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The ALAN Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee is pleased and proud to announce Christo­pher Crowe as the 2010 recip­i­ent of the Ted Hip­ple Ser­vice Award.

The award is given each year to an indi­vid­ual who has offered sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the ALAN orga­ni­za­tion. It is named in honor of Ted Hip­ple, the first and long-time ALAN Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary, who passed away on Novem­ber 25, 2004. Ted shaped ALAN through decades of unwa­ver­ing ser­vice and sup­port. He was a Pro­fes­sor of Edu­ca­tion at the Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee, where he was a for­mer chair of the Depart­ment of Cur­ricu­lum and Instruc­tion. Pre­vi­ously, he was a Pro­fes­sor of Edu­ca­tion at the Uni­ver­sity of Florida. He received his doc­tor­ate from the Uni­ver­sity of Illi­nois and was a high school Eng­lish teacher at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. Famous for his flam­boy­ant sweaters, neck­ties, and sus­penders, Ted was a bril­liant teacher, scholar, and ser­vant to the pro­fes­sion. His work influenced—and con­tin­ues to influence—generations of teach­ers and their students.

Chris Crowe is a Pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish Edu­ca­tion at Brigham Young Uni­ver­sity where he teaches courses in Lit­er­a­ture for Ado­les­cents, Meth­ods of Teach­ing Sec­ondary Eng­lish, Writ­ing for Chil­dren and Teenagers, Cre­ative Writ­ing, and Writ­ing the YA Novel. He attended BYU on a foot­ball schol­ar­ship before grad­u­at­ing and begin­ning work as a high school Eng­lish teacher in Tempe, Ari­zona. He com­pleted his Ed.D. at Ari­zona State University.

Mem­bers of the selec­tion com­mit­tee describe Chris as actively involved in the field as a scholar, teacher, and author. He is a gen­tle­man, one who advo­cates for YA titles, authors, and pub­lish­ers with wis­dom (with­out pre­ten­tion) and gen­uine kind­ness. Addi­tion­ally, Chris has also served the orga­ni­za­tion in many ways over many years—from serv­ing as Pres­i­dent and Board Mem­ber to serv­ing on mul­ti­ple com­mit­tees and shar­ing his exper­tise through pre­sen­ta­tions at the ALAN Work­shop. Chris’ sup­port has been as con­stant as the North Star to “young­sters” in the field—both teacher edu­ca­tors and writ­ers, whom he mentors—and to ALAN as an organization.