Dr. Mark Bebensee’s young hopes were quite simple: he wanted to teach economics at a small, good school in the southeast. The Citadel may not have been what he had in mind, but he has played a pivotal role in the School of Business Administration’s many successes, including its AACSB accreditation, its reorganization as a school, and its continued success into the 21st century.
Dr. Bebensee hadn’t thought of The Citadel until he met Col. Lawrence McKay, a career Army man and 1958 graduate of The Citadel, who had returned from two tours in Vietnam to work toward his graduate degree in economics at Duke. Dr. Bebensee was just entering the prestigious North Carolina school and was a member of the ROTC. His plan was to spend his active duty teaching at the Air Force Academy. McKay suggested that The Citadel would be a great place for him to teach, and during his second year of graduate school, he brought Dr. Bebensee to Charleston to visit.
Dr. Mark Bebensee
Prior to being commissioned in 1974, the Air Force revised its policy for teachers at the Air Force Academy. With Vietnam winding down, the school wanted only veterans or pilots. Dr. Bebensee struck a deal with the school: he would have 90 days of training, and the rest of his four years would be spent in the inactive reserves. Instead of obtaining only his graduate degree, he remained at Duke where he received his doctorate in economics, all the while remaining in contact with Col. McKay.
Bebensee eventually received a phone call from the business department head at The Citadel, and although he had reservations about the military aspect of the school, his relationship with Col. McKay motivated him to consider the possibility. He visited the campus where he was shown around, met the faculty, then walked the campus alone, talking to cadets. “Everyone was uniformly positive,” Dr. Bebensee said recently, so he decided he would come to The Citadel and “try it for a year.” That was 29 years ago.
In his tenure at the school, Dr. Bebensee has seen a lot of changes. When he arrived, he, along with Prof. Bruce Strauch and Dr. Richard Pokryfka, represented the younger guard on the faculty. It was a different school than it is now, marked by an emphasis on teaching rather than scholarly endeavors. The MBA program was also very new.
After five years at the school, Bebensee began working as the assistant undergraduate dean and spent a great deal of time in student advising. He said that this is the period during which The Citadel began a transformation, moving more toward a professional faculty and improving the academic qualifications of the professors. “Expectations began to shift,” he said.
“The faculty today, in many respects, is a more qualified group,” Dr. Bebensee said, noting that many professors have a Ph.D, professional experience or a combination of both. As the school began to change, Dr. Bebensee did as well. He became more enamored with Charleston, and decided that this was the place he would remain. Ironically, Col. McKay, the initial reason that Dr. Bebensee was introduced to the college, relocated to Charleston and now teaches in the School of Business.
Dr. Bebensee began laying the groundwork required for the business department to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, or AACSB, the premier accrediting agency for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. With the hard work of Dr. Bebensee and Dr. Cliff Poole, among others, the business department was accredited in 1996. Because of issues on the state level, the school was forced to go through the process again in 2000, but they again received the nod from the AACSB.
What Dr. Bebensee calls the “next really important step” occurred with the reorganization of the department as The Citadel School of Business Administration. The school hired its first dean, Dr. Earl Walker, who was “perfect for what we are here to do,” Dr. Bebensee said. After Dean Walker’s arrival, Dr. Bebensee was eligible for a sabbatical. At the request of the dean, he stayed on to operate as the associate dean and chief operating officer, while Walker worked as the chief executive officer, spending a great deal of time off campus.
“I think it has been a good teaming relationship,” Dr. Bebensee said.
Walker agreed, noting that associate dean is “central to our operations and development.”
“Without Dr. Bebensee, this school would not have achieved the success it has today,” he added.
Dr. Bebensee has recently had two honors bestowed upon him. He was named The Citadel Alumni Association’s Honorary Life Member for 2005, an honor given to non-alumni not otherwise eligible for membership who have rendered unusual and conspicuous service to The Citadel. His name now stands along with honorary alumni such as Mark Clark and John S. Grinalds.
A scholarship was also endowed in his honor by Dan and Nancy Kohl. Dr. Bebensee taught Dan, who was a senior when he first arrived at the college, and later taught his son, who graduated in 2004. The scholarship will go to a member of the Corps of Cadets who is a business major.
Above all, Dr. Bebensee is still enjoying Charleston, still enjoying The Citadel, and excited about the continuing developments in The Citadel School of Business Administration.
“It is the most exciting time in my years here,” he said. “I feel incredibly fortunate. I found a home here.”
