By Lori Bredemeyer, Managing Editor
Colleagues describe him as a friend, a mentor and a father figure. Students remember his wild stories in class and how he talked to and treated them like he had known them his whole life.
Dr. Charles Trevathan, 68, instructor of sociology and social work and associate general counsel for the university, died Tuesday after suffering an apparent heart attack.
Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m. Friday in the Family Room of Hillcrest Church of Christ, and the funeral will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday in Moody Coliseum. The Charles Trevathan Endowed Scholarship Fund has been set up for donations in lieu of flowers.
Bill Culp, chair of the department, has worked with Trevathan since 1998, and he said he was influenced by Trevathan’s approach to teaching and living.
“Charles was one of the first of the faculty to come in and say, ‘What do we need to be doing?'” Culp said. “I learned a great deal about him; I learned to appreciate him right off the bat, his can-do-will-do attitude, and very quickly was impressed with his love for students and the ability to turn that love into action.”
Culp said Trevathan always worried about students’ low grades and always blamed their failure on his inability to reach them. He even graded himself on each lecture; sometimes he was happy for doing well, other times disappointed for not getting his point across.
“He would come in, and he would say, ‘Boss, I gave myself and A- because I could have done this or that better,'” Culp say, ‘I got a C- this time.’ He would always have an idea of how he could do it better.”
Dr. Wayne Barnard, dean of Campus Life, said Trevathan was great to talk to and always had a story for any situation.
“I could always talk to him about what was happening on campus, what was happening with students in a particular disciplinary issue, talk over my own thoughts and feelings,” Barnard said, “… He was with me like he was with everyone: very fatherly, very much a mentor, always had stories that were very appropriate and apropos to the topic we were talking about.
“It was like you were talking to a real friend who understood; it wasn’t someone who was very removed and always academic about an issue. It was always personal, and it was always very meaningful to him.”
Phyllis Trevathan, Dr. Trevathan’s widow, who recently retired from the university, said many people will remember him through his stories.
“He loved to tell stories,” she said. “I think that’s what Jesus did. He told stories, and it’s just beautiful to read in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John about stories that Jesus told about things that happened and things to do better, and Charles-to me-his life was to tell stories to see if that could make all of us better.”
Trevathan’s friends and family said he exhibited his love for teaching and for the students in many ways. Culp said when Trevathan suffered a heart attack last spring, he had his daughter bring his exams to the hospital so he could try to finish grading them because he had promised the students he would have them.
Culp also said the first day he was in the hospital, he had a special message delivered to Culp.
“The evening that he went to the hospital, I got a call from Dr. Money,” he said. “And the call paraphrased was this: Charles made Dr. Money promise that he would call me and tell me not to be messing with his classes, and not to let anybody else mess with his classes.
“He got the president of the university to be his messenger, and then when he returned, the first thing he said when we sat down together was, ‘You didn’t mess with my classes, did you?’ That was vintage Charles.”
Culp said the faculty and students are dealing with the loss as best they can.
“He was such an important part of us as a department,” he said. “There are many parts to the same body, and one of our parts is missing right now.”
Trevathan graduated from Lipscomb University in 1958 and earned a law degree from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1961. He worked for 26 years as a trial lawyer before becoming a teacher.
He started working at ACU in 1987 as associate general counsel and in 1991 became vice president for Campus Life. In 1997 he stepped down as vice president and joined the faculty of the Department of Sociology and Social Work.
Trevathan is preceded in death by a son-in-law, Bobby Bowie.
He is survived by his wife, Phyllis; three daughters, Julie Bowie, Carol Turner and husband Russ, and Karen Trevathan Gunn and husband Tim; and four grandchildren, Aidan Bowie, Jackson Turner and Elora Kate and William Gunn.
