MURFREESBORO — MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry is handing out a sweet new
award — and rewards — this academic year to faculty and staff who help inspire
students and colleagues.
In honor of
recording industry Professor Emerita Marilyn Wood, who retired last year after
20 years at the university, new department chair Beverly Keel created the Marilyn Wood Award for Outstanding
Department Contributions.
One deserving faculty member,
secretary, advisor or technology staffer will receive $1,000 each April in
gratitude for his or her positive contributions to the department. Throughout
the year, faculty and staff will receive Hershey’s Kisses for
“mini-Marilyns,” when they make a difference with a small gesture, or a large
Hershey Bar for “major Marilyns,” when they make a significant contribution to
the department.
A
supersized candy bar will accompany the $1,000 annual award.
Keel
noted that the award is called “the Marilyn” in much in the same way that the
Academy Awards are called the Oscars. Wood was known for bringing bags of
chocolate to faculty meetings — even dividing the treats into milk and dark
chocolate according to her colleagues’ preferences — so Keel incorporated
chocolate into this award.
“She
is the supportive cheerleader who brightens everyone’s day,” Keel said during
an Aug. 27 departmental meeting that included the award announcement. “She
cares about the well-being of us all. I like to think of her as a walking hug.”
Keel
told the faculty that the department had felt a real void since Wood’s
retirement because she was not only one of the most beloved professors but also
the loving heart of the Department of Recording Industry.
“I
think it’s important that we ensure that Marilyn’s spirit and positive
personality are carried on in the department,” Keel said. “Let’s find the inner
Marilyn in all of us and help make this a department that always puts students
first.”
The announcement was a surprise to
Wood, who was lured
to the meeting by her husband, Dr. Bob Wood, who still teaches in the program.
“Imagine
my confusion and curiosity when it was requested that I attend a recording industry
faculty meeting a year after I had retired,” Marilyn Wood said. “Then imagine
my amazement at having a faculty/staff award established in my honor by the new
recording industry chair! (I) was … very humbled by the conditions required to
be selected for this award.
“I
truly loved teaching and was so blessed to have the most wonderful faculty in recording
industry surrounding me,” she continued. “When it was stated that my ‘spirit of
joy and caring’ about my fellow faculty and staff members and my caring about
our students was going to be recognized through this award, I could only
respond in tears. What a wonderful, beautiful moment that I will treasure
always.”
Marilyn
Wood taught beginning and advanced musicianship classes for recording
engineering students during her tenure as an associate professor at MTSU. She
received the university’s 2001 Distinguished Creative Activity Award for her
work as producer of the Nashville Children’s Choir CD, “The Music of our Life,”
and for her choral and Orff-Schulwerk arrangements for children. She also was
honored with the Outstanding Honors College Faculty Award in 2006.
Wood,
a composer, arranger and music educator, is a specialist in Orff-Schulwerk education,
which teaches children to become musicians through creative singing, playing
instruments, speech and movement.
She
earned a Master of Music Education degree from the University of North Texas
and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Oklahoma Baptist University and
is certified in Orff-Schulwerk through the master class level from the
University of Memphis.
MTSU’s Department
of Recording Industry, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is
one of the university’s signature departments and was featured in the Aug. 24
issue of Billboard’s annual look at music education.
The department is
the only one of its kind in the nation to be housed in a college of mass
communication. It offers a Bachelor of Science degree with concentrations in music
business, audio production and commercial songwriting, as well as a Master of
Fine Arts degree in recording arts and technologies.
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