PJC announces 2017 Distinguished Alumnus

Ronald F. Dodson, Ph.D., F.C.C.P., F.A.H.A. of Tyler, Texas has been selected as the 2017 Paris Junior College Distinguished Alumnus. He will be recognized during the 93rd Homecoming festivities Friday and Saturday, November 3 and 4.

“Dr. Ron Dodson is a member of the PJC Class of 1962,” said PJC President Dr. Pam Anglin. “He is a renowned specialist in the field of research and environmental sciences and brings recognition to Paris Junior College and his hometown. We are extremely honored to bestow upon him the College’s highest honor as a Distinguished Alumnus.”

Dodson will have the Distinguished Alumni Award conferred to him during a luncheon, Saturday, November 4, beginning at 11:30 a.m. at Love Civic Center.

The son of the late Ben and Vera (Eubank) Dodson, Dr. Dodson has spent a successful career in research and environmental sciences. At PJC he majored in biology and chemistry and credit the quality of his education under the leadership of Dr. J.R. McLemore and Mrs. Dean Fuller for his firm foundation. He also lettered two years as a member of the PJC Golf Team.

Dodson had served as an administrator for various research and educational programs as well as Professor of Cell Biology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Tyler, TX and as a Tenured Professor of Biology at the University of Texas at Tyler prior to his retirement from there in August 2005, a career he began there in 1977. Dr. Dodson continues to share his expertise with public and private entities as President/CEO of Dodson Environmental Consulting, Inc.

“I consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to attend PJC and always realized that experience provided me with a strong educational foundation for my further academic pursuits,” said Dodson.

Following PJC he earned his bachelors and master’s degrees from East Texas State University, now Texas A&M University-Commerce. He was the recipient of a Graduate College Fellowship from Texas A&M University, College Station through the Interdisciplinary Electron Microscopy Center. The emphasis of this study was to develop a section in Biological Electron Microscopy and his doctorate was conferred in 1969.

Dodson then accepted a Postgraduate Associateship in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. Upon completion of those research studies, he was recruited to join the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas where he stayed seven years and served as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and research assistant professor in the Department of Pathology.

Recruited by one of the University of Texas Health Science Centers in Tyler, Dodson began a research program in cell biology/environmental sciences. During his time at that institution, he chaired the Department of Cell Biology/Environmental Sciences and served as a full professor and administrator of the research program. He also held the Houston Endowment, Inc. Distinguished Professorship in Environmental Sciences, and served as Director of an EPA/TDH approved Occupational Training Division with educational facilities at Tyler and Houston.

Holding an EPA/TDSHS licenses as an Inspector/Management Planner and as an O&M Supervisor Restricted, Dodson has also served as a special consultant to the administration of several University of Texas components regarding environmental issues. He was also named a tenured Professor of Biology at the University of Texas at Tyler in 1984.

The honoree was appointed by Senator Bill Ratliff as a member of the Steering Committee to conduct a study of higher education needs in the East and North East Texas region. The initial study recommended educational resource sharing by the institutions in the region, increased the potential for interactions with regional public schools and development of needed degree offerings in the region.

Dodson led a collaborative effort between his institution and Stephen F. Austin University to offer regional students options for obtaining a Masters of Environmental Sciences or a Masters of Biotechnology. He subsequently served as the Chairman of the Northeast Texas Consortium of Universities and Community Colleges, an organization that evolved out of the needs assessment study and worked in that capacity to meet the charge given to these regional educational entities by Lieutenant Governor Ratliff.

While serving as an Advisory Board Member of the Texas Department of Health’s committee, he helped develop the State Law governing asbestos-related activities in public buildings in Texas. Dodson has also served as an invited external advisory panel member/reviewer for state, regional and national regulatory agencies and international organizations regarding asbestos issues associated with human health as well as on the initial external advisory board for the Texas A&M School of Public Health at College Station. His research career also included serving as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals.

Recognized for his academic/research achievements, Dodson has been awarded designations including Eminent Scientist and Outstanding Scholar of the Year 2001 by the International Research Promotion Council (South East Asia), Fellowship in the American Heart Association, and Fellowship in the American College of Chest Physicians.

Dodson has published over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles in biomedical journals and he has served as a reviewer for many of these journals. He has published 16 chapters in biomedical books, edited two books and served as special editor for an edition of the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health on the health effects of asbestos and other elongated particles that were published in 2016.

After retiring from academia in 2005, he formed the consulting company Dodson Environmental Consulting, Incorporated, in Tyler, Texas. He continues to conduct research and write scientific/biomedical publications and serve as an expert in his field with requests from the private sector, academia, and federal agencies as well as international agencies/scientific organizations.

Dodson and his wife, Sandy, are the proud parents of two daughters, Diana Ditges and husband, Joe, and Debra Hurbough and husband, David. They are blessed with four grandchildren.