Allan Rodgers

Allan Rodgers, emeritus professor at The Pennsylvania State University, died at the age of 89 on April 19, 2011.

Rodgers was born in New York in 1922. He received a B.S. in economics from the City College of New York, graduating cum laude with honors in the social sciences. He served as lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, as a crewmember on a destroyer escort in the Atlantic Theatre. Following the war, Rodgers returned to his studies and earned both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin. He received his doctorate in 1950. His first position was as an assistant professor of geography at the University of Oklahoma, from 1948 to 1950.

Rodgers was appointed to a position in the Geography Department at Penn State in 1950, where he served until his retirement in 1988. He taught at Penn State for 38 years, serving as department head from 1963-70. Rodgers was an economic geographer with primary interests in regional economic development, industrial geography, and the economic geography of Italy, the U.S.S.R., and China.

Rodgers received numerous grants and awards throughout his career, including a research grant from the Office of Naval Research (1955-58) for work on the industrial port of Genoa, Italy; a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Fulbright Grants (1960-61) for research on the industrial geography of southern Italy; a grant in 1957 and 1960 for research on the USSR from the Inter-University Committee on Travel Grants; and a number of research grants from the Social Science Research Council and the National Science Foundation. In 1977, he was named an honorary foreign fellow of the Italian Geographical Society. In 1982-1983, he was awarded a Fulbright Lectureship for the University of Rome.

Rodgers authored or co-authored numerous journal articles, which appeared in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers; Economic Geography; The Geographical Review; Essays in Geography and Economic Development; The China Geographer; and Industrial Change; in addition to those that appeared in many foreign publications. He served the discipline and academia at large as head of the Symposia Committee of the AAG; consultant to the National Science Foundation; and consultant to the U.S. Council of Graduate Schools. Rodgers also served on the writing staff of the Columbia Encyclopedia. Rodgers published The Soviet Far East: Geographical Perspectives on Development in 1990.

Rodgers served as a member of a special delegation to China in the 1980s following President Richard Nixon’s landmark trip to that country. The Penn State group in that delegation included the president of the university and several deans as well as Rodgers, and they spent several weeks as invited guests. He enjoyed the experience. “I believe that one cannot become a good teacher without extensive field and library research,” he told his co-worker E. Willard Miller for the history book The College of Earth Mineral Sciences at Penn State in 1992. During an active retirement, Rodgers gave invited lectures at several universities in The People’s Republic of China.

Allan Rodgers (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(7): 20.

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Paul E. Lydolph

Paul E. Lydolph passed away on March 25, 2011 at the age of 87.

Lydolph was born on January 4, 1924 in Bonaparte, Iowa. He attended Harvard University in 1944 and was a student at MIT in 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces (1943-47), where he underwent meteorology cadet training and served as a Radar-Weather Officer during the Second World War.

Lydolph received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Iowa in 1948, and both a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1951 and a Ph.D. in 1955. In 1956-57, Lydolph was a Ford Foundation Fellow and completed a Russian area studies program at the University of California-Berkeley.

Lydolph was a math teacher in Iowa Public Schools from 1946-49. He was assistant and then associate professor at Los Angeles State College from 1952- 1959 and professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1959-1992. He served as UWM department chairman from 1963-1969 and again in 1971-1972.

Lydolph specialized in the geography of the U.S.S.R. and climatology. He served as a visiting lecturer at Oxford University, the Stockholm School of Economics, and the University of Hawaii at various times during his career. He was the Smithsonian Institution Tour Director to the U.S.S.R. from 1976-1979.

Lydolph was the author of Geography of the U.S.S.R. (editions 1 through 5, 1964-1990), Climates of the U.S.S.R. (volume 7,1977), World Survey of Climatology (1977),and many other publications on climatethroughout his career. Published in 1987,a Festschrift was written by his colleaguesin his honor, “Soviet Geography Studiesin Our Time” edited by Lutz Holzner andJeane M. Knapp.

Paul E. Lydolph (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(5): 22.

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Hubertus Bloemer

Hubertus “Hugh” L. Bloemer, 71, associate professor emeritus of geography at Ohio University, died March 10, 2011.

Bloemer was born on November 15, 1939 in Dinklage, a small town in Northern Germany. In 1960, he moved from Germany to Cincinnati, Ohio, to live with an aunt and uncle. There, he completed his high school equivalency while working as a metal worker, using the skills he had learned as a young man in Germany. In 1962, he entered the University of Cincinnati and graduated in 1966 with a B.A. in geography. Bloemer began graduate work at Kent State University and obtained an M.A. in geography in 1968. After beginning work on a doctorate he accepted a position as Instructor of Geography at Ohio University. Upon receiving his degree from The Union Institute in 1977, he was promoted to assistant professor and then to associate professor in 1984. In 1989-90 he served as a Fulbright Professor of geography at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

From 1971 until his retirement in 2009, Bloemer was Director of the Ohio University Cartographic Center. He served as chair of the Department of Geography from 1993 to 1998. He was a member of the Faculty Senate for a total of fourteen years, culminating his service as Chair of the Senate from 2001 to 2004.

