In Memoriam: Maxine Thompson Turner

Posted February 19, 2016

Maxine Turner broke barriers in joining Georgia Tech as one of its first women faculty in the 1960s. She was a pioneer in seeking equity on campus for women and minority students and in the development of a technical communications program at Georgia Tech.  

A teacher of English and History with a long career in Civil War research, during her years in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts (nee The General College and College of Sciences and Liberal Studies (COSALS)), Turner became nationally recognized in the fields of technical communication and the development of technology. Her textbook Technical Writing: a Practical Approach was widely used. She was a poet and recipient of the 1988 Georgia Author of the Year Award for her book Navy Gray: A Story of the Confederate Navy on the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers, University of Alabama Press.  

Turner was a fellow of the National Society of Technical Communication and a frequent speaker at national conferences.  She served in Georgia Tech’s Academic Senate, as faculty advisor to the Executive Round Table, and worked with the Society of Women Engineers.

Turner was a native Georgian. She attended Huntingdon for undergraduate studies, then Auburn University where she earned master’s degrees in History and English and a Ph.D. in English.

Funeral services for Dr. Turner were held Sunday, February 14.

Read obituary, including more about Dr. Turner's life, scholarship, and career.