April 24, 2014

Pat Knight, a professor of English at Amarillo College for 40 years, has been named Professor Emeritus.

The Faculty Senate submitted her nomination at the March meeting of the AC Board of Regents and it was unanimously approved.

The Senate will sponsor a reception in Knight’s honor from 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday, May 7th in the College Union Building on AC’s Washington Street Campus. Dr. Paul Matney, AC president, will share his thoughts about the honoree at 3:45 p.m.

“In the view of a great many, myself included, Pat Knight was Amarillo College for about 40 years,” Matney told the Regents.

Knight was a mainstay in the AC English Department from 1967 until her retirement in 2007. Her connection with students, faculty and staff was strong and heartfelt.

“I’m absolutely humbled to be honored like this, but it seems to me it is I who should be thanking the College and not the other way around,” Knight said.

“I spent 40 wonderful years at AC, and I think of myself as being extremely fortunate to have served at such a fine institution for that length of time.”

Knight not only received the highest faculty accolade during her remarkable tenure at AC, she became the inaugural recipient of it—the John F. Mead Award. She also is a past recipient of the Student Government Teacher of the Year Award and the Trio Teacher of the Year Award, another honor for which she was the first such recipient.

Since her retirement from AC, Knight has been ordained in the Episcopal Church and today serves at St. Andrews in Amarillo.