Robert Goodman

Geography professor at Wayne State University, died April 15, 2005, at age eighty-six.

The youngest of four children, Goodman was born in Gwinn in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He studied geography at the University of Chicago, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 1941, he went to work for the U.S. Army Map Service in Chicago and in 1942, was drafted by the Army to make war-related maps in Washington. He was honorably discharged as a technical sergeant in 1945.

Goodman earned his PhD in geography at Northwestern University. He also met his wife, Marjorie Smith, a fellow geography student at Northwestern; they married in 1950.

He joined Wayne State University’s geography department in 1948.

In his teaching, Goodman used more than 10,000 photo slides from a lifetime of trips to Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Before the days of computers, he also allowed students to draft their maps in his Grosse Pointe Woods basement, which was filled with overhead cameras, tables, desks, and maps. He eventually incorporated film into his lesson plans and made a movie called “Growth Patterns in Detroit.”

In 1961, Goodman earned a Fulbright scholarship to spend a year in India to establish a geography department at the University of New Delhi.

He won numerous accolades including the Wayne State Excellence in Teaching Award in 1979 and a Distinguished Teaching Award from the NCGE in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in 1983. Goodman retired in 1983.

Robert Goodman (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(6): 19.

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Richard Zeller

Richard Eugene Zeller, aged fifty-six, a senior-management analyst for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles in Tallahassee, Florida, died on April 4, 2005.

Zeller earned a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University (1970) and a master’s and doctorate from Ohio State University (1972 and 1978).

Zeller was an AAG member from 1972 until his death.

Richard E. Zeller (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(4): 11.

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Becky Zerlentes

Becky Zerlentes, a faculty member teaching geography and economics courses at Front Range Community College, Colorado, died unexpectedly on April 3, 2005. Zerlentes obtained her BS in actuarial sciences and then an master’s and a PhD (2003) in geography, all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her field of research was regional science; for her PhD she developed a model to integrate economic and ecological interactions in Mexican maquilladora border communities.

Becky Zerlentes (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(6): 19.

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Henry Bruman

Henry Bruman died March 6, 2005, of a heart attack. Bruman, was a longtime University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) geography professor who helped create a highly regarded map library and other programs at the Westwood campus.

A Berlin native who came to Los Angeles at age eight, Bruman earned undergraduate degrees from UCLA in chemistry and geography before receiving a doctorate in geography from UC Berkeley in 1940. He joined the UCLA faculty in 1945 and over the next four decades played a major role in the development of its geography department, acting as chair of the department from 1957 to 1962.

Bruman was an assistant professor of geography at UCLA in 1946, when he called together geography educators from across the state to discuss the status of geography in the schools of California beginning what is now know as the California Geographical Society.

Bruman was known as an expert in Latin American cultural-historical geography, plant geography and land use in the American West, and on the career of German nature researcher and explorer Alexander von Humboldt.

Shortly before his retirement in 1983, Bruman established an educational foundation that created endowed chairs at UCLA in geography and German history. He made large donations to the UCLA library, which named its map library in his honor in 1987.

Henry J. Bruman (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(5): 21.

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Gill C. Lim

Gill-Chin Lim, former dean of the Michigan State University (MSU) International Studies and Programs (ISP), died in February 2005. He was fifty-eight years old.

Lim, served as dean of ISP from 1991-95, and was also the MSU Endowed Professor of Asian Studies in a Global Context, a professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Planning, Design and Construction, and director of the Program on Humanistic Globalization.

Lim earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Seoul National University (1969 and 1973), a master’s at Harvard in 1975, and a doctorate at Princeton in 1987. He specialized in strategic planning, policy analysis, and governance, publishing and lecturing on topics of comparative development, housing, environment, planning and decision making theories, and global education. Lim was the co-editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research and an international adviser for the Environmental Impact Assessment Review.

