Daniel J. Hogan

Daniel J. Hogan, for 35 years as a Professor at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in Campinas, Brazil, near Sao Paolo, has died. A major contributor to the field of population and environment, Hogan trained many top Brazilian demographers and was part of the first (and only) Committee on Population and Environment at IUSSP in 1990-94, which helped pave the way for the development of both PERN and the new field of Population and Environment. He organized and hosted the first international conference on the topic in Campinas in 1992, which included the first significant presentation of findings from the initial 1990 survey of migrant colonists in Ecuador, along with other early case studies on population and environment in the Philippines, India, Nepal, Thailand, Cameroon, Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Argentina and Peru.

Hogan was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, former president of Brazilian Population Association (ABEP), and served as Professor and Founding Researcher of the Unicamp Population Studies Center (NEPO) and the Environmental Studies Center (NEPAM). Hogan was also an active member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), the Population Geography commission of the International Geographical Union (IGU), and Population & Environment’s editorial board.

Daniel J. Hogan (Necrology). 2010. AAG Newsletter 45(9): 22.

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Jennifer L. DeHart

Jennifer DeHart died recently following a long struggle with cancer. DeHart had a lifelong passion for protecting the environment and promoting sustainable living. After her graduation from Emory and Henry College in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, she continued at Appalachian State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a master’s degree and a doctorate, respectively. She held faculty and research positions focusing on a major project funded by NASA to better measure, predict, and understand greenhouse gas emissions at the local to regional level. DeHart embraced the Meadville area in 2001 when she started serving as an assistant professor of environmental science at Allegheny College, teaching courses on a variety of topics including climate change, environmental research methods, and sustainable energy. As a college professor, she enthusiastically taught about the importance of environmental sustainability. Combining her devotion to teaching and the community, DeHart collaborated with Allegheny College students to conduct a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the city of Meadville. Dedicated to advancing the local foods movement, she spearheaded the revitalization of the farmers’ market at the Meadville Market House. She worked tirelessly to develop a strong network of area farmers and community members, ensuring the market would continue to thrive for many years to come.

Jennifer L. DeHart (Necrology). 2010. AAG Newsletter 45(7): 15.

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James Wheeler

James O. Wheeler, the Merle Prunty, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, died at his home in Athens, Georgia, on Thursday, December 9, 2010. Born in Muncie, Indiana, on March 7, 1938, he was the son of educators Emerson Franklin Wheeler and Ruby Rachel McCreery Wheeler. He attended Indiana public schools and received his undergraduate degree from Ball State Teachers College (now Ball State University). After teaching English and geography in junior high and high school, he began graduate work at Indiana University, where he was awarded the M.A. in 1963 and the Ph.D. in 1966.

Wheeler’s early teaching career at the college level included positions at Indiana University (Gary), Ohio State University, Western Michigan University, and Michigan State University. In 1971, he joined the faculty of the University of Georgia’s Department of Geography, where he served as department head from 1975 to 1983. He advised graduate students and taught until his retirement in 1999, and his active professional life of writing and research continued until his death.

Wheeler served as head of two divisions of the Association of American Geographers, first as chair of the East Lakes Division and later as president of the Southeastern Division. He published numerous research articles and authored two widely used textbooks, Economic Geography and Urban Geography. He was a founding editor of the journal Urban Geography, which he co-edited from 1980 to 2003. In addition, from 1992 to 2003 he served as editor of the Southeastern Geographer.

Wheeler was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and received the Creative Research Medal from the University of Georgia, Honors from the Association of American Geographers, and the Southeastern Division of the AAG’s (SEDAAG) Research Award, Outstanding Service Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award.

James O. Wheeler (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(2): 45.

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Howard Critchfield

Howard John Critchfield (“Critch”), Professor Emeritus of Geography at Western Washington University, died peacefully at home November 17, age 90. He was born September 24, 1920 in Vernon, Colorado, to Mabel and Owen Critchfield, both schoolteachers. Critchfield graduated high school in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. After completing a two-year teacher’s training course at the Lewiston State Normal School (now Lewis- Clark State College), he taught for a time in a one-room schoolhouse where the pupils called him “Howie.” Critchfield served in the Army Air Corps/Air Force during World War II. He received specialized Arctic and Weather Observation training and was eventually posted to the 16th Weather Squadron in Nome, Alaska. After an Honorable Discharge early in 1946, the GI Bill led to academic successes. Critchfield received a BA in Geography and an MA in Geography and Climatology from the University of Washington. A Carnegie Grant, a Fulbright Award, and grants from the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs enabled him to undertake research in New Zealand from 1948-1950. The University of Washington awarded Critchfield his Doctorate in 1952. His dissertation was The Agricultural Geography of Southland, New Zealand. Critchfield joined the faculty of Western Washington University in 1951. He retired in 1988. During his tenure he served as Chair of the Geography Department, was the official State Climatologist of Washington, through appointment by the Governor, and he pursued his research with travel, sabbaticals, and visiting lectureships and exchanges which took him to New Zealand again and again, as well as to Australia, South Asia, Europe, Japan, India and Nepal, South Africa, Micronesia, and Oman. He authored the acclaimed textbook General Climatology. Long before Wikipedia, Critchfield was well known for his contributions to Encyclopedia Americana and The World Book Encyclopedia. His lifelong enthusiasm for exploring the world and for the exactitude of the natural sciences made him a resourceful guide to students, colleagues, and friends.

