THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270020
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
WILLIAM D. STANLEY, a slightly rumpled engineering professor with a friendly drawl, doesn't come off as a snobbish intellectual. But he sounds a bit like Dr. Freud when talking about his motives for getting into teaching.
``At the deepest emotional level,'' he said, ``it gives me a sense of self-confidence and well-being to help somebody. If I can show somebody else how to do something, it tends to compensate for any feelings that I'm not up to teaching.''
He's up to it, all right.
Stanley, the chairman of the engineering technology department, has taught at Old Dominion University for 30 years. He recently won one of 11 Outstanding Faculty Awards, which are given by the State Council of Higher Education.
His motto at the blackboard is: Keep it simple. ``More than anything else, it's being able to get to the meat of something and simplify it,'' said Stanley, 58. ``I like to take complex ideas and simplify them to their simplest possible essence and then start building in complexities at that point.
``Disciplines tend to create mystiques that make it hard for outsiders to penetrate; part of it is self-preservation. I like to break through that.''
Students say he succeeds. Whether Stanley's talking about LaPlace transforms, a math process to help solve equations, or overdamped circuits, he makes his subject crystal clear.
``He keeps it on a level students can understand,'' said senior Rodney Williams, who is majoring in electrical engineering technology. ``He makes hard concepts look easy. And he doesn't move on unless everyone is clear.''
Early on, Stanley found electronics to be a release from both his self-doubts and his frustrations with his hometown.
He grew up in Bladenboro, N.C., a small town in the southeastern part of the state, a place where ``a lot of people would come home from work and get drunk or fight with their spouses.'' Kids there generally had three choices: farming, work in a textile mill or the military.
None of them appealed to him.
He was, he recalled, ``a terribly insecure, highly nervous child. . . . I was a nerd of that time. Some of the other kids didn't know what to make of me.''
But Stanley found his niche in a relative's radio repair store. ``He taught me how to test radio tubes and check out some of the circuits,'' Stanley said. ``It was an escape from the reality around me.''
He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina in 1960 and his master's and doctoral degrees from North Carolina State University in 1963.
He taught at Clemson University until 1966, when he was lured to ODU's fledgling engineering school with the promise of a higher title - associate professor.
He started teaching electrical engineering but in 1970 began developing ODU's program in engineering technology - the first four-year degree of its kind in the state - and he's been there ever since.
So what's the difference between engineering and engineering technology? Engineering technology students, he said, ``tend to be more hands-on people'' and less oriented toward science than engineers. About half the students who get bachelor's degrees in engineering at ODU are engineering technology majors, he said. Last year, nearly 90 students received the technology degrees.
After college, Stanley said, the engineering students often end up in jobs designing projects; the engineering technology majors become the ones who see the projects through, making sure they're set up right.
That doesn't mean they can't advance into management: One graduate has become vice president of Babcock & Wilcox in Lynchburg; another is chief engineer of WAVY-TV.
Stanley knows the tech track isn't universally loved at ODU. ``There's a tendency for academics to look down on anything on a hands-on level, anything that isn't on a theoretical level,'' he said.
But taking a page from his past, Stanley strives to erase any self-esteem problems in his students. ``I don't go in with the attitude that I'm above everyone else and I look down on them,'' he said. ``I try to maintain a humble approach and show them that sometimes I'm struggling.''
And he doesn't force them to take on unnecessary work. During a recent class, Stanley covered the blackboard with a cloud of numbers and equations, but he reassured the students: ``Don't try to remember all of these formulas; you're wasting your time. This is unnecessary memory work.''
Jo Ann Gora, the provost at Old Dominion, described Stanley as a visionary who helped pioneer ODU's earliest televised courses, in 1989. He now oversees four of the 10 degree programs that ODU beams across the state.
``Bill Stanley was out in front of most people in his ability to envision what the needs of his discipline would be,'' she said. ``He got his faculty teaching on TV before it was the popular thing to do.''
Because of Stanley's humble streak, ``he has written textbooks that most people don't know about,'' Gora said. ``In addition to that, he is department chairman and is involved in a lot of administrative details that would bog most people down, but he somehow manages to get the job done.
``What he is really known for is being an advocate for students . . . a person always trying to help them be successful.''
That shows through even in his use of his $5,000 faculty award. He has decided to give it to ODU, the first part of a five-year, $25,000 gift to endow a scholarship.
``It sounds corny,'' he said, ``but I just feel that I had a lot of help when I was going through school, and it's sort of returning the favor to some future person.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
WILLIAM D. STANLEY
His motto at the blackboard is: Keep it simple. ``More than anything
else, it's being able to get to the meat of something and simplify
it.''
Photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
William D. Stanley has taught for 30 years at ODU, where he began
the state's first four-year program in engineering technology.
Graphic
OTHER WINNERS
These are the nine other Virginia professors who received
Outstanding Faculty Awards this month:
Robert S. Gibson, medicine, University of Virginia
Franklin M. Jones, physical science, Radford University
Dana N. Lascu, marketing, University of Richmond
Donald W. Linzey, biology, Wytheville Community College
James R. Martin, civil engineering, Virginia Tech
Godwin O. Mbagwu, chemistry, Virginia State University
Jeanne L. Sorrell, nursing, George Mason University
Michael G. Wessells, psychology, Randolph-Macon College
Alvin M. Zfass, medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University
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