University of North Texas 
2019 Emeritus Recognition
- Emeritus
- 2026 Emeritus Recognition
- 2025 Emeritus Recognition
- 2024 Emeritus Recognition
- 2023 Emeritus Recognition
- 2022 Emeritus Recognition
- 2021 Emeritus Recognition
- 2020 Emeritus Recognition
- 2019 Emeritus Recognition
- 2018 Emeritus Recognition
- 2017 Emeritus Recognition
The following faculty members earned the honorary title of Emeritus in 2019 in recognition of their distinguished service to the University of North Texas.
Alan Albarran
Professor Emeritus, Media Arts
Dr. Alan Albarran served for 18 years as a professor at UNT, 11 of those as chair of the RTVF/Media Arts program. An expert in media economics, Dr. Albarran published definitive books and journal articles on this subject internationally, including ten books and two highly influential and widely used textbooks on management of electronic and digital media. Dr. Albarran taught as a guest lecturer at four universities in Spain and Mexico. In 2011, he was awarded the UNT International Education Award in partial recognition for his work as founder and director for the Center on Spanish Language Media. Additionally, he is a past president of the Broadcast Education Association.
Brian Bowman
Professor Emeritus, Instrumental Studies
Dr. Brian Bowman's playing thrilled audiences for more than a quarter of a century. His superb musicianship and dedication to fine brass playing made him one of the foremost euphonium soloists in the world. He was the first euphonium soloist to perform a recital in Carnegie Recital Hall and the first euphonium player to serve as president of the International Tuba and Euphonium Association. He also performed the first euphonium concert tour of Japan and was the first euphonium player to present a master class at the Paris Conservatory Superior of Music in France.
Witold Brostow
Professor Emeritus, Materials Science and Engineering
Dr. Witold Brostow joined UNT in June 1989 as a professor. He was one of two founding members of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Brostow was awarded Regents Professor status for his contributions. With over 300 published academic papers and two patents, he had one of the highest citation indexes in his department. During his tenure at UNT, he acquired over $2 million in funding from several external sources, including E.I. du Pont de Nemours, Dow Chemical Co., Ford Motor Co., RTI, Volvo, Gothenburg, NATO, NSF, Robert A. Welch Foundation, the State of Texas Advanced Technology Program and the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Professor Brostow is corresponding member of the Union for Polymer Research in Berlin, fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in London, member of the European Academy of Sciences in Brussels, fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and member of the National Academy of Sciences in Mexico City. He holds honorary doctorates from three universities in Europe and serves as president of the International Council on Materials Education, promoting expertise exchange and high-quality materials education standards among 19 countries.
Roy Busby
Professor Emeritus, Journalism
Dr. Roy Busby first worked for UNT as a news service reporter in 1958. Except for a two-year stint in the U.S. Army and two years in graduate school, he built his accomplished career at UNT, holding seven administrative positions including vice president, director of information, and assistant to the president. He was named a Regents Professor in 2001. He developed 10 undergraduate and graduate courses and won 30 teaching or research honors while on the faculty, including the Honors College Medallion in 2009. He has been a speaker or panelist at 30 professional or academic events and has written more than 150 articles for professional and academic publications. Dr. Busby remained active in the profession during his career, leading consulting projects for about 40 organizations. He served or chaired nearly 100 committees for the Mayborn School of Journalism, UNT and the community.
James Conover
Professor Emeritus, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law
Dr. James Conover joined UNT's Department of Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law in 1989. He amassed a record of distinguished service to the university community, recognized by awards for serving the department, college and university on curriculum and governance committees. Dr. Conover also established a distinguished record of research, authoring over 30 peer-reviewed articles in finance as well as in interdisciplinary research published in information systems and accounting journals. Dr. Conover was a dedicated teacher and mentor, chairing and serving as a member of numerous finance doctoral dissertation committees and teaching classes at the doctoral, master's and undergraduate levels.
Richard Davis
Professor Emeritus, Design
For 50 years, Richard Davis taught sculpture at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at UNT. Professor Davis was a conscientious instructor who always went the extra mile for his students. He had over 75 solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and commissions at the state and national levels in high-profile alternative spaces, well-respected galleries, museums or colleges and universities, including “Red Pony,” commissioned for the Icon Advisory Group in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2013; “Players,” commissioned for World Global Financial in Fort Worth, Texas in 2009; and “Clear Water Black Plume,” commissioned by Ulrich and Christine Iffland in Berleburg, Germany in 2007. Additionally, Professor Davis was selected as a UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts (IAA) Fellow in 2012.
