Sherwin Early Career Professorships are awarded to promising faculty in the College of the Liberal Arts who have demonstrated an outstanding record of teaching, research, and service in the first part of their careers and whose work reflects the importance of integrating ethics into teaching and research. The appointment includes support to encourage further development of their ethics-related research and teaching programs.

The endowed professorships were created from an estate gift made by Doug and Joyce Sherwin. Doug, who graduated from Penn State with a degree in chemical engineering in 1940, died in 2015; Joyce preceded him in death in 2013. When announcing their gift in 2008, Doug and Joyce indicated they did so in large part because they wanted future students to benefit from strong, caring faculty much like Doug had as a student. They chose to establish the professorships in the College of the Liberal Arts because they felt it would have the greatest impact on the largest number of students.

About Doug Sherwin

Born in 1915, Doug was a 1940 Penn State chemical engineering graduate and a varsity baseball player. Because his father lost all of his money during the Great Depression, Doug had to work his way through Penn State at the Corner Room and a fraternity.

After graduation, he worked as a civilian employee for the U.S. government during World War II, on loan from ConocoPhillips. While in Berlin during the Berlin Airlift, he met and married his wife Joyce. Later, he earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree at Oxford University philosophy, politics, and economics.

Doug Returned to ConocoPhillips and worked there until his retirement. Doug and Joyce loved coming back to campus and taking part in the Rock Ethics Institute board meetings and other events. He cherished the framed photo from La Vie we gave him of him as an undergraduate in his baseball uniform. An article on ethics that he published in the Harvard Business Review in 1983 is available here.

Current Sherwin Early Career Professors