Clyde Ruffin, professor of acting and vocal performance and African-American Theatre Department chairman, was honored with the President’s Community Engagement Award on Monday.
The Community Engagement Award recognizes faculty who are “engaged in exemplary community engagement activities such as volunteerism,” according to the UM System’s website for the President’s Award for Faculty Engagement.
Candidates are nominated each year by faculty members or administrators between October and January, and up to two recipients are announced in April.
Unbeknownst to Ruffin, the theatre department set up a surprise party to bestow the honor.
Following a standing ovation for the honoree, professor Heather Carver presented the award to Ruffin on a stage before his students, family, colleagues and friends.
“We can think of no one who is more deserving of this award,” Carver said. “When we talked about community engagement, this was an automatic nomination.”
Ruffin, a member of MU’s faculty since 1983, has directed more than 100 productions in his career. He is also the creator of the World Theatre Workshop, a minister at the Second Baptist Church of Columbia and the president of the John William “Blind” Boone Heritage Foundation.
Ruffin was identified as a prominent spiritual and African-American leader in the Columbia Community in a news release from the College of Arts and Sciences.
This award is not his first, as he has earned others since the beginning of his involvement in theater and his local communities.
Past awards include the Martin Luther King Community Service Award in 2004, the MLK Dream Foundation’s “Man of the Year” in 2006, the MU Faculty-Alumni Award and the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, according to the MU Department of Theatre’s website. Ruffin is also a Kellogg National Fellow and charter member of the National Theatre Conference.
“We thank you for all the work that you do on behalf of the theater and the entire community,” Carver said to Ruffin while handing him an envelope.
Ruffin was caught off-guard by the award.
“Wow,” Ruffin said. “This is totally unexpected.”
Ruffin received a congratulatory letter from UM System President Timothy Wolfe as well as an invitation to eat with the Board of Curators in June. Ruffin will be presented with $5,000 at the dinner.