Here are the faculty and staff activities for June 6, 2013.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Dr. Sandra Deemer, educational foundations, was selected to participate in a faculty mentoring session where she served as a mentor to early career faculty within the Counseling and Human Development special interest group of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Deemer also presented a roundtable with her colleague, Dr. Laurie Hanich, educational foundations, titled “Collaborative Approaches to Teaching Educational Psychology” at the AERA conference in San Francisco.

Dr. Blaise W. Liffick, computer science, gave a presentation “Mobile Grading: A Look at Going Paperless” at the Resources for the Electronic Classroom (RECAP) Conference at West Chester University on May 23. The presentation described his experiment using an iPad to grade papers and exams with a PDF annotation application from a human-computer interaction usability perspective.

Dr. Ron Umble, mathematics, presented a contributed paper titled “Tensor Products of A-infinity Algebras with Homotopy Inner Products” at the annual Lehigh Geometry and Topology Conference, held on May 24-26 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.  His paper, coauthored with Dr. Thomas Tradler, City University of New York, will be published in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society later this year.

Dr. Robert D. Vaillancourt, earth sciences, recently gave two presentations at a national meeting. He presented “Nitrogen Availability and Light Intensity Control Photosynthetic Quantum Yield in the Stratified Western North Atlantic Ocean” and “Resolving the Depth of the Ocean’s Productive Layer.” Both were presented at the Aquatic Sciences meeting in New Orleans, La., February 17 – 22.

Retired

Dr. Francis J. Bremer, professor emeritus history, had his recent book Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, A Puritan in Three Worlds (2012) shortlisted for the New England Society in the City of New York Award for Nonfiction 2013 and shortlisted for 2013 Reading the West Award in Nonfiction of the Mountain & Plains Independent Booksellers Association.

Dr. Dennis Denenberg, professor emeritus of early education, continues to give workshops across the country. On June 3, he gave a full day Hooray for Heroes presentation in Colorado Springs, Colo., for a teacher in-service day.

Obituaries

Jill M. (Sholley) Coleman, 54, of Millersville, died May 30. Coleman had worked as an administrative assistant at Millersville University until her retirement in February 2012.

Judith Ann Fuller, 73, of Lancaster, died May 28. She had worked in housekeeping at Millersville University.

Irene Jarvis, 86, of Columbia, died May 26. She worked for Millersville University in the housekeeping department for many years.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Dr. Cheryl Desmond, educational foundations, presented a research poster “The Effects of a Mindful Awareness Program on the Executive Functions of Early Adolescents in an Urban Middle School,” based on the collaborative research of Dr. Desmond, Dr. Laurie Hanich, educational foundations, and Ms. Wynne Kinder, Wellness Works, at the Learning and the Brain Conference, Washington, D.C., May 3-5.

Dr. Stacey Irwin, communication & theatre, presented the paper “Project Green Lancaster and Millersville University: A Civic Engagement Story,” at the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference in April. Additionally, she presented a paper titled “Outcomes and Rubrics: Getting Down to Brass Tacks” at the BEA Assessment Boot Camp short course. She also served as a judge for the “Documentary Pitch” contest.

Dr. M. P. A. Sheaffer, English, sang as an alto ringer on May 5 in the spring concert of the Canterbury Choral Society, which performed Mozart’s “Great Mass in C Minor” at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York.

Dr. Todd D. Sikora, earth sciences, co-authored three refereed articles in the last year. One article is titled “Synthetic Aperture Radar Remote Sensing of Shear-Driven Atmospheric Internal Gravity Waves in the Vicinity of a Warm Front,” which was published in Monthly Weather Review. Another article is titled “Demonstration of the Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar-determined Wind Speed in Numerical Weather Prediction Error Detection,” and is in press at National Weather Digest. The third article is titled “Automated Discrimination of Certain Brightness Fronts in RADARSAT-2 Images of the Ocean Surface,” and is in press at the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. Sikora’s co-authors are from Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Defence R&D Canada, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Penn State.

