Department History

Department History & Huntington Award Recipients

Department history coming soon!
Below is a list of recipients who have received the Huntington Award along with a brief bio of Charles Clifford Huntington. The Huntington Award is given annually for distinction in undergraduate work.

Charles Clifford Huntington's Bio

Professor Emeritus Charles Clifford Huntington (January 12, 1873 to November 29, 1956) is the only former college football player who played in three different decades. Once featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not, here is an account of this fact:

Charles Huntington was born on a farm near Yellow Springs Ohio. Since there was no high school there, his parents sent him to nearby Antioch College, which also had a college-preparatory department. A natural athlete, he was drafted for the college varsity and played the full season in 1888.

For several years, Huntington alternated teaching at a country school and attending Antioch. In 1894 he entered Ohio State, and played as an end on the varsity football team. He returned to Antioch and another year of football in 1895.

Huntington then taught several years and again entered Ohio State. He played a little in 1901, but was declared ineligible. In 1903, he was again back in moleskins and played the entire season, the Ohio Conference having ruled that his Antioch College playing had been done as a prep school student.

More broadly, Charles Clifford Huntington obtained a BSc from Antioch in 1896, a Bachelor of Philosophy from Ohio State in 1902, an MA from Ohio State in 1903, and a PhD from Cornell in 1915. His PhD thesis, A History of Banking and Currency in Ohio Before the Civil War, was published by the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society in 1915. A copy is currently available in the Department of Geography office.

From Professor Guy-Harold Smith’s account on the History of the Department, we find that Huntington became an Assistant Professor at Ohio State in 1909 and taught accounting, receiving the rank of Professor in 1913. After receiving his PhD, Huntington became increasingly responsible for geography courses being introduced through the Department of Economic and Social Geography.

In 1922, Professor Huntington was made Chair of the new Department of Economics and Social Geography. He continued as Chair of Geography when the Department was formally established in 1924. Huntington retired from the Chair in 1934, and the University in 1943. In 1957, his widow established the Charles Huntington Endowment for an award to outstanding students in Geography. That recognition remains active to this day.

Award Winners

2008 - Emma Gorman & Amanda Kass
2007 - Zachary Henkel & Michael Webb
2006 - Ariel Cohen & Jessica Burns
2005 - Chris Riley & Christina Stall
2004 - Joseph Lewis & Emily Yerkes
2003 - Megan Haton & Paul Simon
2002 - Mark Horner & Sang-Il Lee
2001 - NONE
2000 - NONE
1999 - Nicole Kempf, Robin Belton & Carey Palm
1998 - Fernando Bosco & Bae-Gyoon Park
1997 - Jeff Dobur & Joseph Foose
1996 - NONE
1995 - Jeffrey Baars, Raju Das, David Dougherty
1994 - Jonathan Comer, Donna Rogers, Rodrigo Sierra-Maldonado
1993 - Una ni Chaoimh, Yong Lao, & Barbara Yarges
1992 - Jessie Poon, Andrew Wood, & Tracy Newsome
1991 - Daniel Wagner, Harvey Miller, & Mary Tabler
1990 - Jay Sandhu & Alan Edmonds
1989 - Gerald Mills & Allaire Shaw
1988 - Andrew Jonas & Francis Rogers
1987 - Andrew Mair & Kavita Pandit
1986 - Shih-Lung Shaw & Michael Gease
1985 - Victoria A. Lawson, David Selwood, & Daniel Eley
1984 - Yue-Hong Chou, Darrick Danta, & Richard Wysong
1982 - Wookung Huh & John Paul Jones III
1981 - Jan Kodras & Michael Sutcliffe
1980 - Hazel Morrow-Jones & Timothy Nyerges
1979 - Jay Hobgood & Jeff McCarthy
1978 - Evelyn Anderson & Ronald Mitchelson
1977 - Robert G. Cromley & Ellen M. Thompson
1976 - M. A. Brown & C. L. Parkinson
1968 - J. Clements
1967 - R. K. Semple
1966 - J. E. McConnell
1964 - Tiruvarur R. Lakshmanan
1962 - Val L. Eichenlaub
1959 - David Wayne Ganyard & Harold Milton Rose