William A. Dando

William A. Dando, Distinguished Professor of Geography and professor emeritus at Indiana State University, passed away on January 1, 2021, at the age of 86, after a brief illness. Throughout his life, he was an exemplar of a balanced academic life, excelling at research and teaching while also serving his communities: a true “gentleman” of geography.

William Arthur Dando was born in Newell, Pennsylvania on June 13, 1934 and grew up exploring the surrounding hills and valleys. He served in the Air Force from 1954-6, including a stint in Iceland. Under the G.I. Bill, Dando attended California University (PA), just across the river from Newell, earning his B.S in Geography and Mathematics in 1959. He received his M.S. in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Minnesota, working with John Borchert. His dissertation was entitled “Grain or Dust; A Study of the Soviet New Lands Program 1954-1963.” This work began a lifelong interest in food production and Soviet agriculture.

Dando’s first teaching position was at the University of Maryland. In 1970, he received a Danforth Associateship, “awarded in recognition of good teaching and in humanizing the education process.” In 1972, he was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Postdoctoral Research Grant to study Romanian agriculture, becoming one of the first Americans to spend time on a communist collective farm.

Beginning in the early 1970s, he started leading geography field courses to the Soviet Union, allowing him to gather data behind the Iron Curtain while giving hundreds of students memorable field experiences. In addition to university students, he also took teachers and farmers on educational trips to the Soviet Union, making over twenty trips.

In 1975, Dando accepted a position at the Geography Department at the University of North Dakota, becoming chair of the program.

In 1980, Dando published The Geography of Famine (1980) which received international acclaim. In 1982, he contributed a chapter on “Man Made Famines” to Famine: Its Causes, Effects and Management which was recognized with the World Hunger Media Award by the United Nations.

Dando spent the 1981-82 academic year as a Senior Scholar at Chung Chi College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dando moved to Terre Haute in 1989 where he was the chair of the Department of Geography, Geology, and Anthropology at Indiana State University until his retirement in 2002. After retirement, he founded the “Senior Scholars Academy” at ISU, a pre- and post-retirement think-tank for retired faculty members dedicated to regional enhancement and community revitalization.

Throughout his years at the Universities of Maryland and North Dakota and then at Indiana State University he taught undergraduate and graduate classes, mentoring students of all levels as well as faculty. Michael DeMers, a beloved student and friend, dedicated his first book to Dando, writing: “I offer this work first to William A. Dando, who put my feet on the path of geographical knowledge and who has been an unwavering supporter of my work. He not only shared his knowledge and skills with me but, more importantly, he shared his time, his family and, above all, his love. No student ever received so much from an advisor. His has been the pattern that I have tried to emulate” (Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems, 1997).

Dando was a prolific researcher and author, publishing over 29 books and monographs, 79 articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries, and two atlases. A scholar to the end, he continued to publish books and articles after his retirement, including Food and Famine in the 21st Century (2012) and Geography of the Holy Land: Jerusalem, Regional Cities, Small Towns, and Rural Places (2020). He had a knack for grant-writing and had numerous grants over his academic career, adding up to millions of dollars in funded research.

He received numerous awards for teaching, research and service from a variety of institutions and organizations, including from the University of Maryland, University of North Dakota, Indiana State University, the NCGE, the West Lakes Division of the AAG, and from the AAG.

At all the universities he worked at, Dando was active on campus, serving on university committees. He also gave numerous presentations to local organizations and advised various state offices on geography-related topics, including at one point the governor of North Dakota.

He worked with teachers to help improve the teaching of geography in schools in Maryland, North Dakota, and Indiana. His contributions to geographic education were recognized by awards from the Geographic Educators of Indiana, the National Council for Geographic Education, and the AAG.

Dando was a member of the AAG 60 years. He served the AAG in a variety of capacities: vice-chairman (1971) and chairman (1973-4) of the Middle Atlantic Division; as treasurer (1977-8) and chairperson (1978-9) for the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division; as a chairperson (1994-5) and regional councilor (1997-2000) for the West Lakes Division; on the AAG Proposal Writing Committee 1990-3; and chairperson of the Bible Specialty Group (1993-2021).

Former Executive Director of the AAG, Doug Richardson, a long-term friend of Bill Dando, noted that “Bill’s curiosity, energy, and wide-ranging scholarship, coupled with a deep commitment to his students, have made significant and enduring contributions to the discipline of geography. His big heart and his expansive vision will be missed by all.”

His deep interest in food and famine issues was not just academic. He was an active member of Centenary United Methodist Church of Terre Haute and he and wife Caroline worked its monthly “Fourth Monday” luncheon, a free meal to whoever needs it, just two days before his passing.

