By Gail Fagan
Texas Border Business
When Dr. Martha May Tevis came to teach Latin and education in 1967 at then-Pan American College, there were six buildings, 100 faculty members and about 3,500 students.
Tevis, a professor of education and the longest-tenured faculty member at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said it’s a good thing she enjoys change because she has seen plenty of it in her 50-year university career.
“A lot of people don’t like change. I liked change because it was always exciting,” said Tevis, graduate adviser in the Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction program, Department of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education & P-16 Integration (CEP), and program coordinator of the college’s graduate secondary- and elementary-education programs.
On May 31, 2017, her long career at the university ended with her retirement. Dr. Tevis leaves behind a legacy of service to her students and colleagues, the university and the Valley.
“For 50 years, Dr. Tevis has played a major role in the development of our college,” said Dr. Patricia Alvarez McHatton, CEP dean. “UTRGV and the College of Education and P-16 Integration is what it is today because of dedicated faculty like her.”
A Lifelong Career in Education
Tevis, a native Texan from Wichita Falls, earned a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Latin and a minor in English, and a Master of Arts in education with a specialization field in Latin, from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. She received her doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin, in the history and philosophy of education.
She credits her entry into a career in education to the influence of her mother, who was a teacher, and an early and avid love of reading.
