Services Set for Jim McGavran (1941-2014)
With deep sadness, the college notes the death of longtime faculty member James Holt McGavran, Jr., Professor of English, who passed away on December 20, 2014. McGavran joined the faculty at UNC Charlotte in 1973.
A visitation will be held at Hankins & Whittington Funeral Home in Charlotte on Friday, December 26, from 5 to 7 p.m., and a funeral service will be held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in downtown Charlotte at 3 p.m. on Saturday, December 27. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Loaves and Fishes or the Leelanau Conservancy.
McGavran is survived by his wife Dorothy (Deje) Heissenbuttel McGavran, of 46 years; his daughter Catherine McGavran Horning, her husband Andrew, and their son Vincent; by his son Mark D. McGavran and his girlfriend Frédérique Laubépin; by his son James H. McGavran III and his wife Cherie Braden; by his brother Frederick J. McGavran, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughters Sarah and Marian; by his sister Mary McGavran Crabb, her husband John, and their children Rebecca, Frederick, and David; and by his dear friend Sharon Frazier and her family. He was preceded in death by his parents, James Holt McGavran (1994) and Marion Jaeger McGavran (2001).
McGavran’s memories of his parents and siblings and their vacations to the Leelanau Peninsula in northern Michigan were recently chronicled in his book In the Shadow of the Bear: A Michigan Memoir (Michigan State University Press, 2010).
He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of Wooster in 1963. After a year of teaching in a lycée in Bordeaux, France, he earned his master’s degree in English at Columbia University in 1965. He taught for two years at the College of William and Mary, where he met his future wife. He returned to graduate school and completed his Ph.D. in English at UNC Chapel Hill in 1973 before joining the faculty at UNC Charlotte.
“Throughout his teaching career at UNC Charlotte, Jim taught a wide variety of courses in British literature, but he especially enjoyed teaching courses on the English Romantics,” English Department Chair Mark West wrote in his weekly column, Monday Missive.
“Over the years, Jim also developed new courses,” West wrote. “Early in his career, he took an interest in the relationship between literature and film. He and a colleague team-taught one of the department’s first courses in the area of film studies. He also created an interdisciplinary graduate seminar titled “The Idea of Nature.” In recent years, he delved into the field of creative nonfiction, and he taught several courses on this topic. From the very beginning of his career, his students and colleagues recognized Jim’s extraordinary dedication to teaching. His gifts as a teacher resulted in many awards and recognitions.”
In 2006, McGavran received the English Graduate Students Association Teaching Award and the university’s Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. He also served the department, the college and the university in many roles, including English Graduate Coordinator, Faculty President, Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1988 until 1993 and Interim Chair of the Department of Dance and Theatre from 2000 through 2002.
He learned from his father how to play piano and accordion, and was for many years a choir member at Christ Episcopal Church and more recently St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte. He expressed his enjoyment of nature through hiking and gardening and spent part of his last morning planting pansies.
“A listing of Jim’s degrees, awards, publications, and positions, although impressive, does not capture Jim’s passions,” West wrote. “In some ways, the pictures taped to his office door better reflect the real Jim than does a listing of his accomplishments. In keeping with Jim’s playful approach to life, there is a picture of Kermit the Frog in the middle of the door. Jim’s wry sense of humor is reflected in the Doonsebury cartoon taped next to Kermit. Surrounding Kermit are beautiful images of flowers and other scenes from nature, which is fitting given Jim’s passion for the natural world. At the top of the door there is a photograph of a man climbing a cliff. Upon close inspection, one realizes that the man in the photograph is Jim. As his door proclaims, Jim took joy in life, embraced nature, and was always ready to climb the next cliff, for he knew that when he reached the top he would be able to see for miles around. I trust that he is enjoying the view.”