Building to Honor Tip Founder William Bevan

DURHAM, N.C. -- The new headquarters of Duke University's Talent Identification Program (TIP) will be dedicated on Friday, April 2, in honor of William Bevan, the former Duke provost who started TIP in 1980.

Duke TIP identifies academically talented students across the country as early as fourth grade and provides innovative programs to support the development of their educational potential. Since 1980, more than one million students have participated in one or more of Duke TIP's summer or weekend programs.

Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane and other university leaders will speak at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony at the former Coca-Cola building at the corner of Main and Buchanan streets. The dedication ceremony is not open to the public, but media are invited to attend.

"One of the many good things that characterize this university is remembering those who have come before, whose actions made possible many of the things we accomplish today," Keohane said. "I'm proud to be part of an institution that doesn't forget its past, and honors those like Bill Bevan, who historically have meant so much to the university."

Before coming to Duke in 1974, Bevan was vice president and provost at Johns Hopkins University, where he started a program similar to TIP. In 1974, he was appointed the William Preston Few Professor of Psychology at Duke, and from 1979-83 he served as provost, the top academic position at the university.

In a previous interview, Bevan said he thought Duke should have a program such as TIP "to attract brilliant individuals to Duke's student body. These gifted students would be exposed to Duke and would be attracted to its campus and hopefully consider applying to Duke when they come of age."

Bevan also has been a long-standing benefactor of TIP. He and his wife, Dorothy, have set up an endowment in memory of his mother to fund an annual scholarship for a Native American student. The Bevans also have funded the Robert N. and Katherine H. Sawyer Teaching Fellowship to help support a TIP Summer Residential Program instructor who is a full-time public school teacher during the academic year. (Robert Sawyer was TIP's founding director.)

The Bevans have started another endowment, in memory of Dorothy Bevan's mother, that offers financial assistance -- such as stipend supplements or transportation cost assistance -- to help TIP recruit top instructors for its summer programs.

Bevan's association with Duke began in the 1940s. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Franklin and Marshall College with honors in psychology in 1942, he earned a master's degree from Duke in 1943.

In 1944, Bevan entered the Navy, finishing his active duty service in May 1946. He re-enrolled at Duke and earned his Ph.D. in psychology in 1948. (He later earned a law degree from Duke.) The following years were spent as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oslo, Norway; chairman of the psychology department, dean of Arts and Science, and vice president for academic affairs at Kansas State University before moving on to Johns Hopkins, where he was a professor of psychology in addition to being vice president and provost.

Bevan left Duke in 1983 to become vice president and director of the Health Program at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. When he retired in 1991, he returned to Duke, and he and his wife are regular attendees at the twice-a-semester distinguished professors luncheons and many other Duke events.

In October, the Duke University Board of Trustees approved a resolution to name the renovated Coca-Cola building off East Campus in honor of Bevan. The Bevans and members of their family are expected to attend the April 2 ceremony.

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For more information about TIP, visit its Web site at http://www.tip.duke.edu/about/AboutTIP.htm.