{"id":8943,"date":"2011-11-12T14:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-12T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=8943"},"modified":"2011-11-12T04:16:53","modified_gmt":"2011-11-12T10:16:53","slug":"apsu-history-honor-society-celebrates-50th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2011\/11\/12\/apsu-history-honor-society-celebrates-50th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU History Honor Society celebrates 50th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – In May of 1961, a group of young Austin Peay State University students, believing that they were living at the end of history, chartered a new campus honor society focused on studying the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we had missed all the great things,\u201d Riley Darnell (\u201962), former Tennessee secretary of state and founding member of the club, said. \u201cThere would be no more wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Associate<\/a>

Associate professor of history Dr. Minoa Uffelman, APSU President Tim Hall, state Sen. Tim Barnes, former Tennessee secretary of state Riley Darnell, state Rep. Joe Pitts and PAT president Deanna Carter gather at the chapter\u2019s 50th anniversary celebration. (Photo by Beth Liggett\/APSU Public Relations and Marketing).<\/p><\/div>\n

The new Theta-Delta chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society was charged with preserving and studying the world\u2019s final great events. But then, over the years, something strange happened. History continued, with the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon\u2019s resignation, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the current economic crisis.<\/p>\n

Through those turbulent, eventful years, APSU\u2019s PAT chapter has continued to thrive, and on a Friday evening in late October, former members and professors gathered at the University to celebrate the organization\u2019s 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt if I could get in the organization today,\u201d Darnell, also a former state representative and state senator, joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve accomplished great things, and I\u2019m really proud of them. It has gone far for a school the size of Austin Peay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club has earned an astounding reputation in recent years. In August, it was named as \u201cBest Chapter\u201d in the country for the third year in a row. Members continue to work tirelessly, hosting lectures, attending workshops and roundtables, volunteering in the community and delivering papers at academic conferences. Last April, the chapter also released a new, 95-page scholarly journal featuring academic papers by APSU students who had presented at conferences in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an admirable accomplishment to have a chapter reach this milestone, however, your chapter has gone above and beyond in its 50 years of existence,\u201d Graydon Tunstall, executive director of the national PAT organization, said in a letter to the local club. \u201cTheta-Delta has maintained an active status since its inception in 1961 and over the last few years has emerged as one of our strongest chapters in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Minoa Uffelman, APSU associate professor of history and chapter adviser, carefully slid Tunstall\u2019s letter back into its envelope. She set it down on her desk, near an old, hand-written flier she\u2019d made while a student and PAT member at APSU in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no budget back then, so I took a manila folder and made this for the spring banquet from 1983,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The date on the poster caused her to do some quick math, and she realized that she was a member of the organization around its 25th anniversary at APSU. After seeing Darnell and others at last Friday\u2019s event, she\u2019s excited about the organization\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is exciting to think that some student at this 50-year celebration will attend the centennial anniversary of Theta-Delta at APSU in 2061,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One of those students might be Robin Sloan, a current PAT member at APSU. Sloan joined the club in part because of its reputation around campus, but after last month\u2019s anniversary event, she has gained a new respect for its mission and success.
\n\u201cWe really got a sense of our legacy, and it made us want to work that much harder to make sure that in another 50 years, our chapter is still going strong and doing great things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The 50th anniversary celebration included a keynote address by Darnell on the historic events that have occurred since the club\u2019s founding, a proclamation from the city of Clarksville and visits by dignitaries such as state Sen. Tim Barnes and state Rep. Joe Pitts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been so successful because we have great support, and we have wonderful students,\u201d Uffelman said.<\/p>\n

For more information on the APSU PAT chapter, contact Uffelman at uffelmanm@apsu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – In May of 1961, a group of young Austin Peay State University students, believing that they were living at the end of history, chartered a new campus honor society focused on studying the past. \u201cWe thought we had missed all the great things,\u201d Riley Darnell (\u201962), former Tennessee secretary of state and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[1238,23,11642,262,8102,11647,11646,3787,4472,11643,11645,10984,8098,1342,11644],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-2kf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8944,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8943\/revisions\/8944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}