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May 15, 2006

Trinity Business Administration Professor Wins Teaching Fellowship

SAN ANTONIO – Richard M. Burr, professor of business administration at Trinity University, has been named the 2006 recipient of the Dr. and Mrs. Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship in recognition of his outstanding abilities as a teacher and adviser.

The Z.T. Scott Fellowship, given annually for excellence in teaching and advising, includes a $6,000 cash award as well as $4,000 to be used for professional development and research. Trinity University Trustee Richard M. Kleberg III established the Fellowship in 1984 in honor of his grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Z.T. Scott. The award was announced May 13 during Trinity’s undergraduate commencement.

Professor Burr came to Trinity in 1972 and has served as chair of the department of business administration three different times and as dean of the faculty of Business and Administrative Studies. In addition, he has been chair of the Faculty Senate and has served on the Commission on Promotion and Tenure, the Curriculum Council, the Faculty Development Commission, and the University Long-Range Planning Committee.

In 2003, Professor Burr was honored for his distinguished University and community service. He has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and was a faculty fellow in cooperation with a program sponsored by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington, D.C. He also has studied Spanish, international relations, and international trade in Argentina, Chile, Antigua, Guatemala, Mexico, and at Stanford University. He also has served for a number of years on the board of the Baptist Memorial Hospital System.

Professor Burr says he enjoys watching students mature in their thought processes and seeing them grasp concepts and ideas. “My basic approach to teaching is to help students learn to think,” he said. In his 40 years of teaching at the university level, he has taught courses in business statistics, sampling theory, quantitative decision making, marketing, consumer behavior, and management information systems, among others.

Mary Gilly ’74, a former student who cited Professor Burr as the inspiration for her to pursue a doctorate and enter the teaching field said, “He demonstrates his concern that students understand concepts, not just for the test but for the future.”

Colleagues at Trinity lauded his leadership in securing accreditation from the AACSB, a multi-year process that required rigorous research and planning, and for his dedication to an education exchange with Monterrey Tec University in Monterrey, Mexico, as well as his vision for a summer internship program for Trinity students in Madrid, Spain.

He has stepped outside his academic expertise to teach numerous First-Year Seminars, including a recent one titled “The Suspense and Mystery Novel.” He also supervises internship programs administered by the business administration department and spends countless hours advising students on courses, careers, and life.

He earned a bachelor’s degree at Huntingdon College and holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Alabama. He previously taught at North Texas University.

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