Charles P. Postelle, Jr.

A plaque in the Science/Engineering Building commemorates Charles Postelle’s bequest of more than $1 million to endow professorships in nuclear engineering and biochemistry. Postelle received the baccalaureate degree from UT in education in 1943 and taught biology and chemistry in the Birmingham, Alabama, and Colletsville, North Carolina, public schools. In 1966 he earned the master’s degree at UNC Chapel Hill and then taught political science and European and American history at Averett University in Danville, Virginia. He was an artist and an inspired teacher who loved hiking in the mountains and keeping up with his former students. His service to Averett was honored with an honorary doctorate degree in 1999, and two of his oil paintings—one of a former Averett president, Conwell Anderson; the other of library benefactor Mary B. Blount—hang in the entrance to Averett’s library.