Professor of Greek and Roman Studies Dr. David Sick received the 2019 Jacqueline Elliott Award for Service in Higher Education at the Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Association (TFLTA) conference held in Franklin, TN, Nov. 8-9.
The award is presented annually to a foreign language educator at the post-secondary level for outstanding service to the profession. The award is named in honor of Jacqueline Elliott, the first recipient of this honor. All language professors in Tennessee—including those who teach Spanish, French, Latin, etc.—are eligible.
At the awards presentation, Sick was recognized for being “a remarkable Latin and Greek professor at Rhodes College, as well as a role model of a life-long learner.”
In nominating him, one of his students described him as “fun, enthusiastic and inspiring,” and noted, “There is no topic that he won’t discuss, no question he won’t answer, though the answer may come with an armload of books!”
One of his colleagues wrote, “Throughout his career, he has researched and published 16 peer-reviewed articles in 22 years, numerous book reviews, and conference papers on a wide range of subject matters.” Another nominator wrote, “Professor Sick has had a nationwide impact on the teaching of classics, and he has served in various capacities of service to national classical honor societies, as well as contributing to the Greek and Roman Studies program at Rhodes, which he chaired from 2009-11, 2012-2017.”
Besides the ancient languages of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Old Iranian, Sick also has reading knowledge in the modern languages of French, German, and Italian.