GPC English professor Dr. Rosemary Cox is the 2013 Cole Fellow. (Photo by Bill Roa)

By Rebecca Rakoczy

This was the year Dr. Rosemary Cox was going to retire. Honored as the 2013 Cole Fellow by her colleagues, the veteran English professor was setting her sights on devoting herself to conservation efforts statewide and building up her wildflower garden at her family cabin.

“I wish to become a Master Gardener, take coursework at the University of Georgia to become an arborist … I hope to increase my involvement with the Georgia Conservancy.”

But those “earth-y” pursuits have been delayed, at least until next spring.

Instead, Cox is adding a less leafy, but still pretty “green” option to her 30-plus years at GPC: Overseeing a 19-member committee that is developing a digital textbook for English classes. The project was spurred by interim president Rob Watts’ desire to have low-cost textbooks for students.

“If everything continues as smoothly as it has, we will be ready to pilot a text next summer; with full adoption by fall 2015,” Cox said.

Cox began her career at the college, working in the writing lab at DeKalb College (now GPC)  and then taught English as a Second Language before landing a part-time gig as an English instructor. “I went full time in 1985, and I haven’t looked back,” she says.

She teaches composition and all literature classes, as well as Honors and creative writing classes; she also lends her editing talents as faculty editor of The Chattahoochee Review, among other publications.

Cox’s devotion to her discipline and her students is no surprise to those who nominated her for the Cole Fellow. The award goes to a faculty member who demonstrates “extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching.” Said one Cole Fellow nominator, “her service to the college is as exemplary as her teaching.” 

The feeling is mutual. “The faculty and students here have been such an important part of my life. What other profession would give me an opportunity to feel that every day I am making a significant difference in the lives of others?”

“I like to think I am like Chaucer’s Clerk/Oxford student: ‘And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.’”