Steven Forde
Professor Emeritus, Political Science
In his 30 years of service at UNT, Dr. Steve Forde evolved into one of the leading political theorists in America.He produced two books: the first (early in his career) on the Greek political historian Thucydides, and the second (toward the end) examined John Locke's understanding of science. Dr. Forde published a multitude of papers (four of which appeared in the profession's flagship journal, the American Political Science Review) on everything from Thucydides on the causes of imperialism, Plato on the relation of the sexes, the early modem thinker Grotius' unique effort to ground international law on the newly emerging modem scientific view, and Benjamin Franklin's contribution to how to live as an American. He ended his career at UNT with a four-year tenure as a co-editor of the American Political Science Review. His career marked a sustained and profound examination of the prospects for morality and especially justice in the face of the "demystifying" forces of science at various stages of human history.
Carol Ann Frost
Professor Emerita, Accounting
Dr. Carol Frost was the Bernard Coda Professor of Accounting at the University of North Texas from 2007 until her retirement in 2017. She published widely in leading refereed accounting academic journals including Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Contemporary Accounting Research. Dr. Frost co-authored two editions of a market-leading international accounting textbook. She served as an associate editor on several leading accounting research journals, including Contemporary Accounting Research and Accounting Horizons, and served on many editorial boards. As UNT's accounting doctoral coordinator, she helped implement a more rigorous curriculum and more stringent admission standards for accounting doctoral students. Dr. Frost also taught many doctoral research seminars and mentored many doctoral students through joint research and doctoral committee service.
George Getschow
Principal Lecturer Emeritus, Journalism
George Getschow, a longtime reporter for the Wall Street Journal and other publications, joined UNT as an adjunct instructor in 2002. He was hired as a lecturer the following year, rose through the ranks and retired as a principal lecturer in 2017. Getschow co-founded the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in 2004, and his vision, recruitment of prominent speakers like Gay Talese, and fundraising of more than $100,000 grew the conference from a regional affair to a well-known national event. Along with founding the conference, Getschow was instrumental to increasing visibility for student work, including Mayborn magazine and Ten Spurs journal. Getschow tirelessly forged relationships with journalists at publications ranging from the Denton Record-Chronicle to the Village Voice in New York. His work in redesigning feature writing and other advanced writing classes introduced narrative nonfiction to the Mayborn curriculum and improved the education and job prospects for countless students.
Finley Graves
Provost Emeritus, Accounting
Dr. Finley Graves served as provost and vice president for academic affairs from March 2015 through June 2017. He was dean of the College of Business at UNT from January 2008 through April 2015. As an accounting professor, Dr. Graves published numerous articles and books in the areas of international accounting and accounting history. He was president of the International Section of the American Accounting Association, the Federation of Schools of Accountancy, the Academy of Accounting Historians and the Southwestern Business Deans Association. Among his honors are Outstanding Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Researcher of the Year in the School of Accountancy at the University of Mississippi, both twice; the campus-wide Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship, also at the University of Mississippi; the 2006 student-elected Faculty of the Year Award in the Department of Accounting at UNT; and the national 2009 Federation of Schools of Accountancy/Joseph A. Silvoso Faculty Merit Award for Distinguished Contributions to Accounting Education.
Stanley Ingman
Professor Emeritus, Rehabilitation and Health Services
Dr. Stanley Ingman joined the UNT faculty in 1990. During his tenure at UNT, he played a pivotal role in developing outreach and research centers surrounding aging populations. He was the director of the Texas Institute for Research and Education on Aging at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and University of North Texas Complex from 1991 to 2007, as well as director of the Center for Public Service and program director for the Healthy Neighborhood Initiative from 1995 to 1998. Over the span of his career, he was a key contributor to the literature on sustainable senior living and initiated some of the Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services' first international relationships focused on supportive and sustainable housing for seniors. With an emerging green movement in Mexico, Dr. Ingman fostered a relationship between UNT and SuBire (K-12 business school focused on sustainability) to create an “education for sustainability” program across countries including Mexico, Costa Rica, Uganda and Nigeria. His international partnerships created a wealth of opportunities for UNT graduates and for doctoral research that continues to promote UNT's international presence.
