THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160329
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: GLOUCESTER LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
Dennis L. Taylor resigned as director of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary after college officials were notified that he had listed a bogus degree on his resume.
Taylor, 52, whose four-year tenure at the VIMS helm has provoked two lawsuits by faculty members, admitted Monday that ``I do not have'' a doctorate of science degree from the University of Wales.
He made the admission in a letter addressed to ``the faculty.'' The letter was provided by the college Monday afternoon in response to inquiries from the Daily Press.
While the letter does not say why he included the degree on his resume, it does concede that ``my failure to remove this item from my credentials represented a lack of judgment on my part.''
In a separate letter circulated at VIMS earlier Monday, Taylor announced his resignation, effective Aug. 1, but did not say why. That letter also said that after stepping down as chief, he would join the biology faculty.
In that letter, Taylor said he'd submitted his resignation to William and Mary President Timothy J. Sullivan on Friday.
Sullivan in a brief statement issued at the same time as Taylor's afternoon letter, said the resignation was ``regrettable but necessary.''
The credential discrepancy was brought to light by Newport News lawyer William V. Hoyle Jr. while researching for a possible lawsuit on behalf of what he described as ``one or more'' VIMS faculty members.
Hoyle said he visited the University of Wales in Cardiff in April to determine whether the school had in fact conferred the degree on Taylor.
A subsequent letter to Hoyle from A.D. Hall, acting academic secretary of the University of Wales, said the school had no record Taylor had been awarded the degree.
Hoyle said he became suspicious while representing VIMS faculty members with grievances against Taylor. Taylor's resume said he received the degree in 1977 in Wales at the same time he was listed on the faculty at the University of Miami. by CNB