The Adviser of the Year was established in October 1973 at the fall business meeting in San Marcos.
“The students were being honored through the annual competition and awards ceremony,” Jeff Henderson, who was president of the advisers association (1972-1975, said. “The advisers saw the need for a vehicle to recognize an adviser each year who had gone the extra mile in teaching and in advising.”
Initially, a committee of advisers was named to choose the Adviser of the Year. To be considered by the committee, an adviser had to be nominated by his/her student editors and support letters had to be solicited by those who made the nomination.
The nomination process is the same today, however, the selection process has changed. A committee from outside the state now makes the selection based on specific criteria.
Tessica Martin of Howard Payne University was named the first Adviser of the Year in 1974. Martin had been a part of TIPA since her student years at Howard Payne in the late 1930s. She retired in 1986.
In 1988 at the TIPA convention, the student delegates voted unanimously to name the Adviser of the Year Award in memory of Charles T. “Chuck” Choate.
Choate was honored with the Adviser of the Year Award posthumously in 1987. Choate, student publications at Eastfield College in Dallas, died in January 1987.
He was remembered by former students as a man who “valued the meaning of the word adviser” and whose students “were not taught, they were allowed to learn.”
Charles T. “Chuck” Choate Memorial Adviser of the Year Award winners
- 1974 Tessica Martin (Howard Payne University)
- 1975 Robert Wylie (Amarillo College)
- 1976 Harry Quinn (Pan American University)
- 1977 Dorothy Estes (University of Texas-Arlington)
- 1978 Wilma Wirt (University of Texas-El Paso)
- 1979 Howard Perkins (Lamar University)
- 1980 Sara Stone (West Texas State University)
- 1981 John Gibson (Temple Junior College)
- 1982 Charles Marler (Abilene Christian University)
- 1983 Diane Turner (Tarrant County College)
- 1984 Diane Noll (University of Texas-San Antonio)
- 1985 John McCarroll (Odessa College)
- 1986 Gloria Morris (University of Houston-Clear Lake)
- 1987 Charles T. “Chuck” Choate (Eastfield College)
- 1988 Robert Shrader (Southwest Texas State University)
- 1989 Barbara Richerson (Sul Ross State University)
- 1990 Patricia Spence (Stephen F. Austin State University)
- 1991 Royce Ann Walker (San Jacinto College)
- 1992 Jeff W. Henderson (Southwest Texas State University)
- 1993 Joyce Prock (University of Texas-Pan American)
- 1994 Bettye Craddock (Kilgore College)
- 1995 Dorothy Estes (University of Texas-Arlington)
- 1996 Elaine Jackson (Angelina College)
- 1997 Richard Seaman (Angelo State University)
- 1998 John Neal (Brookhaven College)
- 1999 John Dycus (University of Texas-Arlington)
- 2000 Jean Cotten (Texarkana College)
- 2001 Susan Cummings Sheley (Lee College)
- 2002 Mike Haynes (Amarillo College)
- 2003 Patricia Spence (Stephen F. Austin State University)
- 2004 Joseph O’Connell (St. Edward’s University)
- 2005 Eddye Gallagher (Tarrant County College)
- 2006 Vicky Kendig (Mary Hardin-Baylor)
- 2007 Vanessa Curry (University of Texas-Tyler)
- 2008 Dan Knight (University of Texas-Austin)
- 2009 Patricia Spence (Stephen F. Austin State University)
- 2010 Bob Bajackson (Texas State University)
- 2011 Laura Jett Krantz (Tyler Junior College)
- 2012 Kenneth Pybus (Abilene Christian University)
- 2013 Don Fisher (Texas A&M-Kingsville)
- 2014 Butler Cain (West Texas A&M)
- 2015 Kevin Dilley (University of Texas-Tyler)
- 2016 O. Rufus Lovett (Kilgore College)
- 2017 Beth Francesco (University of Texas -Arlington)
- 2018 Scott Beckett (Del Mar College)
- 2019 Daniel Rodrigue (Brookhaven College)
- 2020 Mandy Smith (Northeast Texas Community College)
- 2021 No recipient – Virtual Convention
- 2022 Kelley Lash (Rice University, posthumous)