2000 Jefferson Award. Golda, his wife, works in the School of Nursing.

"Professor Franklin is a scholar who demonstrates what scholarship is capable of, once activated," said Vanderbilt Chancellor E. Gordon Gee. "Jimmie's work demonstrates that scholarship can help to improve the wider world."

The award is the third major honor for Franklin during his distinguished Vanderbilt career. He was awarded the Chancellor's Cup in 1990 for contributions outside the classroom to undergraduate student-faculty relationships. Franklin also received the Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1993.

The Jefferson Award honors a faculty member who exemplifies service to the University based on the character, work, influence, principles and ideals of Thomas Jefferson. In 1967, the Robert Earl McConnell Foundation endowed the award at Vanderbilt. The origin and first presentation of the award occurred at the University of Virginia in 1955.

The recipient receives a $2,500 cash award and a goblet engraved with the following inscription: "For distinguished service to Vanderbilt through extraordinary contributions as a member of the faculty in the councils and government of the University."

Franklin has served on numerous committees and boards at Vanderbilt, including chair of the Afro-American Studies Committee and member of the Athletic Board, Martin Luther King Lecture Series Committee, Compton Scholarship Committee, Arts and Science Committee on Minorities, and the Arts and Science Dean Search Committee in 199293. Franklin was named assistant to Provost Thomas G. Burish in 1993, while continuing to teach.

"Professor Franklin has made enormous personal and professional contributions to Vanderbilt over the past 15 years," Burish said. "He is a respected scholar, an award-winning teacher, and a sought-after adviser to students. But the Jefferson Award recognizes more than anything else the character he has brought to, and the impact he has had on, Vanderbilt through service on innumerable committees, task forces, work groups, and through countless, and usually unheralded, solitary acts of service. His wisdom, balance, focus, commitment and courage have had an enormously positive impact on the University."

Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, Franklin taught at Eastern Illinois University, the University of Washington and Wisconsin State University, Stevens Point. He was named one of five outstanding teachers at Wisconsin State in 196768 and was runner-up for the Outstanding Teacher of the Year at WSU in 196970.

A native of Moscow, Miss., Franklin earned his B.A. degree at Jackson State College in 1961. He received both his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Oklahoma in 1964 and 1968, respectively. The University of Oklahoma awarded Franklin an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 1998.

He is married to the former Golda Bridges and they have two children, both with Vanderbilt ties. Daughter Elizabeth Renee earned an MBA at the Owen Graduate School of Management and son Marvin Lewis Franklin earned a B.A. at Vanderbilt.