COE celebrates Ken Matheny's 45 years of contributions to the university

Gracious. Kind. Supportive. Inspiring. Role model. Teacher. Mentor. Friend.

 

It's hard for his colleagues, students, family and friends to agree on one word that accurately describes Kenneth Matheny, who retired this year after serving as Regents' Professor in the College of Education's Department of Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) for 45 years.

 

They came together to honor his contributions to Georgia State University and the field of education at his retirement celebration on Sept. 15.

 

Matheny, a native of Huntington, W. Va., received his B.A. degree from Olivet Nazarene College, his M.A. from the University of Missouri, his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, and took postgraduate courses at Johannes Gutenberg University in West Germany. 

 

After serving as a member of the faculty at Michigan State, Matheny received a call in 1966 to come to Georgia State University and help establish the Counseling and Psychological Services Department.  

 

"During his four-year tenure as chair, Dr. Matheny had a faculty of five or six individuals, established multiple doctoral programs and established the counseling program," said Brian Dew, current chair of the CPS department. "But more importantly, his vision for a department was to have more than just one profession - he wanted counselors, [counseling] psychologists and school psychologists working together to create something more than if they were working as individual parts. If you come to a CPS faculty meeting today, you will see the same spirit and the same sense of collaboration that was started back in 1966." 

 

To read more about Matheny and the retirement celebration, click here.