Dr. Jeffrey Mask The Whetstone / Cochise Lucas

By Ashley Peard (Whetstone Staff Writer)

After 19 years of teaching religion and sporting bow ties around Wesley, Dr. Jeffrey Mask has become one of the more recognized professors at the college.

“I vote Dr. Mask as king of bow ties,” said Dr. William Johnston, president of the college, who sports his own bow ties.

“I like the variety and quality of his bow ties and think he wears them very well.”

There may be a reason why Mask looks sportier.

“[Johnston] tends to prefer striped ties, while I prefer paisley,” he said.

Growing up in Chamblee, Ga., near Atlanta, Mask, 54, attended the high school there, and the University of Mississippi, majoring in philosophy.

After prayer and reflection, Mask said he believed God wanted him to go into a ministry.

The experience that Mask had with church in college was different than from when he was younger.

“I was growing up,” he said. “The way we understand our faith as children is necessarily simpler than what is possible for us as adolescents or adults (though many people maintain an uncritical, childish faith throughout their lives.)”

In 1978 Mask was ordained by the North Oxford Baptist Church.

“Since being in Delaware, I have drifted a bit,” he said. “My family worshipped with the Presbyterian Church of Dover for about a decade.”

After that, the Masks held worship services on campus at The New Church, which Mask said was an attempt at a nondenominational, progressive Protestant church.

This lasted about four years.

“Since then, my wife and I have been driving up to Newark to worship with a UCC congregation,” he said.

Mask attended graduate school at Southeast Baptist Theological Seminary in N.C., and then earned his Ph.D in

Theological Studies from Emory University in 1990.

Mask applied for teaching jobs all over the country.

Wesley offered him a job as assistant professor of religion in 1991.

“I feel like Wesley chose me,” Mask said. “It was this one full-time job, or three part-time jobs in Atlanta. The choice was really a no-brainer.”

When he first moved to Dover, Mask said it was a culture shock.

“The supermarkets would close at 7:30 on weekdays, and there weren’t many restaurants,” he said.

Shortly after beginning his career at Wesley, Mask met Dr. Tony Armstrong, with whom he has become good friends.

“Jeff Mask is a scholar and a gentleman,” Armstrong said. “He has a dynamic personality and, though some may not know it, a warm heart. He is very intelligent and well-read.”

Mask said there are many reasons why he has remained at Wesley.

“I like being in a small town” he said. “I like being able to walk a block to work.”

Mask enjoys teaching as well as interaction with good students.

“I like students who are curious, and who want to put the work in,” he said.

Some students like him, too.

“He’s cool,” said senior Evita Wade. “He provides a lot of information.”

Freshman Matthew Tappan says that Mask has the ability to make subjects that would usually be boring more interesting.

“He makes learning enjoyable with his lectures,” Tappan said. “He keeps me interested through the whole class.”

While his favorite class that he ever taught was a Food and Culture seminar, Religion in America is Mask’s favorite to teach regularly.

“I really like food, and there was something to eat every class,” he said.

“We looked at the health and nutrition aspects of food, but also the cultural aspects. We studied how food influences culture and can influence your identity.”

Mask finds the best teaching experience when students learn something valuable out of one of his classes, and when he makes a difference.

“I may not see it right away, though,” he said. “I had one student email me several years after I had taught him saying that I had pushed him to think for himself. That is one of my goals.”