Story by Abby Siegel, News Editor
Warren Edminster was recently named president of the Kentucky Honors Roundtable.
Family man, leader and life-long learner, Warren Edminster, professor of English and director of the Honors College, was elected president of the Kentucky Honors Roundtable (KHR).
KHR is a consortium of Kentucky Honors programs and colleges of public universities that provide the opportunity for undergraduate students to present research and talk about projects they are involved in. Murray State Honors Program was a founding institutions of KHR in the 1980s.
Once a year, the directors of the Honors colleges and programs from Kentucky’s public universities meet to elect a president. The president before Edminster, Kentucky State’s Honors Program director, held the position for eight years before stepping down from the one-year renewable position.
One of Edminster’s goals for KHR is to increase the number of students able to participate in the professional experience by adding opportunities for more creative kinds of expression to the roundtable.
Tori Bertram, senior from Paducah, Kentucky, has known Edminster for four years and said he was very helpful when she decided to present her research at KHR. As a creative writing major she wasn’t sure what the best platform would be to present her work.
“That is where Warren came in,” Bertram said. “He was super helpful and encouraging through the process. Presenting unique and creative work can sometimes be a little nerve-racking and Warren was extremely supportive.”
While he enjoys his involvement with KHR, Edminster said he enjoys his work at Murray State the most.
“I really cherish getting to work with Honors at Murray State and have enjoyed seeing it grow to the point we have built an Honors College out of it,” Edminster said.
Bertram said she would describe Edminster as “a cardigan-wearing, unbelievably dedicated and loyal friend as well as a connoisseur of really, really old poetry and literature.”
“He is a leader among his students and his peers because of how hard he works,” Bertram said. “I’ve never seen him give less than 110 percent, whether he is listening to a frazzled student, leading a committee (and he does that for several committees) or planning a trip to Zimbabwe, he always gives everything he’s got,” she said.
He began teaching Honors courses in 2002 and became the director of the program in 2008.
Edminster came to Murray State in 1999 when he applied for a medieval literature position. He began teaching in 2000, expecting to only be here 2-3 years. Sixteen years later, the Edminster family is still here.
“We immediately fell in love with Murray,” Edminster said. “It’s a great town, great university.”
Edminster’s oldest daughter attends Murray State and his second daughter plans to attend in Fall 2016.