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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Pierre Crosson

Pierre Crosson, an internationally-known agricultural economist with Resources for the Future who specialized in agricultural sustainability and soil erosion, died November 24, 2004, in Frederick Maryland. He was seventy-eight. While not a geographer, he often worked in geographic ways, interacting with and even collaborating with geographers. His obituary in the Washington Post (November 28, 2004) described him as bringing “independence and real objectivity to a polarized debate.”

Pierre Crosson (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(3): 17.

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Edgar Conkling

Economic geographer Edgar “Ed” Conkling died November 24, 2004.

Born in Indiana in 1921, Edgar Conkling earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology from Morehead State College, a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Chicago, and another master’s degree and a PhD in geography from Northwestern University. Beginning in 1961, Ed served as professor of economic geography at Kent State University and then at Queen’s University in Canada. In 1968, he moved to the State University of New York at Buffalo where he taught various courses in rural land use theory and regional development, economic geography, international trade, and regional economic integration until his retirement in 1989. During his tenure at SUNY at Buffalo, he was instrumental in creating the department’s undergraduate and graduate programs in international business, which built upon his earlier work as a manager of the home office of a multinational corporation headquartered in Chicago. He was Chair of the department from 1974-77.

In addition Conkling was Associate Editor (1963-64) and then Editor (1978-82) of The Professional Geographer, and Co-editor of the Annals of the AAG (1982-84). Among his publications are the following co-authored books: Geography of International Trade; The Geography of Economic Systems; Man’s Economic Environment; Economic Geography: Resource Use, Locational Choices, and Regional Specialization in the Global Economy; and The Global Economy: Resource Use, Locational Choice, and International Trade. Deeply involved in historic preservation during his retirement, he wrote Frederick Law Olmsted’s Point Chautauqua: The Story of an Historic Lakeside Community and was a founding member of the Point Chautauqua Historical Preservation Society.

Edgar “Ed” C. Conkling (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(3): 17.

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Curt Poulton

Curt A. Poulton, Senior Instructor at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, died on November 22, 2004, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Born in St. Louis in 1931, Poulton served four years in the Air Force, and worked for 3M in Minnesota as a Product Design Engineer for much of his life. After leaving the position of Chief Engineer at a Colorado Springs firm in 1977, he set out to change his life by moving into academic geography. Curt received a BA in geography from CU-Colorado Springs, his MA from CU-Boulder, and then his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1989 at the age of fifty-eight. He was employed as a Senior Instructor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs from 1990 until his death. An historical geographer by training, Curt’s specialty was in Western water policies and law, with a particular emphasis on the Pikes Peak region. Fluent in German, his latest work was a translation of My Farm on the Mississippi by Heinrich Hauser (University of Missouri Press).

On his tombstone, he had the title “Geographer” inscribed, along with the words: “I regret that the only thing I found myself helpless to teach was curiosity—Oh, that, and the proper use of the apostrophe.” He was a member of the AAG since 1981.

The Curt Poulton Memorial Scholarship has been established in his name through the CU Foundation. Remembrances and thoughts may be sent to Eve Gruntfest at ecg@uccs.edu.

Curt Poulton (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(11): 17.

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Macel Wheeler

Macel Marteva Wheeler, geography professor and coordinator of the geography program at Northern Kentucky University (NKU), died November 20, 2004.

Wheeler received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geography from Marshall University and her doctorate in geography from the University of Kentucky in 1978. Under her leadership, the NKU geography program expanded to include a concentration in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Her areas of expertise included cultural geography, North America, map studies and GIS, and reading skills. She also made contributions in brownfields research.

Macel M. Wheeler (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(2): 37.

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