He leaves behind his wife and co-writer/editor Caroline Z. Dando; children Christina, Lara, and Bill (all geographers); four grandchildren — Emmaline, Anna, Alex, and John; and thousands of former students and mentees.

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Robert Thomas Kuhlken

Robert Thomas Kuhlken, retired professor of geography and former geography department chair at Central Washington University, died on January 1, 2021. He was 67.

Kuhlken was a lifelong scholar, educator, and tireless observer of the natural world. He was more comfortable outdoors than in, and always eager to explore new terrain. He studied at the University of Virginia at Wise and Oregon State University and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study agricultural terracing in the Fiji Islands while earning his doctoral degree in geography from Louisiana State University.

His specialization in human geography and his focus on land management fit perfectly with his desire to learn and explore. He favored traveling via public transportation on excursions throughout Mexico, South America, Polynesia, New Zealand, and Europe to get an unfiltered view of the local culture.

Kuhlken brought the results of these travels to the classroom, sharing his firsthand experience with his students. He taught college geography for more than three decades, spending most of his career at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, where he retired in 2015 as professor emeritus in geography.

He taught thousands of students at CWU. Countless first-year students with little knowledge of the rest of the world were captivated by Kuhlken’s enthusiastic spirit of adventure, his colorful stories, and deep insights into human and physical landscapes across the globe.

Kuhlken also taught courses focused on cultural geography, Oceania and North America, and urban and regional planning. His planning courses drew, in part, on his nearly 10 years of experience as a professional planner in Oregon before beginning his academic career. Quite a few of his students have gone on to successful careers as planners themselves.

As a scholar, Kuhlken’s work emphasized cultural ecology, historical geography, and environmental literature. He co-authored A Rediscovered Frontier: Land Use and Resource Issues in the New West which Rowman & Littlefield published in 2006.

He also published on topics as varied as Pacific archeology, zydeco music, and arson. In more recent years, his passion for fishing led to new scholarship on the geography of recreational fishing and the sport of angling.

More than anything, Kuhlken loved to be outdoors with friends and family—hiking, fishing, sailing, biking, gardening or just feeding the birds in the backyard. In remembrance, please donate to the National Park of your choice.

He is survived by his wife, Cynthia McGill Kuhlken; his stepson, Jeff Acker; and his brothers William Kuhlken, Kevin Kuhlken, and Karl Kuhlken.

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Lynn Staeheli

Lynn Staeheli, a professor and former head of the School of Geography and Regional Development at the University of Arizona, passed away December 20, 2020 at her home in Tucson, AZ. Professor Staeheli studied at Penn State and went on to complete her PhD at the University of Washington in 1989. She joined the Geography Department of the University of Colorado-Boulder as an assistant professor in 1989, eventually promoted to full professor. She taught urban, political, and feminist geography and was graduate advisor for over a dozen PhD graduates while at CU. In 2005, Staeheli joined the faculty at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and was subsequently a professor at the University of Durham in the UK. In 2015, Staeheli became the head of the School of Geography and Regional Development at the University of Arizona, a post she held for four years. In addition to her distinguished research, she had an admirable commitment to social justice and to mentoring students and early career scholars around the world. Her research focused on what she called the “big, contentious topics” such as the nature and spatial dimensions of democracy, citizenship, and politics. More concretely, her research topics included publicly accessible space, protest and activism, immigration and refugees, and the role of faith, religion, and spirituality in public life. At the time of her death, Staeheli was working on three projects: public life and democracy in the US and UK; youth and politics in divided societies (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, and South Africa); and refugees from the MENA region to Europe. She is survived by her husband, retired Professor of Geography, Nel Caine, and her sons.

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Curtis C. Roseman

Curtis C. Roseman, professor emeritus of geography at University of Southern California-Dornsife, died on December 13, 2020 at the age of 79. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois; a master’s degree from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale; and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He was a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Southern California from 1985 to 2004, serving as Department Chair from 1985 to 1992. He also held appointments at the University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Kansas, University of Auckland, New Zealand, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his academic career, he did research in population geography, human migration, geography of ethnic populations, and the upper Mississippi River. In addition to his membership in the Association of American Geographers, he belonged to the Population Association of America. Among the many honors and awards he received over the years were the USC Community Service Award, the USC Faculty Volunteer Good Neighbor Award, Distinguished Scholar Award from the Ethnic Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of American Geographers, and a 1989 Fulbright Fellowship to New Zealand. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Mercer, and their two children Charles and Eric, and his daughter Suzanne, from his first marriage to Joanne Darras.

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Tyrel (Tink) Moore

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Tyrel (Tink) Moore, Professor Emeritus in Geography and Earth Sciences, on September 14, 2020. A scholar of the South, Tink arrived at University of North Carolina Charlotte in 1982. It is estimated that he taught more than 20,000 undergraduates as well as a significant portion of the Charlotte region’s urban planners.

