History of the Sowell Center
Dr. Virginia Murray Sowell started the personnel preparation program in visual impairment at Texas Tech University in 1977. A distinguished faculty member from San Francisco State University, Georgie Lee Abel, was instrumental in the creation of the Texas Tech program. Ms. Abel traveled to Lubbock during the summers to help Dr. Sowell teach the first courses in visual impairment. In 1982, Dr. Sowell collaborated with Pete Wurzburger, also from San Francisco State, to begin the orientation and mobility program. With this foundation, Texas Tech began a program to prepare teachers of students with deafblindness in 1989.
Texas Tech was one of the first universities in the country to offer a distance education option that allowed specialists to study in their home areas, rather than requiring them to attend courses on campus. The success of our program is attributed in large measure to the innovative thinking, unyielding persistence, and futuristic vision of Dr. Virginia Sowell.
Texas Tech is now expanding the distance education program to include options for learning by interactive television and web-based courses. These options provide quality education, and provide full access to those in the most remote regions. Program faculty collaborrate with other universities, schools for students who are blind, regional educational programs, and other agencies to offer quality personnel preparation and to pursue research activities.
The Sowell Center Web page went online Summer 1999 as a means to improve communication with off-campus students across the state of Texas and to educate the public about the center's activities and growth as an entity.
Who was Dr. Virginia Sowell?
Dr. Virginia Murray Sowell’s devotion to teaching students with visual impairments began in 1955 with the creation of a new program within the San Antonio Independent School District. Her commitment and extra time devoted to the program made it a success. Dr. Sowell attended summer school at the University of Minnesota and San Francisco State University to pursue studies in visual impairment and orientation and mobility.
After earning her Ph.D. in special education at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Sowell accepted a position at Texas Tech University. Her clear vision and dynamic energy created and developed a program at Texas Tech that is recognized internationally as a cutting edge model. Dr. Sowell trained professionals to improve the lives of individuals with visual impairments in the nation and beyond. Her lifetime contributions to the profession matters to countless numbers of children and adults with visual impairments.
The Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research and Education in Visual Impairment was created in January 1998 as a way to continue her work in perpetuity.
What is the Sowell Center?
The Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research and Education in Visual Impairment is an opportunity to continue the work begun by Dr. Virginia Sowell at Texas Tech University. It is designed to include an annual Distinguished Lecturer Series on the topic of visual impairment. The Center will eventually offer scholarships to students participating in the Visual Impairment, Orientation and Mobility, and Deafblind (Dual Sensory) degree and certification programs. The Center is also designed to support faculty research and public service.
Special Education Faculty Members, Dr. Carol Layton, Dr. Robin Lock, were named Sowell Center Associates May 1999. We are all excited by their desire to actively participate in the Center.
This picture was designed by Texas Tech Associate Professor Emeritus of Architecture Virginia Mahaley Thompson in 1999. In her book Texas Tech in Harmony – Past and Present, Professor Thompson says, “Texas Tech inherited an architectural style based upon classical characteristics. The best qualities of the inner campus should extend into the future, not as applied pieces of decoration, but as new complexes which co-exist in harmony with older buildings.” The English, Philosophy, and Education Complex, embraces classical design ideas characterized by the free and eclectic use and adaptation of Spanish Renaissance architecture. Since architectural drawings of that period often superimposed various views of a building and its environs into pleasing creative drawings, Professor Thompson used the same style in her composition. The faculty and staff of the Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research and Education in Visual Impairment wish to thank Virginia Mahaley Thompson for the donation of her work. Click picture for enlargment.
Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research and Education in Visual Impairment
P.O. Box 41071 | Lubbock, TX 79409 | 806-742-1997 ext. 233 | 806-742-2326 FAX