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Former English Professor's Memory Honored |
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The memory of Heidi Atkins, former professor of English, will live on in perpetuity in the hearts and minds of faculty, staff, and students at Augusta State, thanks to the work of Lillie Johnson, chair and professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages. Dr. Johnson led an effort to commission a sculpture in the late professor's honor. The result is a bench, sculpted by faculty artist Brian Rust, professor of art in the Department of Art, in the form of a butterfly crafted from a branch of the Arsenal Oak.
The bench is located near the Fine Arts Center's main entrance. "I think it was a wonderful coming together of ideas with Lillie wanting to have a memorial and the Arsenal Oak being available as a material," says Professor Rust.
"We were looking for some way to honor her. She loved music, art, and literature. Heidi appreciated the great outdoors both from a literary point of view and as a human being. The bench is both practical and aesthetic - it seemed like an ideal and symbolic gesture for her," says Dr. Johnson.
Mr. Rust adds that he wanted the bench to be both functional and inviting with a strong visual presence to it. "I believe this to be a fitting tribute to a fellow teacher. Someone I had never met, but to whom I am linked in both place and profession here as a professor at Augusta State," he says.
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Dr. Atkins, a '66 alumna, received her bachelor's degree in English from then Augusta College and was a recipient of an English award for the student with the highest grade point average. She later received a doctoral degree in comparative literature from the University of South Carolina. She joined the Augusta College faculty in 1969 and taught in the English department for 25 years, receiving the Outstanding Teaching Award in 1981. "Once she returned to the university, it was central to her life," says Dr. Johnson.
The Austrian native, who spoke at least five languages, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Phi Kappa (German Honor Society), Phi Kappa Phi, and Alpha Mu Gamma (Spanish Honor Society), and she was also active with the Cullum Committee, search committee, and the departmental Personnel Committee. She also provided translation services for the community.
In 1994, Dr. Atkins retired from Augusta College. She died in September 2002 leaving behind a son, Mark Atkins, and many friends, colleagues, and students who truly adored her.
Dr. Johnson was a former student of Dr. Atkins before later becoming a faculty colleague. "I know that I am just one of the hundreds of students who loved her. Heidi Atkins, an exemplary teacher, was my teacher and mentor. From the distance of almost forty years, I know why she was so influential. She was smart, not in a showy way. She just quite simply loved literature and she read everything - poetry and novels, prose essays and dramas. She encouraged us students not only to read the great stylists but to write them - to write out lines and lines of poetry or prose until we could hear the words in our minds," says Dr. Johnson.
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