During the spring, the U.S. Army acknowledged URI’s teaching excellence by selecting Maj. Robert Edwards for its most prestigious teaching award, the Col. Leo A. Codd Memorial Award, which is presented each year to the most outstanding ROTC instructor from the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

“It’s the best job in the world,” says an exuberant Edwards, who recently concluded his three-year assignment to URI ROTC’s Cramer Saber Battalion where he taught URI, Roger Williams University, and Salve Regina University students enrolled in URI ROTC. “And it’s the most important. There are many ways to serve one’s country.

“All the staff and instructors in URI ROTC, as well as the administrators at URI, deserve to share this great honor,” he adds.

Teaching comes naturally to Edwards. A native of Fairfax, Va., he earned three degrees from Virginia Tech—a bachelor’s degree in business, a master’s degree in education, and an M.B.A. He was a teacher and coach in the Fairfax County public school system for eight years while in the Army Reserves before beginning active duty in 2003, which has included a tour in Iraq.

“Soldier, scholar, teacher, and mentor, he does it all with excellence and character. Robert is an outstanding representative of our Army and our University,” commented Lt. Col. Paul Yager, commanding officer and department chair of military science.