Biology professor will retire after 27 years at FC

By Julianna Smith
Staff Writer

After 27 years of service to Georgia Highlands College, Leigh Callan, professor of biology, is hanging up her lab coat. Callan's retirement will become effective Aug. 1.

Though she had thought about retirement before Sept. 11, the tragedy of 9/11 made her take a full evaluation of her life. “I need to spend time taking my dad to Wal-Mart when he wants to go. You get to a point where it is family time,” she said.

The first thing that Callan plans to do after retirement is to take a hiking tour of Iceland. Her next goal is to “sit and stare into space for at least a year.” She also plans on picking up old hobbies like photography and writing. Callan also stated that she would like to get to know her family again.

Callan said that her most memorable experience at Georgia Highlands College happened in 1980 when the Paris Lake was drained. She said the mud hole where the lake had been filled in with vegetation and wildflowers.

She wanted to share this great example of biological succession and gathered speakers to talk to some 300 school children who were invited to the site.

Callan called the event the “lake symposium” and said that it was talked about for a long time at the college.

She said the lake symposium was the event that “started out my interest that finally led to the wetlands project.”

Student interaction and being in front of the classroom are the two things Callan said she will miss the most about Georgia Highlands College.

She feels that one of the greatest rewards of teaching is when a student lets her know that she has made a difference.

Some of Callan's most rewarding experiences include working with students and with local school children on Sea Day. Sea Day is a time when local fifth graders come to the labs and dissect sharks.

Another of her rewarding experiences was attaining the grant money for the Wetlands project.

Over the past 27 years Callan estimates that some 11,000 students have enrolled in her lab and lecture classes.

She said that she would like to have a record of her former students that are now working in the health field. She would like to have an index card with the date the student attended Georgia Highlands College, the highest degree he/she earned, what his or her job is, where he or she works and any comments or memories about the class, good or bad. She also wants to tell her current students to “hang in there and never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up. You're going to make it; just stick with it."

Before working at Georgia Highlands College, Callan taught at East Rome High School and at Texas Women's University. She received her bachelor's degree in biology from Furman University and her master's degree in anatomy from the Medical College of Georgia.