Above all, Tink was a devoted educator who loved the classroom, but who also used his calm demeanor to shepherd many nervous Assistant Professors, Lecturers, Graduate Students, and Part-time Instructors through their first few years of teaching (and even helped some of them move!). Tink never failed to have time for those who needed his help, advice or perspective. Tink’s talent for teaching and mentoring was widely recognized: he received the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2004 and the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003. Tink was also a great evangelist for geography and served as the President of the Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers in 2001 and received the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. It’s been said by many that Tink’s greatest strength was being good to people and his belief in intellectual and professional humility. Tink will be greatly missed.

There will be a celebration of his life when we can gather together safely. People can donate in his honor to benefit students to the “Dr. Tink Moore Memorial Fund” by notating a donation to the UNC Charlotte “Department of Geography & Earth Science Fund” at giving.uncc.edu.

– Faculty at UNC Charlotte Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

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Norman Thrower

Norman Joseph William Thrower died at the age of 100 on September 2, 2020. An avid traveler, Thrower started his career working for the Survey of India as a cartographer during WWII. Later, Thrower was a geography professor at UCLA from 1957 to 1990 where he specialized in cartography, remote sensing, and Europe.

Born in 1919 in Crowthorne, England, Thrower was attending art school at Reading University when WWII broke out. After joining the British army, his unit was stationed in India where he was able to use his art training to become a cartographer for the Survey of India. Following the war and his subsequent marriage to his wife Betty, Thrower moved to the U.S. where he received a B.A. in geography from University of Virginia. In 1958, he received his PhD in geography from University of Wisconsin and went on to teach at UCLA.

Thrower authored several books during his career including, Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society, which is currently in its 4th edition. He was also the first president of the California Map Society and was appointed by Governor Ronald Reagan to the Sir Frances Drake Commission which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe. The AAG awarded Thrower with Lifetime Achievement Honors in 1998.

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Marshall E. Bowen

Marshall E. Bowen, an emeritus professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Mary Washington, passed away at his home on August 19, 2020. Professor Bowen received an undergraduate degree from Plymouth Teachers College (NH), a masters from Kent State University (OH), and his doctorate from Boston University. He joined the faculty at Mary Washington in 1965 and retired in 2001.

Professor Bowen was known as a scholar of vacant lands in the American west, most notably Elko County, Nevada, and Park Valley, Utah, writing over 40 articles and a book. He authored Utah People in the Nevada Desert (Utah State University Press, 1994) and articles in the Western Historical Quarterly, Utah Historical Quarterly, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Agricultural History, Material Culture and the Journal of Cultural Geography. His article, “Crops, Critters, and Calamity: The Failure of Dry Farming in Utah’s Escalante Desert, 1913-1918,” received the Ray Allen Billington Award for the best journal article in western history in 1999 from the Western History Association. His article, “The Russian Molokans of Park Valley,” received the Nick Yengich Memorial Editor’s Choice Award for the best article appearing in the Utah Historical Quarterly in 2015 from the Utah State Historical Society. In 1999, the Pioneer America Society, of which he was a long-term member presented him with the Henry H. Douglas Award for outstanding achievement in research, teaching, and service.

He taught thousands of students over his 36 year career at Mary Washington, packing the basement lecture hall in Monroe Hall with well over 300 students each semester as he shared his passion for places across North America. He also taught seminars in Historical Geography, and early in his career taught the Geography of Asia as well courses in physical geography. Some of the most life-changing experiences for students were shared by those who had the opportunity to take his summer field course to the American West throughout the 1970s. Many of those students went on to pursue advanced degrees in Geography. In 1987, he received the Grellet C. Simpson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, followed by the Mortar Board Outstanding Professor Award in 1991.

An avid basketball player, Professor Bowen also served as the first men’s basketball coach at Mary Washington until 1976. Forty-five years later, many of those players remained a part of his life and hold frequent reunions to reminisce.

Professor Bowen is survived by his wife, Dawn, a Professor of Geography at UMW, a son and two daughters, and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be planned for a future date. The family requests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Geography Alumni Scholarship, University of Mary Washington Foundation, Jepson Alumni Executive Center, 1119 Hanover St., Fredericksburg, VA 22401-5412.

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Robert Smith

Robert (Bob) Wheeler Smith died on August 13, 2020 in Grantsville, MD. He was 70 years old.

