Reunited again
Four professors were once Montague roommates, neighbors
More than a few Furman students who have sat in front of a college lectern have eventually returned to teach behind it.
In fact, 46 current faculty members can trace their undergraduate roots back to alma mater. But what are the chances of college roommates and their next-door neighbors all returning at the same time to teach?
Well, you don't have to work on the second floor of Riley Hall to calculate that the odds of that happening are fairly remote.
But that's what happened to John Harris '91, Greg Lewis '91, Travis Perry '92 and Steven Ramey '91 — roommates and neighbors at Montague Village during their student days.
During the 1990-91 academic year, biology majors and current biology professors Lewis and Perry lived together in Apartment 14 . Mathematics professor Harris and religion professor Ramey lived next door in Apartment 15, where Harris was the resident assistant for Montague Village.
Today those “apartments” are located between Marketing and Public Relations and Computing and Information Services. They will soon be renovated into office space.
But at one time some pretty loud music emanated from Apartment 14.
“People accused us of playing our music loudly, but Harris never wrote us up for it,” laughs Lewis. Perry adds, “We just tried not to get in trouble.”
Lewis admits that “we used to joke about teaching at Furman,” but he never imagined that he would end up back at the university in the company of his college neighbors.
Lewis and Harris returned to Furman in 2000. Perry joined the biology faculty in the spring of 2001 after Wade Worthen, his former professor and current colleague, encouraged him to apply for a temporary opening that led to a full-time job. Ramey, who will be teaching at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke next year, joined the Furman religion department last fall for a one-year appointment.
To further add to the irony of the situation, all four professors currently live near campus — and within a couple of miles of each other, by Lewis' estimate.
Lewis notes that it is not unusual for Furman graduates to return as faculty. “Most departments on campus have at least one Furman grad in them,” he said. “It says good things about the university.”
(Mary Brannon contributed to this story)
Inside Furman is published monthly during the school year by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.
