Dr. Sidney Watson, OBU professor of English, who has taught at OBU for 25 years, left, and Teri Walker, assistant registrar/degree counselor, who has 40 years of service at OBU, were recognized during a retirement reception on Tuesday, May 14.

OBU Honors Retirees Walker and Watson

May 14, 2024

OBU hosted a retirement reception for a long-serving staffer and a longtime faculty member on May 14 at the Geiger Center on the OBU campus in Shawnee.

Retiring employees include Teri Walker, assistant registrar/degree counselor, after 40 years of service, and Dr. Sidney Watson, professor of English, who has taught at OBU for 25 years.

Walker’s four decades of service to OBU include serving as the Howard Residence Center director beginning in 1983 and then going on to serve as assistant director and then director of the Geiger Center before taking the position of assistant registrar/degree counselor.

She is known for actively participating in various aspects of life on Bison Hill, including attending sporting events, theatre productions and fine arts concerts. She has hosted students at her house for home groups and she earned the Meritorious Service award in 2020. Walker is also an active member of Immanuel Baptist Church and has served on the church finance committee. She and husband, Larry, have two daughters, Worthy Arrington and Amity Blessman, and five grandchildren.

Watson has been at OBU since August 1999, progressing from assistant professor (1999-2004) to associate professor (2004-2010). She has served as a professor in the Department of English since 2010. Watson is a specialist in 20th-century literature and literature by women and has taught all levels of English. In her years at OBU, she has directed several students' honors theses.

As one of the faculty sponsors for OBU's Sigma Tau Delta chapter, the International English Honor Society, Watson is active at the national level of Sigma Tau Delta. In April 2022, she was awarded Sigma Tau Delta's highest award, becoming the 16^th Delta Award honoree in the organization's almost hundred-year history. Watson has three sons, Jamie, Robert, and Billy and four grandchildren.

Walker and Watson were each asked what future shaper means to them.

Walker said, “There is no finish line...keep pushing back the darkness."

Watson said a future shaper “Is a current or future member of the OBU family who works to implement God's will in the world.”