After almost 40 years of service at Penn State Hazleton, R. Alan Price, professor of English, is retiring from the University.

Price completed his bachelor's degree from Earlham College in 1965 and began teaching at Penn State Hazleton in 1966 as an instructor in English while working on his master's degree from Penn State, earning it that same year. He then finished his doctoral degree in English at the University of Rochester in 1976. Promoted in the English department several times during his career, he held the positions of assistant professor from 1976 to 1988 and associate professor from 1988 to 1997. In 1997, Price was promoted to full professor of English.

Price, a scholar of Edith Wharton, has accomplishments that include the 1996 book, "The End of the Age of Innocence" (St. Martin's Press), which documented the American novelist's activities as a philanthropist, fund-raiser and political activist during World War I, and the 1993 collection "Wretched Exotic: Essays on Edith Wharton in Europe," which he co-edited with Katherine Joslin. He has written numerous other parts of books and articles, and served as co-chair and presenter at conferences about Wharton's life and times.

Price performed research at institutions including Stanford, Harvard, Yale and Princeton, but kept coming back to Penn State Hazleton. In his immediate future is a trip with his wife, former campus English instructor Irene Goldman-Price, to the Grand Canyon, where they look forward to getting to know the American Southwest better. Upon their return, he said, they will find ways to continue in their interests, probably by volunteering to support the arts.