Biographical Text
Professor Emeritus of Foreign Languages Elton George Powell (December 18, 1926 -) was born in Lakeland Florida. He is married to Mary Louise Wells Powell. Powell completed his undergraduate work at Florida Southern College, where he earned his B.A. for a double major of French and English in 1948. His years at Florida Southern College were punctuated with a two year service in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1944-45. Following his graduation from Florida Southern College, Powell went to Emory University where he earned his B.D. in Theology in 1951. From 1951 to 1960, he was a Methodist minister, serving as pastor in churches in the Florida Methodist Conference. In 1961, Powell received the M.A. degree in French with a minor in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He taught French as a graduate assistant while he worked on his master's degree. On completion of his M.A., he became an instructor of French at Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield, Missouri, where he stayed for six years. He earned the Ph.D. degree from UNC at Chapel Hill in 1972, writing his dissertation on Jean-Paul Sartre. Powell joined the faculty at Appalachian State University in September, 1968 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973 and to full professorship in 1981. He retired as Professor Emeritus of Foreign Languages in December, 1987. Powell was president and organizer of the Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference held at ASU in 1975. He was also an active member in such esteemed organizations as: American Association of Teachers of French, Modern Language Association, South Atlantic Modern Language Association, American Association of University Professors, and Pi Delta Phi. The Powells reside in Boone, North Carolina. Sources: Appalachian State University files and long association. —Dr. Richard D. Howe and Ms. Rebecca Pierce-Ebdy
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