Howard Critchfield (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(1): 46.

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Andrew Isserman

Andrew Isserman, a passionate scholar and devoted teacher whose work focused on urban and regional analysis, died recently following a heart attack suffered during a faculty basketball game at the University of Illinois, Urbana. Born in New York and raised on various army bases in Europe, Isserman studied economics at Amherst and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at the University of Iowa, West Virginia University, and the University of Illinois, focusing on urban planning and agricultural economics. He was well known for introducing new methods of forecasting economic and demographic change. In addition, his research on federal policy (he worked at various times with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Transportation) contributed to significant changes in several federal programs. At the University of Illinois, Isserman was Professor of Regional Economics, Planning and Public Policy with primary appointments in the departments of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and Urban and Regional Planning. He held affiliate appointments in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and the Department of Geography. Isserman was the founding editor of the International Regional Science Review. He is listed as one of the 50 faculty members with the greatest number of citations in urban and regional planning. Isserman received numerous awards or fellowships from the American Planning Association, the American Statistical Association, the National Council for Geographic Education, and the Regional Science Association International. His activities in regional science were extensive. He served as President of the Southern Regional Science Association in 1991-1992. In 1999, he received the David Boyce Award for Service to Regional Science of the North American Regional Science Council, and in 2005 he was President of the North American Regional Science Council.

Andrew Isserman (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(2): 45.

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Rex Honey

Rex Dean Honey, Professor of Geography at The University of Iowa, died suddenly at his home on October 23, 2010. He was 65. Honey was born in San Diego and received his B.A. with honors from the University of California, Riverside (1967) and his PhD from the University of Minnesota (1972). He joined The University of Iowa as an Assistant Professor in 1974 and at different times served as Director of Global Studies, Associate Director of the Center for Human Rights, and Director of African Studies. His professional specialties were in political geography, specifically in the political organization of space and global aspects of human rights. Honey was Chair of the West Lakes Division of the AAG in1982-1983 and again in 2005-2007; Co-Chair of the Ethics, Values and Human Rights Specialty Group of the AAG (2001- 2003); and Secretary of the Commission on Geography and Public Policy of the IGU (2000-2004). Honey’s early papers reflected his studies of the spatial organization of public services in England, the U.S., New Zealand and Jordan. Later work focused on Nigeria and the developmental effects of home town associations there. His more recent writing addressed global development themes and issues of human rights. He supervised the PhD dissertations of nine students and was adviser to thirty-six M.A. students at The University of Iowa. Throughout his professional career, Honey pursued his interest in geography education, taking teachers from Geographic Alliance programs to Nigeria, India and Bangladesh. He traveled extensively, giving many lectures in geography departments throughout the world. Prevented by his untimely death was his plan next semester to visit India and teach a course on human rights.

Rex Honey (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(1): 46.

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Judy Getis

Judy Getis, a well-known author and advocate for geography education, has died. She was born Judith Miller Marckwardt in Ann Arbor, June 29, 1938. She attended University High School in Ann Arbor, Radcliffe College, and the University of Michigan. Getis became interested in cartographic history at Michigan, and pursued graduate education in geography at the University of Washington and at Michigan State University, where she received a Master’s degree. In Seattle, she met her future husband, the geographer Arthur Getis. After two years in East Lansing, Michigan, where she pursued her studies in geography, Judy and Art moved to New Jersey where Art taught at Rutgers and Judy worked at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton.

In New Jersey, Judy was co-investigator of the very first unit of the ground-breaking National Science Foundation educational program called the High School Geography Project, which gained national acclaim for innovation and comprehensiveness. She teamed with her husband to write a college textbook, An Introduction to Geography, now in its 13th edition, which became the leading college-level textbook for introductory geography in the United States. Judy Getis wrote, co-authored, or edited a number of books, including Human Geography: Culture and Environment; Environments, People and Inequalities; The United States and Canada; and You Can Make a Difference. In addition, she co-authored several papers on urban geography Getis taught cartography briefly at Rutgers, and in UCLA’s summer program.

Judy Getis (Necrology). 2010. AAG Newsletter 45(9): 22.

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Oscar Horst

Oscar Heinz Horst, Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University (WMU), died at the age of 86.

Horst was born on March 4, 1924 in Newark, Ohio. After serving in World War II with the U.S. Army, he earned a B.S. in Geography in 1949, an M.A. in 1951 and a Ph.D. in 1956, all from The Ohio State University. In the same year, he joined Western Michigan’s Geography Department as Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Professor in 1964, chaired the department from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1977 to 1978, and retired in 1987 following 31 years of service at WMU.

