FARMVILLE, Va., Sept. 16 -- Longwood University issued the following news release:
The student-faculty relationship is a cornerstone of higher education. Done well, bonds between teacher and student can awaken a passion for a subject or career that a student may otherwise have overlooked.
For Diane Bottoms Boxley '72, that connection came during a calculus class taught by the late Dr. Merry Lewis Allen, a beloved Longwood mathematics professor who served the university for 32 years.
"It was on the third floor of Grainger Hall, and I can still see her at the blackboard," Boxley said. "She had an eraser in one hand and a chalk-holder in the other. She would go across rapid fire, writing and filling up the board, erasing it and then going b...