Jewell Remembers

In memoriam:
Dr. Ann Marie Shannon,
1929-2008

Ann Marie (Woods) Shannon, Ph.D., Distinguished Service Professor of English Emerita at William Jewell College, died suddenly January 23 at her Liberty home.

“Dr. Shannon was the kind of faculty member one has in mind when the phrase ‘giants of the faculty’ is used,” said President David Sallee. “She influenced the lives of several generations of Jewell students through her teaching, her mentoring and her high expectations. She also influenced the direction of the academic programs of the college in her role as first Senior Tutor of the Oxbridge program and in her commitment to outstanding general education programs.”

Dr. Shannon earned her B.A. from Agnes Scott College in 1951; her A.M. from Radcliffe-Harvard University in 1952; and her Ph.D. from Emory University in 1961. She married David Patric Shannon Aug. 9, 1961. She taught at other colleges and universities, including Wilson College, Oklahoma City University and St. John’s College in Santa Fe until she joined the William Jewell College faculty in 1975.

A brilliant teacher of language and literature at William Jewell, Dr. Shannon served as Associate Dean of the College and was the first director of the Foundations general education program. She was also the first Senior Tutor of the Oxbridge Program and headed numerous committees and task forces, including the Strategic Planning Committee. Retiring from full-time teaching and administration in 1995, Dr. Shannon continued teaching part-time, offering Oxbridge tutorials in seventeenth-century poetry. In retirement she continued an extremely vital life in her community and her church.
“As I know she did with countless others, Dr. Shannon helped me to first see and then appreciate the lifelong value of the Jewell experience,” said Dr. Chad Jolly ’94, vice president for advancement at William Jewell and an Oxbridge history major at Jewell while Dr. Shannon served as the Oxbridge Senior Tutor. “She inspired generations of students to be passionate in their preparation for the whole of life. Dr. Shannon called us all to be better and to reach higher. We have lost one of our very finest.”

Dr. Shannon was an active leader in the life and work of the Episcopal Church on the parish, diocesan and national level. She served Grace Episcopal Church, Liberty, in many capacities. As Outreach Chair at the church, Dr. Shannon envisioned, developed and then coordinated “Franklin Friends,” a program providing backpacks of weekend food for children at Liberty’s Franklin Elementary School. The program became a model for other similar programs throughout the region. In the past year Dr. Shannon expanded the ministry by developing “Nourishing Neighbors,” a program for the Sunday delivery of meals to disabled seniors in the Liberty community.

A Kansas City Star tribute published at the time of Dr. Shannon’s death concluded: “She will be remembered by legions of grieving former students, colleagues, and close friends as a woman of extraordinary grace, wit, learning and devotion.”