The Tennessee Conference of the American Association of University Professors is pleased to name William J. Fisher as one of the first recipients of the Philander P. Claxton Award. Professor Fisher has by his work exemplified the ideals of Philander P. Claxton in the field of higher education and also the ideals of AAUP.

   William J. Fisher has been professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at East Tennessee State University since 1966. He received his undergraduate education at Syracuse University and his doctorate in education as well as a second master's at the University of Colorado. Bill Fisher is highly respected as a teacher and as a colleague on his own campus. Throughout the state he is known for his integrity, intelligence, common sense, and overarching concern for faculty rights, academic freedom, and the improvement of higher education. He has been a member and officer of the East Tennessee State University chapter of the AAUP, as well as an active member of the local chapter of the Tennessee Education Association. He has served as a representative from the College of Business to the Faculty Senate and has been the chairperson of the Senate's Employee and Retiree Benefits Committee since 1985. Within the state he has represented the teachers of East Tennessee on the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System since 1980, and he has been active in the Tennessee Higher Education Faculty Assembly sine its formation, serving as president during its first year of existence.

   Bill has worked indefatigably to maintain his own knowledge of legislative and administrative activity in the field of higher education so as to be of service to his colleagues in translating that information into knowledge that would be useful to them. He has served admirably as the watchdog for faculty rights. By his diligence, his disinterestedness, and his tireless expenditure of energy in behalf of the rights of faculty and the advancement of the cause of higher education, Bill Fisher exemplifies perfectly the ideals which the Philander Claxton Award was intended to commemorate.