Prior to his work at MSU, Lim was a University of Illinois professor and administrator in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Institute for Government and Public Affairs. Before joining the Illinois faculty in 1985, Lim was an assistant professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1980-85. He also taught at Northwestern University, was a visiting professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies and a visiting fellow at the Korean Research Institute for Human Settlements.

Gill C. Lim (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(2): 37.

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Douglas Carroll

G. Douglas Carroll, retired planning director of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Planning Board, died January 2, 2005.

Carroll was an active member of both the AAG and the American Planning Association (APA), having held numerous positions within the APA during his life.

Born July 17, 1947, he was a graduate of Appalachian State University and received master’s degrees from both the University of North Carolina and Harvard University. He also received a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

G. Douglas Carroll (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(5): 21.

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Carl W. Ross

A native of West Lafayette, Ohio, Ross earned his master’s degree in geography from Boston University. During WWII, he served in the Army in Algeria, Sicily, and Italy.

After returning from his war service, Ross worked in the intelligence division of the Army and was a project officer for an Army and Cornell University study on insect-transmitted disease.

Ross moved to Washington, DC in 1949, and traveled between DC and Connecticut, where he taught physical, regional and cultural geography at Southern Connecticut State University. In early 1970s, he retired.

Ross joined the AAG in 1947.

Carl W. Ross (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(5): 19.

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Anthony Williamson

Human geography scholar H. Anthony Williamson died December 29, 2004. He was founding Director of the Labrador Institute, a center for northern studies based in Goose Bay and he administered Memorial University’s outreach programs in Labrador.

Williamson was born in New York City, and attended Darmouth College. He earned a master’s degree in geography at McGill University and later became a Canadian citizen.

Know for his support of indigenous communities in Labrador and the Canadian Arctic, he filmed villagers telling their stories, then invited them to view the raw footage and suggest what should be emphasized or changed. The visual documentation of conditions in their villages was then presented to the government. He also gathered environmental, economic and cultural data to create a template for evaluating the land claims of northern aboriginal people.

Anthony Williamson (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(3): 17.

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Daniel Paul Steiling

Daniel Paul Steiling, adjunct professor of geography at Riverside Community College, Moreno Valley Campus,died December 22, 2004.

A San Jose native, he earned a bachelor’s at San Jose State and a master’s in geography at University of California, Berkeley. Before becoming a geography professor, Steiling held jobs in a number of fields, being a road right-of-way agent, bicycle shop owner, computer-disk manufacturing specialist, soil inspector, and railroad conductor. In addition to teaching at Riverside Community College, Steiling also taught at Mira Costa Community College in San Marcos.

Daniel Paul Steiling (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(3): 17.

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Joan Clemons

Joan Clemons died November 28, 2004, in Los Angeles, California. An advocate for K-12 teacher empowerment, women in geography, and community college instructors, she had recently returned from Australia after spreading the last of her husband Tom McKnight’s ashes in one of their favorite locations.

Clemons was one of the original members the Los Angeles group that was the beginnings of the Geographic Alliances. She served as coordinator of the alliance, working to make it a valuable asset for K-12 educators. Clemons also worked on the California state standards for K-12 education and served on the California Geographical Society Board of Directors for many years. She was a founding member of the Women’s Network in the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers and recently wrote the History of the Women’s Network.

As the first community college faculty member to be elected President of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers she fought for recognition of the contributions that community college instructors make to geography. She served as Chair of the Department of Geography at her community college before moving to UCLA and working with the chancellor’s office. Her research included development and culture, and the linkages between community colleges and four-year institutions.

Clemons was chosen to receive the 2005 AAG Gilbert Grosvenor Honors for Geographic Education, which she will be awarded posthumously at the 2005 AAG Annual Meeting Awards Luncheon.

A memorial gathering in celebration of her life will be held January 29, 2005, from 2:00-5:00 p.m. at 3240 Tilden Avenue, Los Angeles, California.

Joan Clemons (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(1): 16.

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