Smith Named Texas Professor of the Year

Smith Named Texas Professor of the Year
BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY
Rice News Staff
Oct. 15, 1998

Richard Smith, the 1998-1999 Texas Professor of the Year, can often be found
during the lunch hour in the Hanszen College commons surrounded by a table full
of students in animated discussion.

To an observer, Smith and his students seem to have a wonderful time as they
talk, gesture and laugh. Minds are engaged. Eating seems to be a low priority.

As one member of the faculty said, Smith has a way of turning conversations
with students not only into social occasions but also into educational occasions.
That is one reason Smith is a successful teacher.

On Oct. 8, Smith was named the Texas Professor of the Year by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and
Support of Education. The award is given in recognition of extraordinary dedication
to teaching, commitment to students and innovative teaching methods.

Smith credits Rice with providing a teacher-friendly environment.

"Rice is a wonderful place to teach, precisely because it provides colleagues
who are inspirational, students who are challenging, and an administration committed
to the support of innovative teaching as well as creative research."

Judith Brown, dean of humanities, who nominated him for the award, said Smith
"has proven himself one of the best, perhaps the best, teacher in Rice’s
history department and that is high praise because the department is as famous
for the excellence of its teaching as its research."

She cited his numerous teaching awards–he’s been barred from future George
R. Brown teaching awards because he won so many times in the past–his scholarship
and his devotion to students as reasons why he was chosen for the award.

Smith’s teaching awards number 12 in all. In addition to the Brown teaching
awards at Rice, he has also received the 1978 Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award,
the 1987 Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award, the Allison Sarofim Distinguished
Teaching Professorship for 1994-1996, the 1996 Nicholas Salgo Distinguished
Teaching Prize and others.

Smith specializes in modern Chinese history and traditional Chinese culture.
His other interests include early Chinese history and culture, Japanese history
and culture, comparative history and cultural anthropology. He is also director
of Asian Studies at Rice and director of Asian outreach for Rice’s Center for
Education.

He is very active in promoting and furthering understanding of Chinese culture
and history. For many years, he has taught at the Woman’s Institute of Houston,
a private cultural organization that brings teachers and adult students together.
He has organized and led frequent educational trips to China, and he is known
nationally for his efforts at China-oriented educational outreach. Allen Matusow,
the W.G. Twyman Professor of History, described him as a missionary for Chinese
culture and history.

Smith has written numerous books including "Robert Hart and China’s Early
Modernization (Harvard University Press, 1991), "Fortune-tellers and Philosophers"
(Westview Press, 1991), "Chinese Almanacs" (Oxford University Press,
1992), "China’s Cultural Heritage" (Westview Press, 1994), and "Chinese
Maps" (Oxford University Press, 1996). He is working on two new books including
one for the University of Virginia Press on the Chinese classic known as "I-ching"
("Book of Changes").

Gale Stokes, the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of History, praised Smith’s scholarship
and his ability to blend his scholarship with teaching.

"[Smith] is enormously qualified for this award," Stokes said. "He
brings to his teaching a lot of the research that he does. There is a very close
linkage between his research and his teaching. The amazing thing about Smith
is that he combines commitment to teaching with first-rate scholarship. From
the beginning of his career, he has published extensively. These publications,
and his constant appearance at professional meetings in the United States and
Asia, have made him one of the major figures in Chinese history in the United
States.

"He is very enthusiastic teacher," Stokes added. "He’s won just
about every award you can win around here. [Texas Professor of the Year] is
a richly deserved award. He has done a wonderful job of teaching for us for
many years."

Smith also served five years as the master of Hanszen College. Matusow was
chair of the committee that hired Smith in 1973 and later served as a faculty
associate at Hanszen when Smith was master.

"Rich is a multitalented person," Mat-usow said, "more talented
than most people know, and I think he had a chance to use a lot of his talents
when he was a master."

Smith is skilled in interpersonal relations and able to establish rapport with
a great many different kinds of students, Matusow said.

"He can sit down and pound out rock ‘n’ roll, and he is also a great athlete.
At the age of 40, he quarterbacked the Hanszen College football team to the
intramural championship. The students admired him for being good at practically
everything, and that helped him to relate and to become one of the great masters
in Rice history."

Stokes, Matusow and other members of the faculty concur that Smith does what
few people can do: produce a large volume of high-quality scholarship, serve
as a highly visible member in the Houston community, and be an award-winning
teacher.

"The man," Matusow said, "is a phenomenon."