Arminta Jacobson
Professor Emerita, Educational Psychology
Dr. Arminta Jacobson served as a full-time faculty member from 1983 to 2015, then shifted to modified service from 2015 to 2018. Her accomplishments were recognized with UNT's Elaine Millikan Mathes Endowed Professorship and with the prestigious UNT Foundation Community Engagement Award. She also was recognized at the state and national levels, including being named a Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations. She founded the Center for Parent Education and the National/International Conference on Parent Education and directed both for more than 20 years. Dr. Jacobson's impressive research profile at UNT — supported by more than $5 million in grant funding, including federal grants — primarily focused on the support of parent education and early childhood school readiness. She authored 29 articles and seven book chapters, and presented extensively at national and international conferences. While serving on numerous committees at UNT, she led her department to receive academic recognition for supporting student achievement of the Certified Family Life Educator credential and Early Childhood Intervention certification. She also developed new coursework and curriculum for the UNT Core and a doctoral concentration in Human Development and Family Science.
Robert Jessup
Professor Emeritus, Studio Art
Robert Jessup served on the faculty in the Drawing and Design program in the College of Visual Arts and Design for 27 years. Jessup provided important leadership for both his program in Drawing and Painting — through multiple stints as program coordinator, careful mentorship of graduate students and exceptional teaching in countless undergraduate courses — and through his leadership as chair of the Studio Art Department in his final year at UNT. Jessup had a highly distinguished and illustrious career with more than 170 solo and selected group exhibitions of his paintings in galleries as diverse as the Ruth Seigel Gallery, Gimpel/Weitzenhoffer Gallery and Littlejohm/Sternau Gallery in New York City; the Fay Gold Gallery and the Besharat Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia; the McMurtrey Gallery in Houston, Texas; and the Conduit Gallery in Dallas, Texas, to name but a few. His paintings reside in many personal, public, private and corporate art collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin, the Dallas Museum of Art, American General, Pacific Bell in San Francisco, Coca-Cola U.S.A., Inc. and Reich & Tang, Inc. in New York City.
Joseph Kung
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
Dr. Joseph Kung served on the UNT faculty for 40 years. He published 54 research articles, eight expository and scholarly articles and one book.He had numerous research grants, including NSF (1986-90) and NSA (1991-92, 1993-95, 1998-2000, 2011-13). He also was a sought-after speaker, invited to the American Mathematics Social Summer Research Conferences ('85, '91, '95) and international conferences in Korea, Lisbon, Italy, Spain, New Zealand and Britain. He organized two international conferences on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics and served as: managing editor for Advances in Applied Mathematics, editor for the Birkhauser book series Contemporary Mathematicians, consulting editor for the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics and on the editorial boards of Algebra Universalis and Annals of Combinatorics. Additionally, he completed editorial work for two reference encyclopedias: Physical Science and Technology and Complexity and System Science.
Ben Levin
Professor Emeritus, Media Arts
Dr. Ben Levin's career spanned 43 years as one of the most influential professors of documentary film in the United States. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Temple University in 1972, where his film You See...l've Had a Life received the inaugural Student Academy Award for documentary film. In 1989, Professor Levin was appointed to the National Film Preservation Board by the Librarian of Congress, where he helps curate 25 films every year for preservation in the National Archives of the Library of Congress. His ethnographic documentary film works have been screened and exhibited internationally since 1972. Over the course of his 28-year academic career at UNT in RTVF/Media Arts, Professor Levin co-founded and shaped the direction of the Master of Fine Arts program in Documentary Production and Studies into one of the premier graduate film programs in the United States. Professor Levin is a past president of the University Film/Video Association.
Nancy Boyd Lille
Professor Emerita, Management
Dr. Nancy Lille served on the UNT faculty for 27 years.She published articles in such notable journals as the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management, Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, and the Journal of Social Psychology. In 2014, she received the CLEAR Outstanding Teacher and Course Award for her online MBA level course, MGMT 5710. She served in countless ways as a valued member of the faculty, including interim chair of the Department of Management, master's and doctoral program coordinator, Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Faculty Awards Committee and numerous college-level committees.
Cynthia Mohr
Professor Emerita, Design
Cynthia Mohr was a faculty member in the Department of Design for 14 years until her retirement in 2017. Professor Mohr provided critical leadership and focus for the Department of Design and the Interior Design, Fashion and Communication Design programs. A recognized leader in the international community of interior design educators, she was president of the Interior Design Educator Council of North America from 2014 to 2017 and was honored as a fellow in the organization in 2016. The International Interior Design Association honored Professor Mohr with the Leadership of Excellence Award.
