Longtime FMU Professor receives honorary degree from FMU

FMU English Professor and Director of the Honors Program, Jon Tuttle, was presented with an honorary doctorate of humanities from the university during the annual Honors Student Reception held at the FMU Performing Arts Center. Tuttle, a longtime faculty member at the university, will retire at the end of this academic year.

Tuttle joined the faculty of Francis Marion in 1990. During his tenure at the university, Tuttle was appointed a Board of Trustee’s Research Scholar in 2005, received the Faculty Research Award in 2010, and was named Distinguished Professor in 2010. Since 2013, Tuttle has been director of the Honors Program. During his time as director, the Honors Program has expanded to include innovative opportunities for student engagement in scholarship, research, and service through creative course offerings, activities, and domestic and international travel.

FMU President Fred Carter addressed the group of Honors students and thanked Tuttle for his devotion to his students throughout his career before bestowing the honorary degree upon him.

“Jon Tuttle is the complete package and the consummate faculty member,” said Carter. “He’s a masterful teacher, charismatic and engaging. He draws his students into discussions so readily and easily. He’s also a brilliant writer. His literature – plays, fiction, and nonfiction — is insightful, meaningful, and relevant. His latest work, South Carolina’s Stage, explores two hundred years of SC theatre history by focusing on seven plays from various eras, a part of our state’s past that’s seldom addressed.”  

“But beyond his teaching and research, Jon’s unique talent is the passion and zeal he brings to working with our honors students every single day. Those young men and women have been the principal beneficiaries of his efforts for the past few decades. As a result, Jon Tuttle has built the finest honors program in this state, bar none, and this entire university is so proud of what he has accomplished.”