March 5, 1997
Prof. Coish Receives Perkins Award for Excellence
in Teaching
Ray Coish, professor of geology at Middlebury College
since 1991, is the recipient of this year’s Perkins Award for
Excellence in Teaching. The award is given each year to a member
of Middlebury College’s natural sciences division, alternating
each year between a faculty member in the mathematics/computer
science department and a faculty member in one of the other four
departments in the division.
Professor Coish joined the Middlebury faculty in
1986. He has taught courses in the geologic landscape, earthquake
and volcanoes, the ocean floor, global techtonics, planetary geology,
bedrock geology of Vermont, mineralogy, geochemistry of the natural
environment, and igneous and advanced petrology.
At Middlebury, Professor Coish has chaired the geology
department, served as chair of the natural sciences division,
and served on the Educational Council, Teaching Resources Committee,
Curriculum Committee, and the Independent Scholar Committee.
He is author and co-author of numerous published papers and abstracts,
and has received many substantial grants and awards. He holds
a BSc. from Memorial University at Newfoundland, and a Ph.D. from
the University of Western Ontario.
The Professor Llewellyn R. Perkins and Dr. Ruth M.
H. Perkins Memorial Faculty Research Fund was made possible by
the gift of Dr. Ruth M. H. Perkins ‘32 in memory of her husband,
Professor Llewellyn R. Perkins. Professor Perkins taught at
Middlebury College from 1914 until his retirement in 1941. During
the course of his tenure at Middlebury, he founded and chaired
the mathematics department. Their children, Marion Perkins Harris
‘57, a science teacher, and Dr. David Perkins, a physician, augmented
the fund and expanded the scope of the award to honor their mother,
Ruth, as well. She was a Vermont State Helping Teacher and a
professor of math education at Temple University, in Philadelphia.