Andrews University Department of English

04/27/2026

Celebrating our graduates 🎓 this weekend! 🎉
We’re so proud of all you’ve accomplished and can’t wait to cheer you on as you take this next step. 💫

04/23/2026

The Department of English is continuing their project of creating welcoming spaces for student engagement and learning. The success of the fall campaign resulted in a small classroom/conference room as well as a student lounge. Additional funds raised this spring will go towards continuing to refresh our departmental spaces in order to make them more inviting and student-friendly.
Visit: andrews.edu/givingday

12/24/2025

The Prince of Peace came humbly—born in a manger—to offer us an eternity far greater than this world could ever promise.

May this Christmas season be filled with His love and peace, and may it remind us that our greatest hope is still ahead. 🤍

12/11/2025

✨ It’s break time!! ✨
Your hard work has not gone unnoticed.
Take a breath, get some rest, and enjoy the pause you’ve earned. 💛

We can’t wait to see you next semester! 🎓🌟

11/04/2025

11/04/2025

06/20/2025

Our final tribute comes from Douglas Jones.

In the fall of 1969 I enrolled in Advanced Writing taught by the new English professor Dr. Delmer Davis. I enjoyed the course, and I was impressed by the enthusiasm and joy Dr. Davis had for our efforts. I took other classes from Dr. Davis while he was on the Walla Walla College faculty—notably American Literary Masters, Chaucer, Old and Middle English. Through his teaching I developed an appreciation of Hawthorne and Crane, a love of Dickinson and Twain, and an I’ll-get-through-this attitude about the Canterbury Tales.

But what I took away most from my student/professor friendship with Dr. Davis was his genuine interest in the lives of his students. I’ll have to confess: I probably kept him from marking many papers (perhaps he was okay with that) or getting much accomplished, because I often stopped by his office in the afternoon to chat. And the chats often turned into advice/tutorial/humor sessions.

After two years at WWC, Dr. Davis took a position at LaSierra. But we continued our friendship. Janell and I kept in touch with the Davises and visited them in Southern California. After teaching high school English for seven years, I called Dr. Davis to ask about graduate programs, and he encouraged me to apply to AU. He told me I’d probably be eligible for a teaching assistantship. I applied and was accepted the year he succeeded Dr. John Waller as chair of the AU department. And then after finishing the MA, I was hired to establish the Writing Center and teach Basic Writing Skills and Methods of Teaching Secondary English.

Delmer Davis was my mentor as a teacher as well as an administrator. I tried to emulate his approaches to teaching literature and writing; I tried to follow his example of calm and reasonable leadership when I chaired the Department of English. Dr. Davis introduced me to professional conferences, and he encouraged my scholarly projects.

But most of all, Delmer was a good friend. He was generous. He was funny. He was patient. He was calm and even-tempered. When we first arrived in Michigan, I learned so much about being a good and caring father from him as our families picnicked, camped and enjoyed time together. I will never have another friend like Delmer Davis. And will miss him for the rest of my life.

06/19/2025

We are closing the week with two more rememberances of Dr. Davis. Today’s tribute comes from Beverly Matiko.

To imagine life without Delmer is odd and unfathomable in so many ways. I am more accustomed to watching decline and then the inevitable end with loved ones. With Delmer there was, in my estimation, no hint of decline. At our last few get-togethers, he was his usual self—witty, wry, observant, engaged, asking seemingly innocent questions that somehow resulted in you saying more than you probably would have otherwise. He was like a Columbo in this respect, though decidedly more polite and better dressed.

