PUTNEY — Landmark College conferred an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree to Jim Baucom during a ceremony for retiring faculty and staff on May 22.
Baucom was a full professor in the School of Education when he retired from teaching at the close of the spring 2020 semester.
He was also appointed the college's fourth professor emeritus, joining Ken Gobbo, Linda Hecker, and Robert Fay.
Plans for a formal ceremony honoring his accomplishments, as well as those of several other retirees, had to be put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is not hyperbole to state that we may not even be here right now if not for Jim Baucom,” President Dr. Peter Eden wrote in a campus-wide memo. “The significant contributions Jim has made within the field of educational psychology and the life-changing effects it had upon students taking his courses are difficult to fully measure and completely appreciate.”
Baucom was recruited to join the Landmark College faculty in 1984 by its first president, Jim Olivier. The two were colleagues at the Landmark School in Beverly, Mass.
Baucom was appointed academic dean and tasked with building a curriculum and recruiting faculty.
He attended the University of North Carolina for his bachelor's degree and later earned a master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Other retiring faculty and staff members honored at the May 22 ceremony: Chris Arieta, Debra Berigow, Geoffrey Burgess, Steve Carmichael, Liz Cooper, Kathy D'Alessio, Susan Frishberg, Debbie Gassaway-Hayward, Denise Higgins, Mark Higgins, Tom Hinckley, Lena Jahn, Kathyrn Karmen, Ann McCloskey, Patrice Nolan, Ned Olmsted, Joyce Rodgers, and Cindy Tolman.
Ann Wheeler, who died in 2020, was honored posthumously.