Gould Award 2004
Michael Johnson, Professor of Business
Mike Johnson, professor of business, was pleased and surprised to receive the 2004 Gould Award, Delaware County Community College’s prestigious teaching prize. Johnson, who has been with DCCC since 1982, is the first of the business faculty to receive the Gould Award, although he has been nominated many times.
The Gould Award was established by the late Jerry Gould, a founding Trustee, whose commitment to community and service helped make the College a reality. Mrs. Gould created the award to support her belief that an outstanding faculty is at the heart of education. Students are the nominators for this award and the recipient’s name remains a secret until Commencement night.
Accepting his honorarium, Johnson called DCCC a “wonderful environment” and said he genuinely looks forward to coming to work every day, watching students develop and grow, and interacting with them.
He continued, “I am deeply honored at being selected for the Gould Award. It would please my mother and father, whose formal education ended at the fifth grade, but who always stressed to me the value of a college education. I am also grateful for my wonderful family, especially my wife, Mary, who encouraged me to be a teacher.
“Also,” he said, “I thank the many students with whom I have worked during my 35 years in higher education. I stress ‘worked with’ as opposed to ‘taught’ because they have taught me so many lessons, especially in the area of technology, which proves you can teach an old dog new tricks.”
His student nominators commented on the traits they observed that led them to suggest Johnson for the award.
One student termed him “a person with a genuine concern for students, able to see past names in the roll books.”
Said another nominator, “His words and actions not only inspire me to be a better student, but a better man.”
Johnson chose to donate his award to the newly-established Henry J. Jackson Memorial Scholarship Fund at DCCC, recently opened in memory of Henry “Hank” Jackson, a professor of business who died unexpectedly during the 2003 – 2004 academic year.