In addition, Sikora co-authored three scholarly presentations in the last year.  One presentation is titled “Toward Automated Classification of Brightness Fronts in RADARSAT-2 Images of the Ocean Surface.”  That presentation was given by Chris Jones of Dalhousie University at the Advances in SAR Oceanography Workshop in Tromsø, Norway.  Another presentation, titled “The Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar-Derived Wind Speed in Numerical Weather Prediction Error Detection,” was given by George Young of Penn State at the Seventeenth Conference on Air-Sea Interaction in Boston, Mass.  The third presentation, titled “Precipitation Characteristics of Open Mesoscale Cellular Convection,” was given by Sikora at a Spaceborne Ocean Intelligence Network Workshop in Halifax, Canada.  That presentation was co-authored by meteorology graduating seniors Robert Marter and Eric Wendoloski.

Retired

Dr. Karl E. Moyer, professor of music emeritus, will present a recital on the pipe organ in the Zion Church, Millersville. It was initially planned for the October 2011 Pipe Organ Walk, one of the events celebrating the 250 anniversary of the town of Millersville. The program takes place at 4 p.m. on May 19, opening with the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor” by Bach and closing with the variations on “Veni Creator Spiritus” by the great 20^th century French organist and composer Maurice Duruflé.

Moyer’s grandfather, Samuel Moyer, a student at Millersville Normal School, recorded in his diary about attending church at Zion Church when the building would have been brand new. His diary also includes a small standard form to be signed by the Sunday School teacher, which would excuse Moyer from one day of required chapel attendance on campus in Old Main.

Congratulations to:

Dr. Ojoma Edeh Herr, educational foundations, and her husband, Lyall Edeh Herr, welcomed their son, Andrew Edeh Herr, into their family on April 25.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Dr. Sharon Brusic, applied engineering, safety and technology, became the 37th recipient and first female to receive the Academy of Fellows Award on March 9 at the 75th annual International Technology & Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) in Columbus, Ohio. This is the highest recognition that ITEEA can bestow upon any person. The award is given to an individual who has gained prominence in and brought honor to the profession of technology and engineering education.

Laurie B. Hanich, educational foundations, recently published an empirical research article with colleagues Michele Mazzocco, Gwen Myers, Katie Lewis and Melissa Murphy.  The article, “Limited Knowledge of Fraction Representations Differentiates Middle School Students with Mathematics Learning Disability (dyscalculia) v. Low Mathematics Achievement,” is published in The Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Drs. Lisa House and Joseph Lynch, counseling and human development, saw their research article titled “An Evaluation of a Unique Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention of College Students: Demonstrating Effective Partnering within Student Affairs” published in the Michigan Journal of Counseling: Research, Theory, and Practice.

Dr. Cynthia Taylor, mathematics, co-authored “Bingo! Select Games for Mathematical Thinking” in Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, March 2013, which is available at National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. In addition, she gave an invited lecture titled “Examining Elementary Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Practices” at the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Section of the Mathematical Association of America Spring Meeting (EPaDel) in Carlisle, Pa., on April 6. The presentation focused on identifying instructional practices that mathematics educators use in their content and methods courses to provide opportunities for their students to learn about the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

Obituary:

Nathan Weiss, age 90, formerly of East Hempfield Township, and president emeritus of Kean University, died on April 9. Weiss taught at Millersville University and was the husband of Dr. Bernice R. Rydell, vice president for finance and administration emerita at Millersville University.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Dr. Lesley Colabucci, elementary and early childhood education, was recently appointed to serve as a member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children Selection Committee for the NCTE. Her three-year term will begin now and end in 2015. The task of this group is to recommend on a regular basis every two years a living American poet to the NCTE executive committee for the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. The National Council of Teachers of English, with 35,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, is dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

Dr. Dennis B. Downey, history and Honors College, was a principal speaker at a March 2013 scholarly symposium on “Race and Mob Violence in America,” hosted by John Jay College and City University of New York. The symposium marked the publication of the new book “Lynch Beyond Dixie,” to which Downey wrote the chapter titled “‘The Delaware Horror’: Two Ministers, A Lynching and the Crisis of Democracy.”  Downey also published the article “‘A Benediction to the Skies’: New Works on American Lynching” in the March issue of Reviews in American History. He also published the essay “Pennhurst State School and Hospital” in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.

Retired

Dr. Paul Ross, professor emeritus of computer science, was recently published in the latest issue of Radio ZS, a magazine for amateur radio enthusiast. From his observations of amateur radio over the last 50 years, Ross concluded that he needed to build a satellite radio with a sensitive receiver and several antennas. In the latest published article “Satellite Communications: How to ‘Work the Birds’ for the Rest of Us,” Ross explains step-by-step the process of building a satellite radio system. The article originally appeared in the South African Amateur Radio Journal and was published in the K9YA Telegraph, an online amateur radio journal.