Bloemer’s research interests and numerous publications were in the fields of high mountain remote sensing, cartography, environmental applications of remote sensing, and the development and application of geographic information systems for developing economies. In recent years his association with the High Mountain Remote Sensing Cartography research group took him to many parts of the world, including Tibet, Kazakhstan, and eastern Africa, where he completed three ascents of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Hubertus L. Bloemer (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(5): 22.

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Huber Self

Huber Self, emeritus professor at Kansas State University, died at the age of 97 on February 7, 2011.

Professor Self was appointed to a position in the Geology Department at Kansas State University in 1947. At the time of his appointment, he had recently been released from the U.S. Navy, where he received a citation for laboratory research in bacteriological warfare. With a master’s degree from Oklahoma State University, he began developing the teaching and research interests that would carry through his professional career: the geography of Kansas, cartography, geography of the Soviet Union, and physical geography. He pursued additional graduate studies at the University of Nebraska and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Self retired in 1980 after 33 years of service to the university.

Self was a diligent promoter of geography at this university, and he repeatedly identified promising students and encouraged them to develop majors in the field. His ongoing interest in students helps to explain the many hours he invested, especially after retirement, in mapping their after-graduation locations. Self played a role in establishing a local geography club and in achieving its recognition as a member of the newly organized national honorary fraternity, Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU).

In 1983, Self published A History of Geography at Kansas State University, which he later revised. Hejoined with colleagues to produce “KansasForests” in the Encyclopedia of American Forest History. Self’s textbook, Environment and Man in Kansas: A Geographical Analysis was publishedby the Regents’ Press of Kansas in1978. With the late Dr. Homer Socolofskyhe produced A Historical Atlas of Kansas, publishedby the University of Oklahoma Pressin 1972 and revised in 1987. His “MinorityPopulation Groups in Kansas” appeared in Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science (1978). The same journal alsocarried his “Irrigation Farmingin Kansas” in 1972, and “TheMagnesium Industry,” one ofhis earliest significant publications,appeared in Economic Geography in 1949.

Professor Self traveled widely. He visited the Soviet Union for a month in 1964, during the height of the Cold War, the same year that Justus Liebig University in Germany extended to him an invitation to lecture. Self traveled throughout Western Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, as well as North America, often in the company of his late wife, Audine. His intrepid VW “bug” was known to play a major role in many of their travels.

Huber Self (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(3): 37.

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Peter H. Nash Sr.

Peter Nash died on January 19, 2011. He was Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Canada.

Nash took a B.A. degree at UCLA in 1942 before enlisting in the U.S. Army. He won two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star during World War II, serving with the United States 160th Engineer Combat Battalion and the 12th Army Group Intelligence Service. After the war he took an MCP from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (1949), an M.P.A. from the Graduate School of Public Administration (1956), and a Ph.D. from Harvard University (1958).

As his career unfolded, Nash moved from Medford, Massachusetts, to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to the University of Cincinnati, to the University of Rhode Island. In 1970, he became the founding dean of the new faculty of environmental studies at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. In each of these stages of his career he was involved in applied geography with special reference to planning and administration. As the years passed, he became ever more interested in the larger reaches of thought. At Waterloo the new faculty included four academic units: architecture, geography, man-environment studies, and urban and regional planning. Nash studied and published in each of these units.

Nash published 180 items including articles, reviews, and notes during an active career. These are listed as appendix B in Abstract Thoughts: Concrete Solutions: Essays in Honour of Peter Nash (1987. Eds. L. Guelke and R. Preston). Included in this collection of 15 essays by geographers whose lives were touched by Nash is his autobiographical essay, “The Making of a Humanist Geographer: a circuitous journey.” This chapter reveals study with Whittlesey at Harvard, participations at IGU Conferences, his enthusiasm for music and its place in the humanities, administrative moves encouraging ever more study of the environment, participation in the Delos conferences, and activity within the AAG. Some of his other interests are indicated by his membership of the board of directors of the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Choir, Kitchener Rotary International American Planning Association, and the American Geographical Society.

Peter H. Nash Sr. (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(4): 29.

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Charles F. Lane

Charles Franklin Lane, professor emeritus of geography at Longwood College (now University) in Farmville, Virginia and longtime member of the AAG, died on December 31, 2010 in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Lane was born December 10, 1919 in Knox County, Tennessee. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Tennessee in 1944 and his M.S. in 1945. He then pursued graduate work at Clark University and Northwestern University, finishing his Ph.D. at the latter institution in 1951. After teaching at the University of Georgia, he began his 35-year tenure as professor of geography and geology at Longwood College in 1951. During his career at Longwood, he served as president and journal editor of the Virginia Geographical Society; state coordinator for the National Council for Geographic Education; managing editor of the Virginia Journal of Science; chairman of the Virginia Resource-Use Educational Council; and president and secretary-treasurer of the Virginia Social Science Association.

Charles F. Lane (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(5): 22.

