The Texarkana College Faculty Association honored W. P. Akin, Vice-President and Dean of the College, with an appreciation and testimonial dinner in the TC Student Center Thursday evening, December 14. Approximately 250 persons were in attendance.
Having been a teacher several years before coming to Texarkana, Dean Akin has been an administrator at Texarkana College ever since its establishment in 1927. Although he has served the Texarkana College as an interim President, and although he has been for the past two years the Administrative Vice-President, it is the title of Dean that has settled on him so thoroughly that it seems to be a part of his name. Any name other than DEAN seems unnatural. He is not only the Dean of Texarkana College, but may be referred to as the Dean of Education in northeast Texas and the Four-States area. It is doubtful that the life of any other person living in this area has touched directly the education of as many men and women as has the life of Dean Akin.
Editor J. Q. Mahaffey of the Texarkana Gazette was Master of Ceremonies for the occasion. After the invocation by Dr. T. J. Wilbanks, Pastor Emeritus of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church, Editor Mahaffey introduced the numerous specially invited guests.
Of the six speakers who gave testimonials honoring Dean Akin, Superintendent Bill K. Copeland of Mt. Vernon was first. Copeland, a former instructor at Texarkana College, speaking of the Dean as an administrator, praised him for his diligence, his thoroughness, his loyalty, and his dependability.
Taking the measure of the Dean from the point of view of the student, Dr. William R. Patterson, now a member of the Board of Regents, referred to him as a man of “intellectual honesty and sincerity of purpose,” but most of all as “a dean with an educated heart.”
President Pearson Walsh of Walsh-Lumpkin Drug Company, telling of Dean Akin’s work as a Rotarian, called him “The Grand Old Man of Rotary,” and said “When we need any information concerning Rotary, we can always rely on Porter for the answer.”
W. N. Patterson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the First Methodist Church, commenting on Dean Akin’s work in the church, spoke of his “quiet, unassuming, Christian love which earned the respect of his pastor and fellow laymen, which made it possible for his church to go forward, and which contributed greatly to the well-being of the entire area.”
Dr. W. H. Hinton, President of Texarkana College, relating the present administration’s view of the Dean, mentioned his “great strength to me for his knowledge of our local situation, and for his ability to fill in as various situations arise.”
J. H. Calvert, President of the TC Faculty Association, lauded the Dean for his “remarkable skill developed through the years in evaluating an instructor’s work, with no obvious intent to criticize or evaluate. This,” Calvert went on to say, “has had an impact on teachers under his supervision, because they realize that he knows what they are doing.” At the close of his remarks Calvert presented the Dean with a console stereo record player.
Entertainment for the dinner consisted of some close harmony by a faculty foursome—Kenneth Keathley, C. O. Fowler, Henry Wood and Tom Jenkins; a violin duet, “Petite Sonata” by Instructor Frank Payne and Student Andrew Clingan, accompanied by Mrs. H. E. Tye; and a piano solo, Brahms’ “Humoresque,” by Glenda Thompson, a TC student.
The benediction was by Rev. Lamar S. Clark, Pastor of the First Methodist Church.