Congratulations to:

Walter “Chipp” Beasley, housing and residential programs, and Heidi M. Csallner were married on March 28 in Landisville, Pa.

Obituary

Dr. Joseph A. Meier, professor emeritus of mathematics, died April 7, at age 82. He joined Millersville University in 1963, where he was a professor of mathematics until his retirement in 1992. At various times in his career, he served as chair of the mathematics department, performed research at Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic and taught statistics at RCA.

New Dean Announced

Dr. Diane Umble has been named the new dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.  She joined Millersville

Dr. Diane Umble

University faculty in 1990 and is currently professor of communication and theatre.  She has extensive experience in administration based upon her prior appointments as interim dean, since July 1, 2010; as interim associate dean, 2003 to 2007, as well as acting dean summer 1995 and January 1996 and acting assistant dean, 1994 to 1996.

Umble served as chair of the Department of Communication and Theatre from 1996 to 2003.  She has participated and held leadership roles in numerous committees, searches and University task forces.  Recent appointments include service as acting director of the Center for Academic Excellence, 2007 to 2009, and as chairperson of the Middle States Working Group, Standards 4 and 5, Leadership and Administration, 2007 to 2009.

Umble received her Ph.D. in 1991 from the University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School for Communication.  She holds two master’s degrees, one from the University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School and one from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Umble is the former holder of the Kreider Fellowship at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College.  She received the Young Center Award for recognition of pioneering studies of communication patterns and gender studies in Anabaptist communities from Elizabethtown College in 2001.  Her most recent publication, “The Amish and the Media,” co-edited with David Weaver-Zercher, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2008.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Dr. Mandi Dupain, wellness and sport sciences, co-authored “Agreement Between Activity Monitoring Devices During Home Rehabilitation: A Sub-study of the AAA STOP Trial” in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, February 14.

Drs. Lynn Marquez, earth science, Linda McDowell, educational foundations and Daniel O’Neill, counseling & human development, presented a pre-conference workshop at the 32nd Annual Conference on the First Year Experience (FYE) in Orlando, Fla., February 22. Titled “These Things We Know for Sure:  Key Components and Strategies for a Successful FYE Experience,” the workshop provided guidelines for developing and sustaining FYE Programs in diverse campus settings.

Dr. M. P. A. Sheaffer, English, gave an invited Lenten lecture for St. Olave’s Church in the City of London on March 19. The slide-illustrated presentation, “Inscape: a New Way of Seeing,” focused upon the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. J.

Drs. Philip Tacka and Micheál Houlahan, music, had their chapter “From Sound to Symbol: A New Pitch for Developing Aural Awareness” published in Sound Musicianship: Understanding the Crafts of Music. The volume “provides a cutting-edge dissection on the nature and application of musicianship within contemporary musical practice. The line-up of expert authors from many varied backgrounds is simply amazing, as is the rainbow of topics addressed,” said Gary McPhearson, Ormond Professor and director, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Retired

Dr. Francis J. Bremer, professor of history emeritus, will be delivering one of the talks at the New Haven Museum’s celebration of the 375th Anniversary of the Founding of New Haven on April 13. He will also be delivering one of the addresses at a conference celebrating the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism in Heidelberg, Germany on May 10.

Dr. Dennis Denenberg, professor elementary education emeritus, will be giving a variety of presentations this month. On April 9 he will be speaking to the Manheim Women’s Club- honoring “Girls of the Month.”  On April 12 he will be in Ashland, Oregon for a Teaching American History (TAH) grant – Hooray for Heroes presentation, and on April 24 and 25 he will be in Rio Grande, Ohio, also giving a TAH presentation. Then, on April 16, he will be back in Pennsylvania, hosting “Edna’s Angels” from the Schreiber Pediatric Center.

