The Last Lecture Series at Tarleton
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 19, 2019
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Dr. David Frazier, associate professor of agriculture education, will deliver the sixth talk in Tarleton State University’s Last Lecture Series, Tuesday, Oct. 8, on the Stephenville campus.
Doors open at 6 p.m. for the 6:30 talk, “Expect the Unexpected,” in the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center Auditorium. A reception with light refreshments follows.
Though a free event, tickets are required and are available on campus at the Center for Instructional Innovation across from the Clyde Wells Auditorium in the back of the Dick Smith Library; in Room 105 of the Agriculture Building; and in the Student Government Association office in the Thompson Student Center. Tickets also are available at the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council at 204 River North Blvd. in Stephenville.
The Last Lecture Award is the only Tarleton faculty honor bestowed entirely by students. They nominate a professor who has inspired their academic pursuits and outlook on life.
“I’m very excited and very humbled,” Frazier said. “It’s a huge honor. Any time the students want you to do something, that just sets it apart from everything else in the world.
“What a powerful opportunity you have to share the message that we don’t have forever. We need to take advantage of every single minute to tell our story, to motivate and support others.”
Frazier, who grew up in Melrose, N.M., has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Texas Tech. He began his career as an educator as a high school teacher and FFA adviser in Snyder, Texas.
He holds a master’s degree, also from Texas Tech, and earned his doctorate from the University of Missouri.
He has taught at Tarleton since 2012, worked with nearly 300 pre-service agricultural education teachers and served on 163 graduate student committees. He received the O.A. Grant Teaching Award in 2017 and 2018 and the NACTA Teaching Award of Merit in 2017.
His commitment to service garnered him the Barry B. Thompson Service Award at the university level in 2015. His dedication to student success earned him the 2019 Faculty Excellence in Student Success Award at the university level. He was appointed to the Texas A&M University System’s 2019 Chancellor’s Academy of Teacher Educators.
Frazier maintains his study abroad program with the Czech Republic and over the past seven summers has accompanied more than 120 Tarleton students to the country to learn about international culture and agriculture.
Tarleton students selected Casey Thompson to deliver the Last Lecture last fall, Dr. Rudy Tarpley in 2017, Dr. Jim Gentry in 2016 and Dr. Jim Kirby in 2015 after the university’s inaugural presentation by the late Dr. Christopher Guthrie, a professor of history and A&M University System Regents Professor.
Thompson is a government instructor, Tarpley a professor of agricultural education, Gentry an associate professor of curriculum and instruction, and Kirby a retired professor of mathematics.
The Last Lecture Series invites professors to share what they would say if it were their last opportunity to address colleagues and students. The first lecture was in 1955 when six distinguished UCLA professors offered their life philosophy through the lens of discipline, interests and personal experiences.
Since then, the series has become a tradition at many universities, gaining popularity in 2007 when Dr. Randy Pausch delivered a talk, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at Carnegie Mellon University. Pausch’s lecture — and subsequent book, The Last Lecture — took on added meaning as he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with only months to live.
For more information about the Last Lecture Series at Tarleton, visit www.tarleton.edu/facultyfellows/lastlecture.html.
Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today’s scholars into tomorrow’s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.
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Contact: Phil Riddle, News and Information Specialist
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