Marian O'Rourke-Kaplan
Professor Emerita, Design
Marian O'Rourke-Kaplan was a faculty member in the Department of Design for 25 years. She provided critical leadership and focus as program coordinator and graduate coordinator for the Fashion Design program, guided the Department of Design as department chair from 1998 to 2002, and provided her leadership as associate dean for academic affairs from 2006 to 2011, overseeing the College of Visual Arts and Design's application for accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). In addition, Professor O'Rourke-Kaplan is a recognized leader in the international community of fashion design, working with the International Textile & Apparel Association and the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals. She presented her research at national and international conferences and exhibitions, including in China and Thailand.
Daryl Ramsey
Professor Emeritus, Music Education
Dr. Daryl Ramsey served as an instrumental music specialist in both the graduate and undergraduate programs during his 31-year career in the College of Music. He published numerous articles and gave international, national and state presentations and served throughout the country as a band clinician and adjudicator. In 2000, Dr. Ramsey created the Start Up the Band program, a collaborative effort between the Denton Independent School District and UNT's Division of Music Education to provide band instruction for economically challenged fifth-grade students in the school district while providing practical teaching experience for undergraduate music education majors in the College of Music. This project was influential in Dr. Ramsey's receipt of the Robert J. Rogers Service and Community Engagement Award in 2016. He also served as the chair of the College Division of the Texas Music Educators Association and the national president of both the Sinfonia Foundation and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.
Robert Renka
Professor Emeritus, Computer Science
Dr. Robert Renka joined UNT in 1984 in the Department of Computer Science. He gained early recognition for his contributions to the scientific journal ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software and was appointed algorithms editor for TOMS and other ACM journals in 1988. In 1989, he became Editor-in-Chief of the Collected Algorithms of the ACM and held that position until 1994. In 1990, Dr. Renka became the first member of the department to receive funding from the National Science Foundation. He also received research grants from the National Security Agency and industry leaders. He has been listed in many Who's Who editions, including Who's Who in the World. He received the 2017 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for his professional accomplishments. During Dr. Renka's 34 years at UNT, he taught a wide variety of courses and created many new courses in scientific computing and computer graphics. He also served the department as undergraduate program coordinator, overseeing the successful ABET reaccreditation of UNT's undergraduate programs in computer engineering, computer science and information technology.
Linda Schamber
Acting Dean Emerita, Learning Technologies
Dr. Linda Schamber's 25-year career at UNT was marked by multiple leadership roles within the College of Information, including external affairs director (2013-14), associate dean (2008-14) and acting dean (2011-12). She also served on the Associate Deans Council and as the interim chair for two departments within the College of Information. As acting dean, she worked with faculty and staff to revise and approve the COI charter and develop faculty and staff mentoring programs, growth initiatives for four academic programs, student recruitment campaigns and coordination, and records management policies and systems.
William Scharnberg
Professor Emeritus, Instrumental Studies
Dr. William Scharnberg had a distinguished career as an educator, performer and clinician. His students hold numerous teaching positions in well-respected music schools, top military bands and prestigious symphony orchestras. He was principal horn of the Dallas Opera Orchestra from 1989 to 2016 and is currently principal horn of the Wichita Falls Symphony. He continues to serve the International Horn Society as editor of The Horn Call, the industry trade journal for horn players and educators. His publications include many journal articles and four editions of 18th and 19th century works for horn.
James Scott
Dean Emeritus, Instrumental Studies
Dr. James Scott began his distinguished professional career while still a first-year student at Emory University, winning a position as flutist in the Atlanta Symphony to become one of the youngest musicians in the orchestra's history. He was a faculty member and head of the music program at Rutgers University and later served as associate dean for instruction and professor of flute at Indiana University. Dr. Scott began his tenure as dean of the UNT College of Music in 2001 and served with distinction until 2016. Many of his former students hold tenured and tenure-track positions in various universities. He continues to give master classes in the Czech Republic, Taiwan, China, Thailand and South Korea.
John Scott
Professor Emeritus, Instrumental Studies
Dr. John Scott had a distinguished career as an educator, performer and clinician. He began his tenure at UNT in 1981 and served as chair of the Division of Instrumental Studies and associate dean of admissions. His former students have held positions in numerous orchestras, schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States, and in premier military bands in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the Richardson Symphony Orchestra for 24 years and has performed with such orchestras as the Dallas Symphony and the Fort Worth Symphony. He is an active recitalist and clinician throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He has served as music review editor,and advertising manager for The Clarinet, the official publication of the International Clarinet Association.