PULLMAN, Wash. — Denney Rutherford, Washington State University hospitality business management professor, has been named the fall 2002 William E. Davis Distinguished Guest Lecturer for the Oklahoma State University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration.
In October, he will teach a one-credit, three-day course at the university’s Stillwater campus on “The Worldwide Influence of the Rhone Valley, France, Wines on Viticultural Practices in the New World (Washington, California, and Australia).” He will also lead a one-day graduate colloquium on “The Role of Service in the New Economy.”
Rutherford will discuss the grape varieties, geography, history, traditions, religion and politics, myths and methods that surround the wines made from the traditional grapes of the Rhone Valley as well as follow their “travels” around the world.
“I will also explore how the ‘Rhone Rangers’ of California’s wine country may not have been the first to become enamored with the friendly, exotic flavors and commercial potential of the wine grapes of the Rhone Valley, but how they were the first to see a lot of ink in the popular and wine trade press in the U.S.A.”
At WSU, Rutherford is the Ivar B. Haglund Distinguished Professor of Hotel and Restaurant Administration, and in 2000 was awarded the John Wiley & Sons Research Award by the Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education. His research and teaching interests include the legal aspects of hospitality operations as well as understanding the management characteristics of major hotel departments including housekeeping, engineering and front office. Some of his most recent publications cover such diverse topics as law, employee interactions, security, contracts, conventions and meetings and hotel operations.
A Pullman native, Rutherford earned his bachelor’s degree at WSU and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Washington. He began his academic career in September 1970. He taught at the WSU Seattle Center for Hotel & Restaurant Administration from 1979 until 1993, when he returned to the Pullman campus. He became a full professor in 1992.