Horst specialized in Latin American and Physical Geography. He published over 40 professional articles, books, and book chapters over the course of his career and gave over 40 presentations at professional meetings. He led numerous educational trips to Mexico, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, and served as a visiting professor at universities in Florida, Kansas, and Michigan, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Japan. He was actively affiliated with the Pan American Institute of Geography and History, and the Organization for Tropical Studies.

An avid and talented photographer, Horst documented landscapes and people throughout the course of his many travels. The Center for Mesoamerican Research is the benefactor of his notable collection of materials on Guatemala.

Horst received numerous awards throughout his professional career including Western Michigan University’s Alumni Teaching Excellence Award, WMU’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award, and the Annual Achievement Award for Contributions in Teaching, Research, and Service from the Latin Americanist Geographers.

Oscar H. Horst (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(6): 17.

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Ladis K. D. Kristof

Ladis K. D. Kristof, born 1918 in Romania of Polish and Armenian parents, died recently at the age of 91. A political geographer, he taught at Portland State University as recently as 2007. Owner of a 73-acre farm, he survived a tractor rollover at the age of 86 and still chopped wood and hunted deer and elk at the age of 90. Kristof was born to the aristocracy and grew up wealthy on a sprawling estate in Romania. He learned seven languages and attended university in Poland. During World War II, Kristof was captured for spying and imprisoned by the Nazis. He escaped jail and eluded capture for the rest of the war, but at the war’s end his family’s estate was confiscated by the Red Army, eventually becoming absorbed into the Soviet Union and later the Ukraine. Having lost everything and considered suspect by the Communists, Kristof escaped by horseback and then by swimming across the Danube River on a dark night in 1948, in hopes of reaching the West. He was detained on the Yugoslav side of the river however, and sent to a concentration camp and later to an asbestos mine and logging camp. Marked for execution, Kristof once again escaped his captors, reaching Italy and eventually France. He worked as a laborer in Paris until 1952, when he was finally able to emigrate to the United States. Arriving in New York, Kristof began his new life by purchasing a copy of the New York Times, the newspaper for which his son, Nicholas D. Kristof, would later become a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist. Upon his father’s death, his son wrote a column in which he quoted his father’s entry in Who’s Who in America: War, want and concentration camps, exile from home and homeland, these have made me hate strife among men, but they have not made me lose faith in the future of mankind… I remain a rationalist and an optimist at a time when the prophets of doom have the floor…If man has been able to create the arts, the sciences, and the material civilization we know in America, why should he be judged powerless to create justice, fraternity and peace? To earn money while learning English (his eighth language), Kristof found a job at a logging camp in Oregon. He enrolled at Reed College, graduating in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He became a U.S. citizen in 1958 and earned his political science PhD at the University of Chicago in 1969. He taught and conducted research at Temple University, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, the University of Santa Clara, and the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Kristof specialized in political geography and geopolitics, and published many articles on topics such as frontiers, boundaries, and the history of geopolitics. He also published substantially in the field of political science. Kristof wrote and edited books, monographs and articles, including Revolution and Politics in Russia, The Nature of Frontiers and Boundaries, and The Origins and Evolution of Geopolitics. He frequently attended meetings of the International Geographical Congresses where he was an active participant, and held visiting professorships in the U.S. and abroad. Kristof was a fifty-year member of the Association of American Geographers.

Ladis K.D. Kristof (Necrology). 2010. AAG Newsletter 45(9): 22.

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Roger P. Miller

Roger P. Miller, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota, died on May 30, 2010 at the University of Michigan Medical Center from complications to injuries he sustained in a motorcycle crash. Born in Chicago on March 29, 1951, Miller graduated from the University of Chicago Lab School (1968), attended Oberlin College (1968-70), the San Francisco Art Institute (1970-71; photography and film), and University of California- Berkeley (1971-72; A.B., English Literature) before turning to Geography at Berkeley (1973-79; M.A., PhD), working closely with Alan Pred and Clarence Glacken. Miller will be remembered as one of the “New Urban Historians.” He joined Theodore Hershberg and the Philadelphia Social History Project at the University of Pennsylvania for dissertation research, and taught at Penn’s Department of Regional Science (1977-78), and the University of Colorado-Boulder (1979-80) before joining the University of Minnesota Geography Department in 1980. Miller’s specialties included the history of city planning, European and North American Cities, urban and historical geography, Scandinavia, and social theory. An award winning teacher, he was elected to the University of Minnesota’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. His course “The City in Film,” based on analysis of full-length commercial feature films, was immensely successful. Other teaching included “Geographical Perspectives on Planning,” “Global Cities,” “Cities, Citizens, and Communities,” and “Historical Geography.” His recent research focused on the historical population geography of Sweden and included regular work with colleagues at the University of Stockholm, Gotland University in Visby, and the University of Lund.

Roger P. Miller (Necrology). 2009. AAG Newsletter 45(6): 18.

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