Dr. Adam Long, director of the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center in Piggott, was interviewed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette regarding scholarly interest and tourism potential related to Ernest Hemingway's home near Havana, Cuba. Previously, Long led a People to People educational tour to Cuba and Finca Vigia, where the novelist lived and worked from 1939 to 1960. The island nation will be much more accessible if the U.S. normalizes relations with Cuba.

Five more recently designated Distinguished Faculty are highlighted in this edition of Inside A-State. The Faculty Association named 31 new Distinguished Faculty in December in continuation of a practice begun during the university centennial.

Brinda McKinney, clinical instructor and RN-BSN coordinator in the School of Nursing, has received a grant from Academic Partnerships (AP) for research into the impact and effectiveness of online learning.  She is one of nine researchers at seven universities selected to receive the grants, part of AP's commitment to supporting research by partner university faculty members and developing a better understanding of the effect of online learning.

In case you missed the email during the winter break, two editions of Inside A-State, distributed on Dec. 23 and Dec. 30, included a total of 12 Distinguished Faculty items. These editions and others are available in the Inside A-State archive.

During a 32-year career beginning in 1970, Thomas D. Bishop, Ed.D., taught mathematics. To help promote better math education, he helped organize the Northeast Council of Teachers of Mathematics, served as president of the Arkansas Council of Teachers of Mathematics and in 1980 co-directed a federal grant that provided professional development in technology for secondary teachers. He retired as professor of mathematics.

Charles R. Carr, Ph.D., joined the faculty in 1975 and served for 37 years, including  an amazing three decades as department chair in English and Philosophy.  Before his retirement as professor of philosophy in 2012, he published a book about his wartime experience, Two One Pony: An American Soldier's Year in Vietnam, 1969, a personal narrative of a reluctant mechanized infantryman in the Mekong Delta.

While his fifth book was published just last spring by the University of Oklahoma Press, the story of notorious gunman Tom Horn was just the latest volume on the Old West by Larry D. Ball, Ph.D. He retired as professor of history in 2001 after a 31-year career at A-State. In 1984, Ball co-authored "Voices from State: An Oral History of Arkansas State University," written in celebration of the institution's 75th anniversary.

Donald E. Wright, Ed.D., joined the College of Education faculty in 1970 and worked closely with area school on curriculum and administrative issues.  He directed the Office of Educational Research and Services for seven years, and then served in Academic Affairs and Research as associate vice president to work on university accreditation. He retired in 1997 with 27 years of service.

Thomas J. Parsons, Ph.D., was in labs and classrooms for 30 years, from 1984 to 2014, before retiring as professor of engineering. Pushing his students to have some fun while they learned, he was instrumental in guiding them to frequent victories in the annual concrete canoe and bridge-building competitions with engineering programs from Mid-South universities. Parsons also researched concrete quality for the state Highway Department.