Issue date: 9/10/08 Section: Alumni

If you have not heard of her, had the privilege to meet her, or had the honor to take a course with her than you have missed an experience of a lifetime. We are speaking of the one and only Dr. Ruthe T. Sheffey, a Morgan State University icon. Dr. Sheffey is not only a professor here at Morgan but is an alumnus also. Dr. Sheffey received her B.A. in 1947 here at Morgan State University with a major in English and a minor in Spanish and went on to receive an M.A at Howard. In 1959 Dr. Sheffey received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and since then has become well known beyond the Mid-Atlantic Region as an educator, scholar and editor.
She is an irreplaceable and respected professor of Morgan State University's Department of English and Language Arts. Dr. Sheffey will entice your imagination with Shakespeare. And if you take African American Woman studies with Dr. Sheffey you will have a life changing experience and feel even more proud to be a woman. She will teach you the origin and proper usage of the English language. Dr. Sheffey has taught many of the English department's professors including the Dean of Liberal Arts, Dr. Bernie Hollis. (Also featured in this edition of the Spokesman)
"Dr. Sheffey was my teacher, she was my departmental chairperson, and, for the last twenty years, I have been her dean.  In all of the capacities in which I have been privileged to know and to work with her, she has been my beacon, my role model and my inspiration. 
For some educators teaching is a job; it is what they do with their days.  For others, it is a career; it is what they do with their lives.  But for some, a very precious few like Dr. Ruthe T. Sheffey, teaching is a passion; it is an intense drive, an over-arching feeling and conviction, their very reason for being. For over fifty years, Dr. Sheffey has been an inspiration at her Alma Mater.  In the classroom, she is a master teacher.  She lights up the eyes of her students and fills the room with the joy of learning and growing. She is virtually peerless among her colleagues at Morgan," said Dr. Hollis.
In addition to teaching, she is a former President of Langston Hughes Society; an organization that not on recognizes the works of the poet but allows those interested in the poetry to celebrate and keep his legacy alive. Dr. Sheffey is the Founder and President of the 22 year Zora Neale Hurston Society. The works of Zora Neale Hurston would have gone unrecognized had it not been for Dr. Sheffey keeping the works alive by insisting that Hurtson was a vital writer during the Harlem Renaissance by creating the society.
Dr. Sheffey has been published in various scholarly journals, including Studies in Philology, Drama Critique, The CLA Journal, Black Scholar, and The Langston Hughes Review. Dr. Sheffey published a collection of her essays entitled Trajectory: Fueling the Future and Preserving the African-American past, in 1989. She has traveled to speak as a visiting scholar at North Carolina State College at Durham, Kentucky State University, and University of Pennsylvania. She has served as commissioner and vice-chairman of the Baltimore County Human Relations Commission. In addition Dr. Sheffey is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Epsilon Omega Chapter, where she serves as Parliamentarian.
Dr. Sheffey was nominated by the faculty of Morgan State University for her teaching, research, service, leadership and character, where she received and held the Alma Mater Iva G. Jones Medallion mantle for two consecutive years (1993-95). The Morgan State University's Department of English and Language Arts established the Ruthe T. Sheffey Award in December of 1998 and was made the first recipient of the award in May 4, 2000.
Despite her achievements and travels, she returned to teach at Morgan. "I wanted to give something back," she says. Sheffey is proud to see the positive changes at Morgan and looks forward to see its growth continue. Nominated by the faculty for teaching, research, service, leadership and character, Dr. Sheffey received and held the Iva G. Jones medallion mantle for two consecutive years.
"We need to bring all our young women up to speed," says Dr. Sheffey as she discusses the importance of today's youth celebrating women's history, "It was only in the 20th century that women's voices could be heard." (3/05/04 Spokesman)
Those who are blessed to be in her presence, whether in passing, as a colleague, or as a student, have been truly privileged to be in the presences of a high achiever. And she believes that her students can achieve the same. Her passion for literature has had a motivating effect on the student who has had the opportunity to sit in one of her classes. Passion, dedication, and hard work are a few qualities that make Dr. Sheffey a phenomenal and well recognized woman, writer, and professor who happen to be Morgan State University's crown jewel.

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