Up Close and Personal:
Meet Dr. Charlie Pettijohn
By Mary Chin

Meet Charlie Pettijohn – recognized as the in-house practical joker of the Marketing Department. If there’s a plastic spider neatly positioned on the copy machine, or a frightful toy mouse hidden in the corner of a co-worker’s mailbox – most likely Pettijohn is the instigator of the innocent prank. This fits his modus operandi. Pettijohn is quick-witted and the master of one-liners. But beneath this comedic façade is a charm that surpasses his playfulness. Pettijohn, with a permanent smile affixed across his face, will always be first to greet you with a heartfelt hello and a welcoming handshake. 

Pettijohn is immersed in living life to the fullest – his rainbow of interests is as colorful as his practical jokes. To refer to Pettijohn as an avid sportsman is an understatement. A typical Charlie Pettijohn day starts with a jog and a workout. Pettijohn runs about 40 to 50 miles per week. He modestly notes that two years ago he hit the 2,000 mile mark, but confesses that he is beginning to “slow down”. Four years ago, he tried his hand at golf, which he now enjoys about twice a week. All of this is combined with his love of Tae Kwon Do – a sport he started fourteen years ago simply because it was “a new challenge.” Do not be misled by Pettijohn’s unpretentious mention of this pastime, as he has reached the level of 3^rd degree black belt.

Another of Pettijohn’s passions is scuba diving, which he fell into quite unexpectedly ten years ago. He and wife, Linda, wanted to learn something new that they could enjoy together. They had decided on ballroom dance lessons, but within the first week, Pettijohn had fractured his ankle. With “land activity” eliminated, an aqua-sport was an alternative given a bad ankle. Pettijohn explains, “Certification in scuba diving requires six to seven nights of classroom pool work, followed by two days of open water diving – this I could do with my fractured ankle.” And it is this shared passion for scuba diving that now dictates the Pettijohn travel agenda – dive spots in Cozumel, Mexico and the Bahamas, to name a few.

The Pettijohn's devote one vacation week a year to their beloved scuba diving. Pettijohn’s most memorable travel was one of their most recent. On this particular trip, they stayed the entire week on the AquaCat, a dive boat about 100 feet long by 30 feet wide. Pettijohn engaged in 24 dives. One of the dives was a shark dive. Explains Pettijohn, “Prior to this dive, shark food is tossed into the water to attract the sharks. We see reef sharks, which may be six to seven feet in length, circling the boat.” He elaborates further, “Actually, the sharks are more dangerous on top of the water. There is nothing like seeing the beauty of these animals and the sea on its own terms. It is very exciting! I’ve never experienced space travel, but that is what scuba diving feels like to me – you are flying and weightless with no sound.”
 

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How did SMS capture such an engaging professor? Pettijohn simply wanted to “come home” to Missouri, his hometown being Bethany. As with Pettijohn’s scuba diving, he “stumbled into teaching.” Pettijohn humbly comments, “I was an average undergraduate and began playing my hand in the corporate world. Then I completed my MBA at SMSU. I took a pay cut to teach full time, first at Missouri Western State College, and then Moorhead State in Minnesota. I knew that I wanted to stay in teaching and to do this required a doctorate, so I took the plunge.” Pettijohn explains his interest in sales was twofold. “I liked the appeal of sales because I had real-world experience and the opportunities, at that time, in both teaching and research were abundant.”

As with every challenge Pettijohn attempts, his professional success is mirrored in the level of his accomplishments. To date, his journal and proceedings publications exceed one hundred, many of which have been cited with “best paper” distinctions.” It is his stellar research track that has captured one of the notable SMSU honors. Pettijohn has been honored with the Distinguished Research Fellow Award every year since its inception in 1998.

But it is Pettijohn’s work with students that is the most professionally rewarding. “Salesmanship is a skill that students will use their entire life and is applicable across the board. I know the immediate impact that I have on a student in the classroom. But, it is those emails and letters from former students that make teaching worthwhile – their gratitude, they inform me of their success, and how I touched their lives. This is the best thanks that a teacher can have.”

Pettijohn’s closing remarks are emphatic and spoken with the sincerity that marks this professor’s persona. “The best thing about my job is the people I work with. The longevity of the marketing professors speaks for itself, not to mention the camaraderie within the marketing department. We are a nationally recognized department and much of that is due to the quality of our professors, our research record, and the way we care for our students.” Maybe, just maybe, some of that quality can be attributed to a practical joker that beckons the best in everyone he touches.

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