• East Village building names honor prominent Baylor engineer and doctor

    Gordon Teal (right)

    After a long discussion process led by a committee of faculty, staff and students, the two main buildings that will make up East Village Residential Community now have names honoring two distinguished (but perhaps not well-known) Baylor alumni.

    The north building will be the Gordon Teal Residential College, named for the 1927 Baylor graduate who played a major part in developing the first silicon transistor while working at Texas Instruments. Teal, BA ’27, (pictured above, standing) later became the first director of the National Bureau of Standards Institute for Materials Research in Washington, D.C. He also served as a Baylor trustee from 1970-79, and his papers reside in Baylor’s Texas Collection.

    The Teal Residential College will house engineering and computer science students, led by Dr. Ian Gravagne, who will serve as faculty master. (Residential colleges are different from other residence halls in their emphasis on faculty-student interaction and intentional community that includes academic as well as social and spiritual components.)

    Dr. Hallie EarleThe south building will be Hallie Earle Hall, named for the 1901 Baylor graduate who went on to become the first female graduate of Baylor Medical School in Dallas and then the first licensed female physician in McLennan County. Earle, BA ’01, MS ’02, (pictured at right) challenged gender roles of early 20th-century America, but her work was of such quality that a copy of her master’s thesis was placed in the cornerstone of Carroll Science in 1902, and in 1996, the Texas Historical Commission placed a marker on her grave.

    Earle Hall will house the Science and Health Living Learning Community, aimed at students pursuing a career in medicine and/or healthcare. This is the newest of eight Baylor LLCs, which bring together students based on an academic discipline or interest, regardless of major.

    (East Village also includes a third building, the East Village Dining Commons, which will house a new dining hall as well as administrative services space.)

    Sic ’em, Drs. Teal and Earle!