Long time Sociology instructor retires
By LaJuan Tallo| 4/29/09

Robert Seay is not afraid of new ideas. In fact, he embraces them. When he closes his classroom door for the last time next month, he will have spent 41 years making his world a better place through the integration of new ideas in his classroom.

Seay, who teaches sociology and photography at Northwest Mississippi Community College, came to teach at the college after receiving a bachelor’s degree in History with an emphasis in Sociology from Delta State University. He also earned a master’s in Sociology from the University of Mississippi. He began by teaching Western civilization and sociology classes, and once the department was set up, took over the sociology classes.

“I have taught in the same classroom for almost 41 years,” Seay said. He said that he was in another building for about one and a half years when the Lafayette Humanities Building was being built.

Seay chose the classroom he has spent most of his career in because it allowed him to integrate slides with his lectures to make it more interesting. “I liked the lectorium, being able to see all of the students and it had rear screens in it designed to show movies. I rigged it up so that I could use my slides,” Seay said.

They were not just any slides. The slides were taken by Seay himself in his sideline as a photographer. Seay became interested in photography as a young soldier in Germany. “One of the guys I knew was a photographer and I got interested in it. I bought a fine German camera called a Leica, and he taught me all about it,” Seay said.

When he got out of the military, he decided to go to college and working on the yearbook staff as a photographer helped him earn a scholarship. “I discovered I could make money taking pictures,” Seay said. He opened a wedding photography business in Batesville, which he ran for more than15 years.

Photographer and fellow Northwest instructor Chad Williams was his mentor. “He took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew. Shooting photos helped me pay my bills,” Seay said.

When Williams retired, Seay inherited the photography classes at Northwest, too. He has been teaching the film photography class for many years. “I am sad that film is going away. I really do like everything about it because it is hands on,” Seay said.

Seay has influenced the lives of his students for a long time, but his students have touched his life, too. “I have had some fine students over the years,” Seay said. He remembered the late state representative, Leonard Morris of Batesville fondly. “I taught him a long time ago. He just stands out in my mind,” Seay said. He has taught many of his own associates at Northwest, too he said. Among those he remembers teaching are Nancy Patterson, director of Public Relations, James Baker, History instructor, Cindy Pierce, English instructor, David Hargett, a member of the board of trustees, and Dale Davis, division director of Languages and Communications.

“When I was a student at Northwest 30 years ago, Mr. Seay’s sociology course was the one class I took in which technology was seamlessly integrated into the class lectures and discussion. However, the technology was secondary to the ways he challenged us to think beyond the textbook and beyond the class lecture notes to examine the social forces that shaped our personal beliefs. Mr. Seay encouraged all of us in the class to put aside our preconceived notions, to disregard the shouting spin doctors, and to examine an issue from all sides and from multiple sources of information,” Davis said.

Northwest recognized Seay’s innovative thinking when he became the first recipient of the Sandy Grisham Excellence in Teaching Award in August 2005. The annual award is given in honor of retired social science instructor Sandy Grisham. That fall, Seay introduced new technology into the classroom he had been teaching in all those years when he integrated the “smart classroom” technology, which allowed him to use a PowerPoint presentation using rear projection on a huge 6 - foot by 6 - foot screen that was considered to be obsolete. Seay was encouraged that the college’s technicians found a way to utilize the equipment, which allowed him to take students to the Internet, opening up the world to them. Dr. James Reed, division director of Social Science knows the students will miss Seay.

“Shortly after the announcement was made about Robert Seay leaving, an excellent student in my philosophy class came by to talk with me. He expressed disappointment that Mr. Seay was leaving. He then told me one of the reasons he came to Northwest was to have Mr. Seay in class and continued to describe the fine qualities that have made Robert Seay so special for so long. The student said he (Seay) cares about students and he talks to students in class about things that really matter. When the student left, I thought about how true and what a compliment that was to share about an instructor,” Reed said.

Over the years, Seay has seen Northwest change and grow, but feels that the changes are good. He has made it his goal to change and grow with Northwest while continuing to do the thing he loves best-teaching. “Robert Seay's love for teaching is his most outstanding characteristic. He finds excitement in each class he teaches and always is working on ways to improve his teaching. He has a grateful heart, asks for very little and gives so much,” said Dr. Marilyn Bateman, academic dean.

Seay, a native of Batesville, has been married to his wife Betty for 46 years. They are the parents of two sons, three granddaughters and one grandson. When asked what he wants to do now that he is retiring, he said is going to take it one day at a time, and see what comes next. He is going to purchase a digital camera so that he can learn something new.

“This has really been a great ride. I have enjoyed my experience here. I have made a lot of good friends, both professionals and students, and I have enjoyed that. I am going to miss the classroom, I know,” Seay said.