What do Judson College math professors Ray Price and Brett Stiefel think about the old adage, “Algebra has nothing to do with real life”?
“Algebra isn’t the final destination; it’s a step to greater things,” Price explained.
“It’s like a music student who takes piano lessons and later writes a symphony. Algebra teaches logic, which is a helpful foundation for other goals in life.”
Stiefel agreed.
“A football player runs sprints and does bench-presses. These aren’t what he does in the game, but they prepare him for the game,” he said. “Math teaches one to think logically and solve problems. Even if they don’t go into a math career, I want students to leave my classes with the ability to make decisions by attacking issues step-by-step.”
Price grew up the son of an Episcopalian rector in North and South Carolina and knew early on that math appealed to him as a career. He attended Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., earning a graduate scholarship to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
After completing his class work at Wake Forest, Price spent two years with the Peace Corps teaching math to teenagers at a boarding school in Ghana. “Third-world countries want math and science,” he said, “so I was welcomed to the village and to the Anglican school.”
Price returned to Wake Forest to complete his thesis and accepted a Judson teaching position in 1979.
He met and married his wife, Ann, a Judson alum who taught home economics at the college, and they moved to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in 1981 for his Ph.D. study. The Prices returned to Judson in 1987. Price described Judson as “a good place to be.”
“People treat one another well, and we worship together every week,” he said.
“Our students’ attitudes and goals are always at the highest level.”
Stiefel agreed that Judson’s Christian atmosphere impacts his teaching.
“At Judson I can discuss ideas and use illustrations that have a spiritual dimension,” he said.
“I’ve taught at state schools and I know your job can be in jeopardy if you talk about faith. But I often talk in my classes about our ‘calling’ as believers and use faith to motivate students to excel.”
Stiefel, a Rainsville native, earned degrees from the University of Montevallo and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
He begins his seventh year at Judson in the fall. He attends First Lutheran Church in Birmingham and serves as a deacon and Bible teacher.
“I’ve taught the book of Isaiah and the gospel of John,” he said. “John is my favorite book in the Bible.”
Price is organist at the St. Wilfrid’s Episcopal Church in Marion.
Ray and Ann Price celebrated their daughter Caroline’s graduation from Judson this summer. Caroline begins pre-med studies this fall in the Rural Medical Scholars Program at the University of Alabama. (JC)
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