Diane Fleishman, student affairs, will receive the Dean Herman Schneider Award at the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) national conference in Orlando on April 16.  She will also be co-presenting a preconference workshop on “What is Old is New Again.” CEIA is the national organization for educators and employers involved in work-based learning. Each year they present the Dean Herman Schneider Award for a significant and comprehensive record of contributions for the advancement of the philosophy and practice of cooperative education or internships over a sustained period of time. The award is named for Herman Schneider, who was Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (1906-28) and president of the university (l929-32).  Schneider made a unique contribution to higher education when in 1906, he founded the first program of cooperative education in the United States.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Drs. Christine Anthony and Kazi Hossain, elementary and early childhood education, were judges in the 55th annual Intelligencer Journal Spelling Bee on March 8. The pronouncer of the spelling bee was Dr. Richard Kerper, elementary and early childhood education. Thirty-three students from Lancaster County competed in the spelling bee, which took place at Conestoga Valley Middle School.

Dr. Robert Carballo, English, chaired a session “Science, Fame and Infamy” at the annual meeting of the East-Central American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Baltimore, November 2012.  He also published in the March/April issue of the St. Austin Review (an international academic journal published in London) his article “A ‘Monstrous Birth [Brought] to the World’s Light’:  The Assault on Authority and the Darkening of the Soul in Othello.”  This refereed essay will also appear later in 2013 in the Ignatius Press critical edition of Othello.

L-R: Megan Buzanowicz, Dr. Deb Stein-Zweers and Felicia Guarriello

Dr. Richard Clark, earth sciences, is co-author on a paper to be presented by Dr. Deborah C. Stein-Zweers on their collaborative research in Huron, Calif., as part of the NASA DISCOVER-AQ project. Stein-Zweers graduated with a bachelor’s degree in meteorology from Millersville University in 2000 and went on to the University of Virginia, where she completed her Ph.D. She is currently a

research scientist at KNMI-Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in De Bilt, The Netherlands. KNMI is developing a lightweight sonde for measuring nitrogen dioxide using conventional weather balloons. Stein-Zweers’ paper, which will be presented at the EGU General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, will describe the results of a comparison between KNMI’s sonde and the Millersville measurements obtained on the tethered balloon using an instrument that employs a different measuring methodology. 

Dr. Kazi Hossain, elementary & early childhood education, made a presentation on “Immigration: How Should We Teach?” at the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) 93rd annual conference. The conference took place in Atlanta, Georgia, from February 15-19. His presentation focused on the strategies teachers can use to teach this topic which is currently at the center of the national discourse.

James Pannafino, art and design, recently gave three presentations based on his book “Interdisciplinary Interaction Design.” The presentations were given on January 22 at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, Pa., January 29 at State University of New York at New Paltz and February 5 at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa. He is also scheduled to speak April 15 at the American Institute of Graphic Arts Baltimore Chapter, Baltimore, Md., and on July 6 at the Web Conference at Penn State, State College, Pa.

Dr. John Wallace, biology, co-authored a recent publication with lead author Jenni van Ravensway and fellow coauthors M. Eric Benbow, Anastasios A. Tsonis, Steven J. Pierce, Lindsay P. Campbell, Janet A.M. Fyfe, John A. Hayman, Paul D.R. Johnson and Jiaguo Qi titled “Climate and Landscape Factors Associated with Buruli Ulcer Incidence in Victoria, Australia.” Wallace also gave an invited talk at the University of Dayton titled “Can Arthropod Hematophagic Evolution Help Us Understand the Transmission of Buruli Ulcer, Dayton, Ohio” in January.

Congratulations to:

David Fitzgerald, information technologies, and his wife, Christine, on the birth of their son, Evan David, on February 18.

Dr. Gregory D. Paul, communication and theatre, and Libby Paul, on the birth of their daughter, Allison Bethany Paul, on February 14.

Obituary:

Cynthia Corlew Dilgard, 74, died March 5 at her home in Oakwood, Ohio. She taught at Millersville State University where she chaired the English Department and taught Shakespeare and literature.

Dr. Cynthia Dilgard

An appreciation – Dr. Cynthia Dilgard

During the fall semester of 1985 I was a senior about to set off on my career as an environmental, health and safety professional straight out of the Millersville University’s Occupational Safety and Hygiene Management (now the Occupational Safety and Environmental Health) program. One more semester of classes, a spring 1986 internship, and off I would go to one day land right back at MU as the safety director. But that was a good 15 years into the future.  Before I could get there I had to finish my last semester of classes, which included Technical Writing. My English professor was Dr. Dilgard.

After a few classes we got our first technical writing assignment. I can’t remember what it was, but I recall the result – an F.  An F?  I was quickly learning Dr. Dilgard set a very high standard for writing, all writing, not just technical writing, and I had come up short of her expectations, far short. And I also recall that instead of feeling defeated or frustrated, Dr. Dilgard made me feel challenged. She made me feel like I could learn to write a good technical paper and become a better writer. And she helped me learn how to do it.

