Emmy Werner officially retired as a human and community development professor in 1994, but that hardly slowed her down.
Six years later, after continuing to teach and publishing three books and writing numerous research papers, Werner is earning new recognition for her contributions.
Werner, described by Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef as a "campus treasure," recently became the first UC Davis faculty member to win the UC-wide Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award.
She will receive her award certificate and $5,000 prize at an event at the chancellor’s residence later this spring.
The emeriti award, given seven times over the past 16 years, recognizes UC emeritus faculty members, mainly in the humanities in social sciences, for scholarship or educational service "of outstanding character" in any year after their retirement.
The award is named after a former UCLA sociology professor who helped create the UC retirement system.
Werner, 69, an internationally recognized developmental psychologist, has spent a lifetime studying how children cope when confronted with adversity. Since her retirement, she has published books on children of the westward migration, the Civil War and World War II.
"Emmy Werner remains a campus treasure, even in retirement," said Vanderhoef. "She loves teaching, she is a skillful scholar, and she is an honest eternal optimist. Mostly, though, I love her for her sense of humor that comes through even in brief and casual conversation."
The UC Davis Emerti Association focused on Werner’s 1999 accomplishments in nominating her for the award.
Last year, she published Through the Eyes of Innocents: Children Witness World War II, and her book Reluctant Witnesses: Children’s Voices from the Civil War, came out in paperback. In addition, she had six book chapters and one journal article published or accepted for publication. She also presented six research papers at national or international conferences.
She was selected for four scholarly awards last year for her contributions to child-development studies. Among those honors, Harvard University and Radcliffe College named her longitudinal study of children in Kauai as one of 12 landmark studies of the 20th century for a conference on life course studies.
She also was a guest professor at a Norwegian university last fall and served as major professor for two UC Davis human-development doctoral students.
"In four of the six years since her retirement, Professor Werner also taught her specialty undergraduate course on ‘Cross-Cultural Child Development,’ much to the delight of the students who managed to get one of the coveted spots in her course," department chair Beth Ober wrote in a letter supporting her nomination.
Paul Stumpf, president of the UC Davis Emeriti Association, said the award was an honor for the campus as well as for Werner. "We’re very pleased to have the award given to this outstanding emeritus professor," said Stumpf, a professor emeritus of molecular and cellular biology.
A second award went this year to retired UCLA historian Eugen Weber. Other emeriti professors to win the award in the past have been from UC campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Irvine.