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Appreciating Barbara Taylor,
A Lifelong Learner and Teacher

My mother was quite extraordinary even before I was born. In 1964, fresh from a divorce, Barbara Taylor realized she wasn't prepared to earn a living to support her three young daughters, as she had married early instead of going to college. She bought a college catalog, and when she reached the page for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she knew she had found her school.

She applied, was accepted, and soon moved her family to Chapel Hill to begin her coursework at night, hoping to earn state residency within a year. Being a night student also made it possible for her to have the days free for her homework while supervising her girls' schoolwork.

She immediately impressed her teachers, especially in a class in Latin literature taught by Dr. Robert House, the former chancellor of the university. She felt lucky to be in the class, as it was to be the last Dr. House would teach before he fully retired. He loved her work in the class and, upon learning her story, recommended her to receive a full, four-year scholarship to the university. Barbara ended up double-majoring in sociology and psychology, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. But, she had been bitten by the learning-bug, and she applied for and received a fellowship for graduate study.

In only 12 months, she earned her master's degree in public health—around the same time that she married my father, a graduate student in physics. The new family soon moved to Virginia, where my father would teach at Old Dominion University. Barbara joined the faculty in the Department of Sociology at ODU in 1972—teaching at night until I was in kindergarten in 1975, when she began teaching full-time.

She consistently received the best teaching evaluations in the department, but she was not only a great teacher, she really cared about her students. She gave out her home phone number and was available day or night for both academic and personal concerns.

Since her days at ODU, Barbara Taylor has finished raising a family, enjoys being a grandmother, is active in her church, and travels extensively—both for cultural and educational edification. Most of all, my mother keeps learning wherever she goes, showing me and those around her that lifelong learning creates lifelong joy.

—Submitted by Michael Jon Khandelwal