The Opal Goolsby Award

The Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award is a traditional recognition of our very best teaching on the HBU campus. Some of the best judges of great teaching are our students. Our Student Government Association conducts nominations each Spring for faculty representatives from each of our colleges and schools. A selection committee with representatives from Student Government Association, the faculty Professional Development Committee and the Provost’s Office examine the record of accomplishment for each nominee and carefully select the faculty member who best represents the ideals of outstanding teaching. We’re proud to shine the spotlight on these wonderful examples of wisdom and inspiration on the HBU campus.

Professor Opal Goolsby

Opal Goolsby was a legendary faculty member at Houston Baptist College. She was a member of the original faculty in 1963 and taught English and French. With her husband, Bill, Opal had experienced a global life in a day when the presence of a woman in some sections of the globe had to be justified. She told of wonderful Middle East events where her presence at an oil contract signing with her husband in the desert, under a tent, on a Persian carpet was permitted because she had been named the guest of honor by the Sheik. She learned French at the Sorbonne when she became separated from her husband for more than a year in the political strife in Europe in the late thirties. She was a quick study and taught French the rest of her life. She was a generous, selfless teacher, who loved life and demanded the best of her students while endlessly offering them her encouragement and assistance.

2015 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner:

Dr. Colin Garbarino
Assistant Professor of History
Department of History and Great Texts, School of Humanities
Dr. Garbarino’s “Augustine, Donatists, and Martyrdom” appears in An Age of Saints? Power, Conflict and Dissent in Early Medieval Christianity, edited by P. Booth, M. J. Dal Santo and P. Sarris (Leiden: Brill, 2011). He has written for a number of popular publications, including Touchstone, First Things, and The Federalist.
Dr. Garbarino writes about himself, “I grew up in Louisiana, where the best food in the world can be found (although Thailand ranks a close second). I met my wife at LA Tech, we’ve been married for 15 years (sic), and we have four young children. Though we now live in Houston, we still consider ourselves Louisianans. Living in Texas is a lot like being in captivity in Egypt—there’s work to do and the government is rich. Though we’re living in exile now, we make frequent trips across the Sabine River, our River Jordan, to the promised land, a land flowing with gumbo and boudin.”

2014 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner:

Dr. Jackie Peltier Horn
Chair, Department of Biology
Professor of Biology, School of Science and Mathematics
Dr. Horn has been awarded HBU’s Opal Goolsby Award for exemplary teaching for the second time. Horn, who joined the HBU faculty in 1987, views learning as a partnership: “I share this award with my students who have helped me become a better teacher. Learning is a collaborative effort, and it is a joy to share my gifts and experiences with them. My treasures abound, filled with memories of students who grow and flourish into wonderful people who make a difference in many lives,” she said. Horn received the Goolsby Award for the first time in 1999.

2013 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner:

Dr. David Davis

Director of the Master of Liberal Arts

Assistant Professor in History, School of Humanities

Dr. Davis completed his third year of teaching at HBU in May 2013. He earned his PhD in History from the University of Exeter, where he completed research on the English Reformation and the early printing trade. Dr. Davis has been teaching undergraduate courses in Western Civilization and European history as well as graduate courses in the MLA during his time at HBU.

2012 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner:

J. Daryl Hinze, JD
Assistant Professor in Business, School of Business
Professor J. Daryl Hinze completed his third year of teaching at HBU in May 2012. He demonstrates an original teaching style combined with examples of real-life experiences in his Business Law, Business Ethics, Legal Environment of Business and Tax Procedure courses. He was recently recognized as the HBU Outstanding Advisor of the Year and Piper Nominee from the School of Business. Professor Hinze earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Philosophical Theology from Criswell College and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston Law Center.

2011 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner:

Nicole Pinaire, PhD
Assistant Professor in Biology, College of Science and Mathematics
Dr. Pinaire has just completed her second year in the College of Science and Math. She has earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Saint Louis University and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Cancer Biology from The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston. Her teaching focus is on general biology including botany, animal systems and anatomy and physiology. Dr. Pinaire has been teaching general biology and anatomy/physiology courses during her time here at HBU. She is a dynamic instructor and very successful with engaging students in complex material and rigorous study.

2010 Opal Goolsby Outstanding Teaching Award Winner:

Saul Trevino, PhD
Assistant Professor in Chemistry, College of Science and Mathematics
Dr. Trevino completed his second year of teaching at HBU in May 2010. Prior to coming to HBU, he spent a year teaching at Blinn College. Dr. Trevino earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences with an emphasis in protein chemistry from the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center. He is very active with the chemistry students here at HBU as sponsor of the Lion’s Club and the Dead Chemists Society.

Past Opal Goolsby Recipients

2009	Dr. Ron Homann	Dr. Melissa Wiseman
2008	Dr. Miguel Estrada	Dr. Valerie Bussell
2007	Dr. David Adcock	Alexis Knapp
2006	Dr. Chris Salinas	Dr. Martha Maddox
2005	Dr. David Capes	Deb Berry
2004	Dr. Robert Towery	Dr. Ruth Ann Williamson
2003	Dr. Christopher Hammons	Dr. Melissa Wiseman
2002	Dr. Randy Wilson	Dr. Brenda Whaley
2001	Dr. Joe Blair	Dr. Constantina Michalos
2000	Dr. Randy Hatchett	Dr. Susan Cook
1999	Dr. James Taylor	Dr. Jacqueline Horn
1998	Dr. Avin Brownlee	Dr. Ann Owen
1997	Dr. Ernie Pyle	Dr. Linda Roff (Brupbacher)
1996	Dr. David Capes	Dr. Treacy Woods
1995	Dr. James Ulmer	Dr. Rhonda Furr
1994	Dr. Curtis Freeman	Dr. Beth Boyce
1993	Rex Fleming	Alice Rowlands
1992	Dr. Louis Markos	Patricia Dominguez
1991	Dr. Daton Dodson	Dr. Sally Phillips
1990	Dr. John Alexander	Ruth Stritmatter
1989	Dr. James Taylor	Dr. Brooke Tucker
1988	Dr. Avin Brownlee	Dr. Phyllis Nimmons
1987	Bob Marley	Dr. Marion Webb
1986	Dr. Paul Leath	Dr. Brooke Tucker
1985	Dr. Robert Creech	Dr. Patricia Pando
1984	Dr. Stephen Wentland	Dr. Elysee Peavy
1983	Dr. James Tsao	Dr. Marilyn Colvin
1982	Dr. Avin Brownlee	Dr. Marion Webb
1981	Dr. Paul Leath, Dr. A.O. Collins	Ruth Stritmatter
1980	Dr. Rick Denham	Dr. Brooke Tucker, Dr. Joyce Fan
1979	Dr. James Tsao, Dr. Stephen Wentland	Susan Wilson
1978	Dr. Avin Brownlee	Dr. Gerda Smith, Dr. Elysee Peavy
1977	Dr. James Taylor	Monteen Maczali, Dr. Cynthia Rogers
1976	Dr. Newell Boyd	Mrs. Cheryl Simmons, Opal Goolsby
1975	Dr. Rick Denham	Dr. Elysee Peavy, Grace Johnson
1974	Dr. Steve Donohue	Marion Webb, Dr. Marilyn Sibley
1973	Dr. Daton Dodson	Dr. Phyllis Nimmons, Dr. Cynthia Rogers
1972	Dr. A.O. Collins, Dr. Don Byrnes, Dr. Steve Donohue
1971	Marianne Miller, Dr. Elysee Peavy, Dr. Marilyn Sibley