Our faith tradition urges us from childhood to “be more like Jesus.” In his unshowy, unassuming yet quietly high-achieving way, I think Delmer may have set the bar even higher for himself. He was like the Trinity to many of us. He was a Father figure. You always felt he wanted the best for you, and was there to help you discern what that might be and just how to go about achieving it. There was a sense of the eternal about him. If you knew him, you felt you had always known him, and that he would always be there, too. He was a naturally-born Teacher, like Christ. You were never in his presence without learning something significant and thought-provoking. He gathered disciples around him effortlessly, both in and out of the classroom, and those disciples were the most motley of crews. What Delmer taught, others did their best to also teach. His words stayed with you. They were ponder- and replay-worthy. And, perhaps most notably, Delmer was like the Holy Spirit. You may not see him, but if you had made his acquaintance there was an Abiding Presence there. There was a “Delmer Aura” that stayed with you and guided you. His family had Australian shepherds for a time. Maybe this was a preferred breed because Delmer himself was like a spiritual Australian shepherd, though definitely the least aggressive of the litter. Whether you were a lone sheep or part of a flock, to know Delmer was to come to a sense that in skillful, efficient, and amazing ways, this down to earth, sweet Spirit, often without you realizing it, had been guiding you gently home all along.

06/12/2025

Today’s tribute for Dr. Delmer Davis comes from L Monique Pittman.

Dr. Delmer Davis will always be remembered for his unassuming and gently authoritative presence in the classroom. For many of us in the English major, his course on analyzing literature was our first encounter with the techniques of close reading. A calmly reassuring guide to learning, Dr. Davis helped countless English majors develop the tools for incisive, creative, and well-supported literary analysis. Many of us also were mentored by him into our own careers as teachers, professors, and academic administrators. Never over-impressed by his own authority as an administrator, Dr. Davis used his positions to advance the traditions of the liberal education and to anchor those practices at Andrews University in our shared faith. Though some might have thought him quiet, many of us who knew and loved him will remember his capacity for laughter and his genial delight at life’s frequent absurdities. How we will miss that laugh.

06/11/2025

Tribute by Rebecca Wright

One of the greatest joys of building my life and work in the Andrews University community has been seeing many of my former teachers become trusted colleagues and cherished friends. That alone would be gift enough—but every now and then, a friendship takes root whose impact is truly life changing. Dr. Delmer Davis was just such a friend.

In my early days of graduate work, Delmer did his level best to help me develop the tools and techniques necessary for solid literary research, one of his many areas of expertise. I applied these methods as assiduously to the unearthing of bakeries and cafes as I did on our “Research” field trips to places like the Newberry Library in Chicago or, later, Concord, MA for American Lit on Location. It is not only a testament to Delmer’s great good humor and his virtually inexhaustible patience, but also his enjoyment of so many things beyond the academic realm that he quite cheerfully made time for these “detours,” whatever our other business of the day might be. His genuine humility, true kindness, and wonderful sense of humor made a lasting impression on me, and were hallmarks of his character for as long as I knew him. Making Delmer laugh always felt like an accomplishment, no less satisfying because he did so with ease.
In all the years of our friendship, much of which developed over our semi-regular Sandra Kay’s (bakery) lunches, Delmer always carried himself without pretension, even when dealing with serious issues. I’ve never met anyone with greater diplomatic dexterity—on more than one occasion I have heard Delmer deliver the most difficult and delicate messages with such forthright kindness, and always to great effect. I was truly in awe of this quality- it reminded me of the quote, attributed to Winston Churchill, that “tact is the art of telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip;” I have no doubt that, should Delmer ever have been tasked with informing me of this destination, I’d have run to pack my bags. He was that good.

He was a keen observer, a careful listener, and a wise counselor when requested, though he never forced unsolicited opinions or advice. One of his most delightful qualities was his genuine interest in the lives of the people he cared about, and his great love of a love story; I’ve rarely seen Delmer more pleased than he was when learning about a developing romance for anyone in the friendship circle, and his enthusiastic endorsement of my own only magnified the joy in its early days. As my partner Curt has rightly observed: “I’m just so glad Delmer approved; I’m not sure I’d have had a chance otherwise!” He’s only half joking.

My last exchange with Delmer was a text message in which we were attempting to set up a lunch date: “Just name a day and time that’s good for you,” he wrote. How I wish we’d had the opportunity to make that date. There is no day or time that’s good to lose him.