The biggest challenge of all was our final technical paper assignment. I decided I wanted to do my paper on occupational carpal tunnel syndrome, an occupational injury/disease common to the bindery employees at the factory where I worked part time. Dr. Dilgard was an enthusiastic supporter of this topic and helped me fine-tune my research methods, and then the long, detailed process of turning what I had learned about carpal tunnel syndrome into my final technical report.

Not having a computer, I enlisted the aid of a good friend’s sister. She was a secretary and had access to something that was called a “word processor.”  I would handwrite my paper, and she would word process it into drafts. Draft after draft after endless draft. I ran these drafts by Dr. Dilgard, who gave me suggestions on how to improve my paper, but also, and maybe more importantly, she gave me encouragement.  I can honestly say I never worked harder on any assignment in my college life. And yet at the same time, I never enjoyed an assignment more or learned as much from it.

Finally my paper was in the final draft form. But I wanted it to be perfect. No typos, no grammatical errors, no spelling errors. So I asked the family of my word processing friend to read my final draft. Then read it again. Then read it a third time. Father, mother, brother and sister each read the paper multiple times to look for the mistakes one of them might have missed. They took to the challenge, and when we were done not only did I have a solid technical paper to hand into Dr. Dilgard, they had also learned more about occupational carpal tunnel syndrome than they had ever dreamed possible.

Somewhere in my many conversations with Dr. Dilgard, I picked up a casual reference she had made to playing tennis after work. I found out she was an avid tennis player, and she was suffering from what is commonly known as “tennis elbow,” an inflammation in the elbow and an irritation to the nerve caused by repetitive motion (swinging a tennis racquet). The primary cause of tennis elbow (repetitive motion) was also the primary cause of carpal tunnel syndrome (an injury to the wrist).

One last and important piece of a technical paper is the cover page presenting the paper to the instructor. On mine, dated December 13, 1985, I thanked Dr. Dilgard for her help in writing the paper and said that I hoped the information in the paper would help her better understand her Tenosynovitis (tennis elbow). It must have; I got an A on the paper and for the course.

Far more important than the grade, Dr. Dilgard taught me how to write (and research) a good, solid technical paper and in doing so, she taught me something even more important: how to write. Dr. Dilgard brought discipline to my writing but not at the expense of creativity, and I will forever be thankful to her for that.

I write a lot, both at work and for enjoyment. Often, when I am editing what I write, removing an empty “that,” rewording a sentence to shorten it or changing a sentence so the reader can better grasp the image or idea, I think of Dr. Dilgard.

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to thank her personally when I came back to MU to work in 2000.  Shortly after I started work, I found out she was about to retire. I called her and invited her to lunch at the Sugar Bowl; it was my way to say “thank you.”  We reminisced about my paper and the times. As always, she just radiated her love of English and writing. And she also talked about how happy she was with her students, how well they were doing in her classes.  Dr. Dilgard loved what she did, and it showed. I know I am a better safety professional, a better writer and a better person, for having had her in my time here at MU.

I hope this story reminds all of us who have been fortunate enough to attend Millersville University and experience a professor like Dr. Dilgard, just how lucky we really are. And Dr. Dilgard, I edited and reviewed multiple drafts of this letter before I submitted it. I hope I got it right.              ~Patrick Weidinger, Class of ‘86

Faculty and Staff Activities:

Dr. Cheryl Desmond, educational foundations, and the Rev. Marta Benavides had their chapter, “Kindling the Imagination: Siglo XXIII and the AHA-AJA Museum for Planetary and Global Citizenship,” published in the peer-reviewed book, Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice: A way out of no way, the Routledge Press, 2013.

Dr. Chris Hardy, biology, and Lieutenant Carl Steinhart of the Northwest Regional Police Department had their Case Report “Forensic botany in the resolution of an agricultural vandalism case” published in the March-April issue of the Journal of Forensic Identification. 

