During Towson University’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2017, there was a concerted effort to review and celebrate the University’s growth and development. These efforts included hanging banners, dedicating historical walkways, sponsoring special art exhibits and lecture series, holding alumni reunions, and writing numerous articles for the University and local press. The single missing element was a link to the past from the faculty perspective.

During these celebrations, the TURFA (Towson University Retired Faculty Association) Executive Committee recognized that the need for institutional history of any university comes from three potential sources: (1) students, (2) faculty and staff, and (3) administrators. Spending only four to six years at the institution, students’ institutional knowledge is limited by their enrollment. Administrators have a longer association with the institution but frequently serve for less than a decade before moving on to achieve upward mobility. In the final analysis, it is the faculty that has the longest, most intimate perspective on the institution, frequently spending 20, 30 and even more than 50 years in residence. In essence, they live “change over time.” Yet, as members of the TURFA Executive Committee conversed with the University Archivists, we were surprised to discover that the faculty voice was the least well documented aspect of the institution’s history.

It was in response to this void that the TURFA Executive Committee came to realize that collectively our membership possessed a treasure trove of institutional memory, and that we had an obligation to commit as much of that memory as possible to the public record.

Thus, the TURFA Oral History Project was born. The plan was to select a representative cross- section of retired faculty from each of the University’s six Colleges and to have these faculty discuss their lives and careers with a designated TURFA interviewer. All completed video interviews would be accessioned into the University Archives located at The Albert Cook Library, thus preserving for posterity the faculty perspective of the institution’s evolution.

Over time, the TURFA Executive Committee recognized the need for a retirement association for retired TU staff members, many of who had shared the faculty’s dedication to and longevity at the University. After much work, the TURFA membership voted to incorporate retired TU staff members into TURFA. On July 1, 2025, the original retired faculty organization (TURFA) officially welcomed retired TU staff members to join the organization. TURFA was renamed TURA – Towson University Retiree Association. Accordingly, the Oral History Project began to include TU’s retired staff members in its video interviews and added these retired staff videos into the Cook Library Archives.

Learn more about TURA