Born in Glen Rock, NJ, Smith received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University, in Political Science. It’s said that he was so taken with his political geography class textbook that he looked up its author, Louis Alexander at the University of Rhode Island, and subsequently went there to receive his Master’s degree in Geography. He earned his PhD in Geography from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Smith joined the State Department just before the UN Law of the Sea Convention was finalized in 1982, and devoted his career to maritime boundaries. His extensive international assignments included work on treaties with Mexico, Canada, the former USSR, and Kiribati. He authored many papers in the State Department series “Limits of the Seas.” He co-authored “Excessive Maritime Claims” and co-edited the multi volume International Maritime Boundaries.

During his career, he taught classes at Georgetown University, George Mason University, and the University of Virginia.  His favorite teaching experience was the Semester at Sea Program, which he taught after his retirement from the State Department.

Smith consulted for numerous countries on their own maritime boundaries, spending time at the Hague at the International Court of Justice and in Hamburg at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Smith is survived by his wife Sandra, brother, Arthur Smith, daughters Laura and Tesia, and son-in-law Federico Guerrero. He is predeceased by his parents, Arthur and Carolyn Smith, and his brother, Frederick Smith.

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Marvin Creamer

Marvin Creamer, a geographer and skilled sailor who completed a two-year circumnavigation of the globe in 1984, without any instruments at all, died on August 12, 2020 in Raleigh, North Carolina, after a brief illness. He was 104 years old.

Creamer, born in 1916 in Salem County, New Jersey, was a graduate of Glassboro State College, now known as Rowan University. He stayed on as a professor, establishing the Geography Department as its first chair in 1970 and received numerous honors up until his retirement in 1977. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in the humanities in 1980. Creamer also had graduate degrees in education and geography from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin.

An avid traveler by both land or sea, Creamer was best known for his extraordinary sailing feet aboard the 26-foot Globerstar, a voyage that he completed when he was nearly 70 years old. His life and adventure were covered by the New York Times, The Economist, and perhaps most importantly, Cruising World.

He was married to Blanche Layton Creamer in 1946 (deceased 2005) and is survived by his sister Evelyn Creamer Daniels; children Andra Creamer Hohler James (David), Lynn Creamer Borstelmann (Tim), and Kurt Creamer (Melissa); grandchildren and step-grandchildren Peggy James, Star Schreier Nixon (Matt), Evan Schreier, Vaughn Creamer, John Borstelmann, Kathryn Jeffery, Maggie Creamer, and Daniel Borstelmann; great-grandchildren Charlotte Nixon and Logan Nixon. He is survived also by his wife of 10 years, Elaine Gillam Creamer.

 

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Woody Gagliano

Sherwood M. “Woody” Gagliano, a geologist, geographer and archaeologist who documented Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline in the 1970s in a process that alerted the state to the problem, died on July 17, 2020 at the age of 84.

“History has shown that one person can make a difference, and that certainly applies to Woody Gagliano,” said Bren Haase, executive director of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. “Louisiana owes him a great debt for not only sounding the alarm in our coastal crisis, but for never giving up when few would listen.” Gagliano advocated tirelessly for a state comprehensive coastal protection program.

Dr. Gagliano;s work marked a turning point in coastal science and in the state’s decision to meet the challenge of coastal erosion at scale. “His vision allowed Louisiana to be years or decades ahead of where we would have been without Woody Gagliano,” said U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and former chairman of the CPRA board. “He will be missed, but thank God we can stand upon his shoulders.”

Gagliano received his bachelor’s degree in geography and master’s degree and Ph.D in physical geography from Louisiana State University. He also served a stint in the U.S. Army.

In 1967, Gagliano founded Coastal Environments Inc., the Baton Rouge-based archaeological and applied sciences firm, while still working as a researcher studying river delta processes for the LSU Coastal Studies Institute.

Beginning in 1969, Gagliano was instrumental in documenting and designing solutions for Louisiana’s coastal erosion–a problem unrecognized by state officials before 1970, on the basis of Gagliano’s work. Don Boesch, former director of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, told a local paper that the work was forward-thinking: “Fifty years later, we are still trying to execute his exact concept.” Boesch said. Gagliano assisted state officials in developing Coast 2050 in 1998, the first comprehensive effort to outline steps towards restoring or saving coastal wetlands, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the state’s creation of its first formal Coastal Master Plan in 2007.

Gagliano also produced groundbreaking research showing how some wetland loss was caused by slipping blocks of coastal soil along fault lines, and how the faulting could threaten levees, navigation routes, and coastal restoration projects. He and his company also developed new ways to create artificial oyster reefs – called Reef Blk – to assist in coastal restoration efforts.

Gagliano was the founding president of the Louisiana Archaeological Society and vice president of the Intracoastal Seaway Association. The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana honored him with its Coastal Stewardship Award in 1996 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He is survived by his wife, Betty Ann (Huxen) Gagliano, son Mark Huxen Gagliano, daughter-in-law Kristie Gagliano, and granddaughter Marguerite Lucy Gagliano.

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