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William Beetschen

C. William “Bill” Beetschen died in 2010 at the age of 84. Born in Pekin, Illinois, he later moved to Bremerton, Washington. He joined the U.S. Navy in July of 1943 at the age of 17. He was assigned to the Argus 27 unit and later to an aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Shangri-La, CV-38, where he served as a radarman third class prior to his discharge in April, 1946. A brief summary of his wartime activities in the Pacific appears in the book, Heroes Among Us, Volume 2. In November 1950, he was recalled and served on the U.S.S. J.C. Butler (DE 339) during the early days of the Korean War. Beetschen earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and later moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the U.S. Geologic Survey, where he spent the majority of his professional career. He did early work on the National Atlas of the United States and was often responsible for USGS liaison with the domestic and international cartographic communities, map and atlas publishers, federal and state mapping agencies, and the public. His wife, Liz Beetschen, served as the AAG Executive Assistant for 30 years.

C. William “Bill” Beetschen (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(4): 29.

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Phillip Bacon

Phillip Bacon died recently at the age of 88. Bacon attended the University of Miami, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree 1946. He earned his MA at George Peabody College (1951) and an ED .D. from Vanderbilt University (1955). He attended The Citadel prior to service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After his discharge he served at the University of Houston; the University of Washington; and Teachers College, Columbia University. Throughout his career he was keenly interested in the pedagogies of geography, which led to his editing and/or writing of 51 books largely for grade schools. Bacon worked vigorously with the National Council of Geographic Education (NCGE). He became president of NCGE and in 1974 received its Distinguished Service Award. Bacon also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from George Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University. Amidst the travail of war he developed a fond appreciation of the Pacific realm. Bacon’s particular disciplinal interest resided in the region, which he felt was of universal significance to the geographer. The many books he authored include North America: Golden Book Atlas of the World (1960); The Earth and Its People (1972); Regions around the World (1972); and The United States: Its History and Neighbors (1991). He was a member of the editorial advisory board of World Book Encyclopedia for twenty years, a Fellow of both the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society, and a consultant to NASA (Johnson Space Center) concerning wheat growth and its limits in the Soviet Union.

Phillip Bacon (Necrology). 2010. AAG Newsletter 45(10): 22.

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Martin Glassner

Martin Glassner, 78, (1932-2010) was born in Plainfield, New Jersey. He served in the U.S. Armed Forces, and took degrees at Syracuse University (1953); California State University, Fullerton (1964); and, subsequently, a doctorate at the Claremont Graduate School. He was American Vice Consul in Kingston, Jamaica, 1960-1962, and Antofogasta, Chile, 1962-1963. Glassner joined the Geography Department at Southern Connecticut State University in 1968, retiring in 1995 after teaching a variety of courses, sitting on committees, and, for some of the time, chairing the Department. While in situ he was recipient of the Faculty Scholar Award, and was installed as a Connecticut State University Professor. His specialty was political geography with special reference to the significance of landlocked states. He worked for the United Nations in both Asia and Africa, focusing on landlocked states, transit to the sea, boundaries, development and international law. Glassner’s interest in Latin America resulted in membership on the Board of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers. Among his publications are Access to the Sea for Developing Land-Locked States (1971), Bibliography on Land-Locked States (1980), Systematic Political Geography (1980) and Neptune’s Domain: A Political Geography of the Sea (1990).

Martin Ira Glassner (Necrology). 2010. AAG Newsletter 45(10): 22.

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Charles V. Ebert

Charles H.V. “Vince” Ebert (1924-2011) took his degrees at the University of North Carolina: B.A. 1951; M.A. 1953; Ph.D. 1957. He joined the Department of Geology at the University of Buffalo in 1954. Nine years later, in 1963, he was invited to help found a Geography Department. He accomplished this and was installed as its first chair. From 1963 to 1970 he built the department and then was brought to the post of Undergraduate Dean, 1970-1977.

Ebert taught Physical Geography, Soils (in a sequence of three courses), Climatology, Oceanography, and Disasters. Earlier he had offered regional courses relating to Europe, the USSR, Central and South America. He traveled widely, and accumulated a large slide collection which he used to illustrate classroom lectures. His classes were considered thought-provoking, interesting, and otherwise excellent. Ebert continued to teach classes in retirement until forced to stop due to ill health. Meanwhile, he had been awarded a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professorship and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the National Council for Geographic Education. Of his courses, “Disasters: A Study of Hazards,” was his favorite. For this course, he wrote the book Disasters: Violence of Nature and Threats by Man.

Ebert spent his early years in Germany (born there of American parents), learned five languages, and came to be highly regarded for his good judgment both on and off the campus. This led to receiving the University’s “Mr. Faculty Award” in 1965 and 1968. Apart from holding a considerable number of university service posts on campus he also received a number of grants (several from the SUNY Research Foundation) with which to undertake research in the field, from which a number of interesting articles were culled.

Charles V. Ebert (Necrology). 2011. AAG Newsletter 46(4): 29.

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