Preston Durrill thought Radford looked like a nice place to work temporarily, just for a year or two, while he finished his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. He planned to return to work for Exxon in Baton Rouge after earning his doctorate.

Exxon is one of several companies Durrill worked for prior to joining academia; his vita reads like a who’s who of chemical companies, including Dow and Union Carbide. When asked if he had considered a teaching career, he replies “No, it wasn’t even a thought.”

Thirty-two years later, Durrill is still here, and he’s still teaching. “I didn’t realize how much I’d like this area,” he says. As for teaching at RU, Durrill says “One thing that has been true since I came here is that we’ve always had good faculty, and it’s a pleasure to work with them.”

He has seen a lot of Southwest Virginia during his time here. As dean of the graduate college from 1972 to 1983 he traveled extensively on recruiting efforts and other business. When he returned to full-time teaching in ’83, he worked with Franklin Jones, now a Professor Emeritus of Physical Science, to provide school teachers in the region with both knowledge and inquiry-based learning kits.

His commitment to teachers and the physical sciences has carried Durrill throughout Southwest Virginia to the extent that he can give you directions to just about any school in this part of the state. Raven, Virginia? Durrill knows the way. The former Garden High? He can show you where it is used as a K-8 school in Oakwood. He’ll avoid the interstate and stay on the back roads to get wherever he’s going. It’s his preference – he enjoys the scenery.

With Jones pulling down grant funding, Durrill arrives at these schools with fascinating kits that encourage teachers and students to learn with their hands. Between the two of them they have influenced literally thousands of Southwest Virginia students over the course of the years. Durrill downplays his role, crediting Jones and praising his passion for inquiry-based science.

“He just believes in that. He believes in teaching science in an inquiry-based way,” says Durrill.

In his years of assisting educators Durrill has observed changes in attitudes, noting that in previous years teachers seemed to have more job security. Now, he says, “they are worried about SOLs (state-mandated Standards of Learning) and consolidation.”

He has noticed changes in his students, too. When he began teaching Radford was a women’s college, and he believes that this may have resulted in his students being “more focused.” After all, he points out, career choices for women were limited in those days. Students today have more choices and are more willing to question the value of a course – which Durrill welcomes with open arms.

“It’s always nice to have them ask why a class is important,” he says with the well-earned confidence of a seasoned educator.

 — Jeff Crooke