Dr. Rich Mehrenberg, elementary and early childhood department, had an article titled, “Red Tape and Green Teachers: The Impact of Paperwork on Novice Special Education Teachers” published in the 2013 Winter edition of the International Journal of Special Education.  An online version of the article can be found at the International Journal of Special Education website.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Dr. Joseph C. Labant, elementary & early childhood education, presented at both the annual Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies conference in Bethlehem, Pa., and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Conference in Seattle, Washington.  The topic of Labant’s presentations centered on the use of the learning cycle instructional model as a viable method for teaching history to young learners. At the national conference, Labant also represented Pennsylvania at the NCSS House of Delegates Meeting, and as president of the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, discussed the state of social studies in Pennsylvania at the state council presidents’ meeting.

Dr. Gordon Nesbitt, wellness and sport sciences, authored two chapters in the recently published book titled Campus Recreational Sports: Managing Employees, Programs, Facilities, and Services.  He authored chapters titled “Facilities” and “Special Events.”

James Pannafino, graphic and interactive design, recently gave two presentations. The first was at the HOW Interactive Design Conference, Washington, D.C., fall 2012.  The presentation was “Web Design is in the Details: 7 Basic Web Design Components that are Often Overlooked.” Pannafino presented to 240 attendees comprised of professional graphic and interactive designers. The conference brought the top interactive design experts in the industry.  And on December 6, he gave an online design tutorial: “7 Basic Web Design Components that are Often Overlooked: HOW Design University” (synchronized online presentation).

Dr. M. P. A. Sheaffer, English, sang as an alto ringer with the Chorvereinigung St. Augustin at the Jesuitenkirche in Vienna on January 1 and 6, 2013, performing Mozart’s “Coronation Mass” and Anton Diabelli’s “ Pastoral Mass,” respectively.  She also sang as an alto ringer in Canterbury Choral Society’s concert of Gustav Mahler’s “Eighth Symphony” in Carnegie Hall, New York City, on January 14.

Retired

Carol Sperry, instructor emerita, educational foundations, was invited to deliver one of three keynote addresses and participate as a discussion facilitator at the First Thailand Constructionism Symposium held at Government House and the King Mongkut University of Technology in Bangkok, January 15-17. She spoke on “The Evolution of a Constructionist Teacher” to an audience of Thai teachers, community leaders and businessmen. She has worked and consulted with the teachers of Bangkok’s Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning since 1998. This was Sperry’s fourth trip to Thailand as an educational facilitator for constructionist learning.

Dr. Saulius Suziedelis, professor emeritus of history, delivered a paper at a conference at the Institute of Polish-Jewish Studies, University College London, on “The Holocaust in Lithuania: the Main Historiographical Problems,” December 18, 2012. The occasion for the conference was the presentation of the 25^th volume of the annual journal of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry which contained an article by Suziedelis titled, “Listen, the Jews are Ruling Us Now: Antisemitism and National Conflict during the First Soviet Occupation of Lithuania, 1940-1941.”

Obituary

Dr. Edward Clarke Beardslee, 71, of Lancaster, Pa., faculty emeritus, died February 7 in the Essa Flory Hospice Center of Hospice and Community Care in Lancaster. Beardslee worked at Millersville University from 1983-2001, first as professor of mathematics and computer science, and later as professor of elementary and early childhood education – mathematics.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Drs. Ximena Catepillán, mathematics, and Waclaw Szymanski, mathematics at West Chester University, recently had their paper “Fundamental Equation for Quadratic Polynomials” presented at the 2013 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego. In the paper the authors describe a Hindu-Vedic approach to quadratic polynomials different from the traditional method taught in schools.

Dr. Christine Filippone, art and design, will have her article “Ecological Systems Thinking in the Work of Linda Stein” published in the peer-reviewed Woman’s Art Journal this spring. Last fall she presented the paper “The Human Use of Human Beings? Feminism and Systems Theory in Public Sculpture and Ecological Art” at the annual conference for the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts in Milwaukee, Wis. Last spring she co-chaired the session “Gendering the Posthuman” at the annual conference of the College Art Association in Los Angeles. This session was developed from a graduate-level seminar taught at Millersville in spring 2011 entitled Posthumanism in 20th Century Art: Gender, Technology and Computer Culture. And, this summer Filippone will accompany a study-abroad trip for students from Immaculata University to Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Dr. Lisa Schreiber, communication & theatre, recently announced the completion of a free online textbook, Public Speaking: The Virtual Text. The textbook has 271 pages and 18 chapters.  The book can be found at www.publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html. The textbook is part of a larger open source project (see www.publicspeakingproject.org/index.html) focused on providing free online public speaking resources to students and faculty. Schreiber is asking faculty to consider contributing an original classroom exercise, activity, syllabus or assessment tool to the site. She is also looking for videos of exemplary students’ speeches, outlines and speech transcripts. These can be sent to Schreiber at lisa.schreiber@millersville.edu.

