Pepperdine University Mourns Passing of Seaver College Professor Constance M. Fulmer

Pepperdine University is saddened to announce the passing of Constance M. Fulmer, Blanche E. Seaver Chair in English Literature at Seaver College on March 17, 2020.

“Connie Fulmer was one of a kind,” says Michael Feltner, dean of Seaver College. “She was a caring and gifted teacher, a prolific scholar, and a skilled administrator. Seaver College, the Humanities and Teacher Education Division, and the Social Science Division all were lifted by her skilled leadership and her warm presence. However, her greatest imprints were made in the lives of the students she taught. Our community grieves the passing of our dear colleague.”

After receiving her PhD from Vanderbilt University, Fulmer began her teaching career faithfully instructing students in Victorian and British literature. She taught at Lipscomb University for twenty years. In 1990 she joined the Pepperdine faculty. With her research focused on the British writers George Eliot and Edith Simcox, she published countless essays and several books reflecting on the continued relevance of the two female authors. In 2019 she celebrated her most active publication year with five essays and her book, George Eliot’s Moral Aesthetic: Compelling Contradictions. She served in various leadership positions at the college including as divisional dean of the Humanities and Teacher Education Division and as associate dean of Seaver College from 2007 to 2016.

Beyond Pepperdine Fulmer was a board member of the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States and actively participated in the British Women Writers Association conference for the past 28 years. Her vocation exemplified how to advance and support women’s voices in literature and academia.

“I learned so much from her as a teacher, a colleague, an administrator, and, most importantly, as a friend,” says Dana Dudley, assistant dean of special academic programs. “Her scholarship, teaching, and friends were her life. The world is a little dimmer without her, but heaven is brighter. And George Eliot is happy to meet her biggest fan.”

Fulmer is survived by her sisters, Clydetta Fulmer and Eunice Wells; brother-in-law, Carroll Wells; nephew, Dawson Wells; niece, Carolee Wells; and friend, Margaret Barfield.

Service arrangements are pending and will be updated here as more information becomes available. Gifts to honor Fulmer's memory can be made to Pepperdine Legacy Partners and the Helen Young Scholarship, per her request.