The Indiana Distinguished Teaching Award

Rick Gillman
Fall 2025

The MAA created the section and national Distinguished Teaching Awards in 1991 and gave out the first awards in 1992. After receiving a report from an ad-hoc committee, the Board of Governors approved the awards in January 1991, made slight modifications at the Section Officers meeting in August 1991, and a letter was sent to the section chairs on August 16, 1991.

This is quick by MAA standards, so you may want to know who the MAA leaders were at the time. They were

Deborah Tepper Haimo, MAA President
Gerald Alexanderson, MAA Secretary
Henry Alder, Chair, National Selection Committee
Barbara Faires, Chair, Committee on Sections

The MAA instituted the Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching to honor college or university teachers who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions. In 1993 the MAA Board of Governors renamed the award to honor Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo. (MAA website)

The awards were, and are, to be given to college or university teachers of mathematics who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful. Their effectiveness must be documented and shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions. Teaching is to be interpreted in its broadest sense, not necessarily limited to classroom instruction. (1991 guidelines)

In the guidelines, sections were given a draft letter containing a call for nominations to be sent to department chairs. They also received a nomination form, procedures, and timelines. At the beginning of the academic year, each section of the Association is requested to select one of its members for a yearly Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, and to honor its award winner at a Section meeting during that academic year. (1991 guidelines)

The Indiana Section leadership team in 1991 consisted of

Roger Nelson, Chair
Mic Jackson, Vice-Chair
Steve Carlson, Secretary-Treasurer
Lowell Beineke, Governor

This team sent out notices to all the department chairs and organized an initial selection committee. It consisted of

Carl Cowen (Purdue University)
Roger Lautzenheiser (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology)
Judy Morrel (Butler University)
Roger Nelson (Ball State University)

The selection committee chose Gary Sherman, a professor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, as the first winner. At the April 11, 1992, Indiana Section meeting, Gary was presented with the first Indiana Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. The section website says that at the time, “Gary has been a member of the Mathematics Department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for twenty years and has previously received numerous teaching awards. In 1988 he received the Dean's Outstanding Teacher Award at RHIT and in 1990 he was presented with the Rose-Hulman Board of Managers Outstanding Scholar Award. Gary's teaching ability has touched the life of students throughout the country. In 1990 Gary started a REU program at Rose, which is already recognized as one of the outstanding REU's in the country. Students from his program have published 10 papers, with three others presently being reviewed, and four new papers are being written. In addition, twenty student technical reports have been written.” You will be able to read more about Gary in my Spring 2026 Looking-Back column.

The next two Distinguished Teaching Award winners were both from Purdue University. They were J.J. Price (1993) and David Moore (1994).

Each section was to “submit to the [MAA] Standing Committee by the end of January the names of the section award winners together with the documentation. The MAA Award winners shall be from those named by the section, with the provision that one of the winners may be selected from another source.” The Standing Committee would select three national winners, each of which would be recognized at a national meeting and receive a $1,000 prize. (1991 guidelines)

The Indiana Section has had four Haimo Award winners in subsequent years. They are

1994 JJ Price (Purdue)
1995 David Moore (Purdue)
1997 Carl Cowen (Purdue)
2012 Matt DeLong (Taylor)

While the Distinguished Teaching Award has maintained its focus on exceptional teaching over the past 30 years, several changes have been made. Most notably, in 2025 the award was renamed the Crawford Teaching Award, in honor of Dr. Carol Crawford, Professor Emerita of the United States Naval Academy.

Procedurally, the section’s selection committee has been expanded to five members, of whom the Past Chair of the Section and the previous year’s award winner are ex-officio members, with the other members are selected to represent the diversity of faculty and institutions within the section. The nomination packets can vary from that required for the Haimo Award, making it easier to nominate someone for the Crawford Award. However, Crawford Award nominators are still encouraged to use the same packet format as the Haimo so that it’s more straightforward to reuse the submission for the Haimo Award as well.