Ronald Jenkins

Ronald Lee Jenkins (born 1952 - died April 27, 2007 in Homewood) was a biologist and a professor in Howard College of Arts and Sciences at Samford University.

Jenkins earned his Bachelor of Science from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee and his Master of Science in zoology (1976) from Auburn University. He completed his Ph.D. in physiology at Auburn in 1980 with research on the comparative physiology of the nervous system, using chickens. He joined the faculty of Samford's Department of Biology in 1988, coming from Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana. He was promoted to department head in 1994.

Jenkins assisted in the design of the campus's William Self Propst Hall (originally the "Sciencenter," completed in 2001. In 2002 he was given the "Most Valuable Professor" award by Samford's Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Jenkins was the co-author, with Mike Howell, of Spiders of the Eastern United States: A Photographic Guide, and an authority on environmental ethics and on hormones in drinking water.

Jenkins was an elder and taught Sunday School at Edgewood Presbyterian Church. He described his position on the "intelligent design" debate as "theoevolutionist," seeing no contradiction between belief in a creator and in the mechanics of evolutionary biology. He was part of a group of Samford faculty that protested a lecture by Oxford-based intelligent-design proponent John Lennox in 2005. A resolution drawn up by the faculty senate labelled intelligent-design theory as a political movement rather than a scientific theory.

Jenkins was diagnosed with cancer in August 2006 and died at home in April 2007. He was survived by his wife, the former Kitty Noordermeer and two children, Ben and Anna-Lea.

Publications

• Howell, W. Mike and Ronald L. Jenkins (2004) Spiders of the Eastern United States: A Photographic Guide. Pearson Education. ISBN 0536758530

References

• Spencer, Thomas (December 8, 2005) "Faculty Protest Creation Speech." Birmingham News.
• Hickerson, Patrick (May 1, 2007) "Samford biologist Ronald Jenkins, 54, dies." Birmingham News.