Retired

Dr. Dennis Denenberg, professor emeritus, gave Hooray for Heroes talks on January 16 in Chattanooga, Tenn., as part of a teacher in-service and two parent workshops at St. Peter’s Episcopal School. In addition, he will be giving a Hooray for Heroes talk on February 11 in Clarksburg, W.Va. That will be an all-day in-service through a Teaching American History grant. 

Congratulations to:

Andrew Brooks, grounds, and wife Melissa, on the birth of their girl, Reese Elizabeth Brooks, on January 4.

Obituary

John Apple, 71, of Millersville died January 22. He was an associate professor in the wellness and sport sciences at Millersville University for 38 years, retiring in 2002 and being named professor emeritus. He served as head swimming and diving coach at MU for 20 years.

Faculty and Staff Activities

Dr. Richard D. Clark, earth sciences, presented “EarthCubED: Avoiding Becoming Another Brick in the Wall” at the Workshop “Shaping the Development of EarthCube to Enable Advances in Data Assimilation and Ensemble Prediction.” The workshop was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by the Unidata Program Center in Boulder, Colo. EarthCube is a scientific community-driven cyberinfrastructure initiative in its early stage of development that is designed to create an open, adaptable, and sustainable information system architecture that will enable the transformation of geosciences research and education.

Congratulations to

Dr. Jennifer L. Jeffrey-Pearsall, psychology, and her husband Bryon Pearsall, on the birth of Riley Margaret Pearsall on December 7.

Obituaries

Jane (Gehman) Barber, 94, died on December 28. She was retired from Millersville University, where she had worked as a clerk typist and been in charge of ordering textbooks for Student Services, Inc.

A. Marie (Constien) Shank, 86, died January 5. She had retired from housekeeping at Millersville University.

In Memoriam: President Emeritus William H. Duncan

Dr. William H. Duncan

Dr. William H. Duncan ’40, president emeritus, died on January 3, at the Mennonite Home, Lancaster. He and his wife, Alma (Pike) Duncan, celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary on November 23, 2012.

Duncan was president of Millersville State College (now Millersville University) from 1968 to 1981. He previously served the College as faculty member, supervisor of student teachers, registrar, director of admissions and dean of students.

Born March 20, 1918, in Mifflin, Pa., he was the son of the late Charles R. and Adda F. (Hampton) Duncan. A veteran of World War II, Duncan proudly served with the U.S. Army, where he advanced from Private First Class to Major.

In 1934 Duncan came to Millersville State Teachers College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1940. He went on to receive a master’s degree and a doctorate in education from Penn State University.

Duncan enjoyed a 46-year association with the University. He came to Millersville in 1935, completed his two-year course in 1936, and taught in Strasburg while meeting the requirements for a bachelor’s degree at Millersville (granted in 1940). After several years teaching, serving in World War II, and earning a master’s degree at Penn State University, he returned to Millersville in 1947 as a social studies teacher in the laboratory junior high school. He subsequently left the classroom except for occasional part-time service to devote his time to administrative duties. He held such positions as the director of admissions, registrar, acting dean of instruction and dean of student affairs prior to his appointment as president. He oversaw the continuing building boom of the 1960s and early 1970s, the decline of state appropriations in the 1970s, the change of emphasis from teacher training to liberal arts, and burgeoning enrollments.

He was an active member of Grace United Methodist Church, Millersville. He served on the boards of many civic and community organizations including the Boy Scouts of America, Danforth Foundation, Sico Foundation, the United Way, Parish Resource Center, Urban League, American Heart Association and the YWCA. Dr. Duncan was also a past president of the Millersville University Alumni Association and served as a Life Director of the Millersville University Foundation.

Duncan’s dedication to his family, church and Millersville University were constants in his life. His interests included gardening, trout fishing and hunting. In 1995, the Duncan Alumni House (205 N. George St.) was named in honor of Duncan and his wife.

Contact for Faculty and Staff Activities

To report your staff or faculty activity, email Janet Kacskos at janet.kacskos@millersville.edu.