Award honors Templeton’s most-valued role

More than 20 years ago, Joe Templeton’s mother-in-law gave him a box of 1,000 business cards.

Embossed under Carolina’s bright blue seal are the words “Joe Templeton, Professor of Chemistry.”

Unlisted are all the other titles he’s held: chemistry department chair, senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, chair of the faculty, special assistant to the chancellor, Carolina Counts leader.

Templeton keeps the cards unchanged because they convey his most important, and most enduring, role.

“If you think about it, that card is old, but it still works,” he said, running his finger along the lettering. “It has my name, my phone number and my email address, and who I am: a faculty member who teaches chemistry at this university.”

But, if you ask Templeton if he still teaches, he says he quit 10 years ago. He still gets up in front of the class, he just doesn’t teach – he prepares students to learn.

“I can’t tell anyone anything. They have to learn it. How they do that is up to them, whether it’s by listening to me or by solving problems,” said Templeton, Venable Professor of Chemistry and special assistant to the chancellor. “Life is mostly about getting things arranged so they will happen in the way they should.”

His motto has been: “Don’t step forward, don’t step back.” He doesn’t volunteer for things, but he doesn’t say no.

Likely due to his ability to rise to the occasion and get things arranged in just the right way, Carolina has always asked.

Stepping up to serve

Templeton came to Carolina in 1976 to teach in the Department of Chemistry, and he found himself inspired by Bill Little, a former chair of the department who served the University by giving a little bit of himself to everything.

When it was Templeton’s turn to head the department in 1990, he followed that lead.

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