Gift Provides Professorship For Religious Studies At ECU

The Religious Studies Program at East Carolina University received a gift Thursday intended to provide a third faculty member to the growing interdisciplinary program.

The gift, announced at the annual Jarvis Lecture on Christianity and Culture, is from the late Helen Keel Peel and her son, Dr. Jesse R. Peel, of Atlanta. The Peel family’s gift is intended to create the J. Woolard and Helen Peel Distinguished Professorship in Religious Studies.

Calvin Mercer, ECU professor and director of the Religious Studies Program, said the gift reflects the kind of generosity and foresight that can touch the lives of many students.

“This is a significant moment in the history of the Religious Studies Program,” he said. “More than ever, our complicated world needs careful thinking about religion and its role in human affairs. This gift will allow us to more effectively serve our students and the larger community.”

In 1986, the Peels established the J. Woolard Peel University Scholars Award, said Alan White, dean of the Harriot College of Arts and Sciences.

“Jesse and his family were among some of the university’s first families to establish endowments for merit scholarships used to recruit outstanding high school students for East Carolina University’s freshman class each year,” White said. “We are grateful for the Peel family’s continued support of ECU and its academic programs.”

The Religious Studies program at ECU was established in 1989 with Mercer as its sole faculty member. In 2003, Derek Maher joined the faculty and teaches courses in Islamic and Buddhist studies. The program has about 25 students who major in religion through the interdisciplinary program, and hundreds of students take general education religion courses. Dozens of students have earned academic credit traveling to Egypt, Greece, Morocco and other destinations, in what has grown to be the university’s largest summer study abroad program.