Influential Women in PC's History: Rachel Stewart

Influential Women in PC’s History: Rachel Stewart

Rachel Stewart Influential Women PC History Feature

One of the highest honors a college or university professor can receive – the prestigious Fulbright grant – rarely comes more than once to the same educator.

The fact that Rachel Stewart earned three Fulbright awards during her tenure at Presbyterian College speaks volumes about her skill as a professor of English.

With her animated and energetic teaching style, Stewart quickly earned a reputation as an outstanding lecturer upon joining the PC faculty in 1973.

She received the 1981 Board of Visitors Outstanding Service Award and the 1983 Alumni Distinguished Teaching award. Stewart was promoted to full professor of English in 1986, and the following year became the first PC faculty member to receive a prestigious Fulbright award. She lectured at Abo Akademi University in Finland in 1988.

Stewart received two additional Fulbright grants to teach at the University of Tromso in Norway before she retired in 2001.

In addition to serving as chair of the college’s faculty development committee and publications committee, Stewart served many professional organizations and committees including the Harvard Club of South Carolina as vice president and president, and the South Carolina Committee on Composition.

“Dr. Stewart is one of the most superb teachers and scholars I have had the privilege to know in my 22 years here at PC,” said Dave Gillespie, PC’s former vice president for academic affairs. “She was a consummate dramatist in class. Her students would sit in awe. She was an absolutely superb teacher.”