Professor Pat Roberts retires after teaching students the importance of words

Pat Roberts is riding away from a long career at the School of Law. Despite numerous run-ins with cars over the years, Pat Roberts still has a passion for running and cycling. Now that she’s retired from the School of Law, she may be trading her road bike for a mountain bike and heading to the wilds of Southern Utah to explore the sandstone and red-rock desert where her daughter gives guided mountain bike tours.

Professor Larry West shared his passion for German with students for four decades

A dare 50 years ago sent Larry West on the path to a lifetime of teaching German at Wake Forest. Boys being boys, they’ll dare each other on a whim to do wild and crazy stuff. Which explains why Larry West has enjoyed a long and venerable career as a college German professor. That career, spent almost entirely at Wake Forest, drew to a close this spring with his retirement from the Department of German and Russian. Behind him, the 68-year-old West leaves a redoubtable legacy as a teacher, scholar and study-abroad administrator, along with a cadre of devoted colleagues and former students who have been inspired by his dedication and regaled by his wit.

A passion for parks: History’s Emily Wakild receives NEH grant to study Mexican national parks

Emily Wakild, who joined the history faculty in 2007, teaches her Latin American history class. History professor Emily Wakild is passionate about Mexican parks. She has spent more than a decade researching and writing about the legacy of the Mexican Revolution in the early- to late-1900s, a period in which government planners created a system of national parks to achieve both social goals and environmental conservation.

‘Why Do People Laugh?’

Cindy Gendrich will use a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop a first-year seminar on comedy and humor. Cindy Gendrich is one of those people who can't stop herself from laughing, sometimes too loudly and at inappropriate times. A professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, Gendrich has received a $24,800 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her proposal, “Why do people laugh?”, to study the complexities of humor and to develop a first-year seminar.

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