John B. Stephenson

John B. Stephenson (September 26, 1937 - December 6, 1994) was a sociologist and scholar of Appalachia, a founder of the Appalachian Studies Conference, and president of Berea College from 1984 to 1994. John B. Stephenson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on September 26, 1937. He earned a B.A. degree in sociology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1959, and M.A. (1961) and Ph.D. (1966) degrees in sociology from the University of N... more

John B. Stephenson (September 26, 1937 - December 6, 1994) was a sociologist and scholar of Appalachia, a founder of the Appalachian Studies Conference, and president of Berea College from 1984 to 1994. John B. Stephenson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on September 26, 1937. He earned a B.A. degree in sociology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1959, and M.A. (1961) and Ph.D. (1966) degrees in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation, a community study of Celo, North Carolina, became his first book, Shiloh: A Mountain Community (1968). He began his teaching career at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, from 1961 to 1964, where he met and married a colleague, Jane Ellen Baucom, in 1962. After returning to Chapel Hill to complete his doctoral studies, he joined department of sociology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington in the fall of 1966. Connecting with the emerging field of Appalachian studies, he co... less