Alan Voorhees

Alan Manners Voorhees died in December 2005 at age eighty-three. He was a scientist, educator, businessman, and philanthropist, and also a strong advocate for geography, having made significant intellectual and applied contributions to the field. Voorhees developed a mathematical model that could predict the ebb and flow of highway traffic. His model helped make feasible the design and construction of the Interstate system and greatly influenced urban planning in the last half of the twentieth century. He was also instrumental in re-designs of the downtowns of many cities, and major mass transit systems in Washington, DC; São Paulo, Brazil; Caracas, Venezuela; and Hong Kong.

Voorhees was dedicated to expanding opportunities for geographers to influence society. For the last thirty-five years of his life, he was involved in geography through research, teaching, and planning, and as the successful owner and president of several geographically-oriented companies including Alan M. Voorhees & Associates and Autometric, Inc. Voorhees founded these companies following almost ten years at the Automobile Safety Foundation. He entered academia in 1977 and served as the Dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Urban Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle until 1979.

As an important donor and advisor to the Library of Congress, he led the effort to build a corporate support group for the Geography and Map Division that resulted in the largest freely accessible collection of scanned historical maps on the Internet. The Association of American Geographers also benefited from Mr. Voorhees’s generosity and his interest in using geography to improve the effectiveness of government. In 2003, he made a significant contribution that allowed the organization to hire its first Director of Public Policy, and took an active role in the effort to create a Geographer to Congress.

Alan Voorhees was born December 17, 1922. He earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1947, a master’s in city planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949, and a certificate from the Yale University Bureau of Highway Traffic in 1952. He received the AAG Presidential Award in 2005. He was amember of National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and received an Honorary Doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Alan Voorhees (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(2): 37.

See All Memorials
    Share

Hoyt Lemons

Fifty-year AAG member Hoyt Lemons of Barnesville, Maryland died this fall.

Lemons earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University, a master of arts at Northwestern University, and a PhD at the University of Nebraska.

Hoyt Lemons (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(3): 17.

See All Memorials
    Share

Arthur William “Bill” Dakan

Bill Dakan died in Louisville, Kentucky on December 3, 2005. He was sixty-three years old. He received his BS degree from University of Southern California in 1965, his MA from UCLA in 1969, and his PhD from UCLA in1974. He was active in teaching, research, and service in the University of Louisville’s Department of Geography from the time he joined the faculty in 1975 until his death.

Arthur William Dakan (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(2): 37.

See All Memorials
    Share

Rena Joyce Gordon

Rena Joyce Gordon died November 24, 2005.

In the 1980s and 1990s she was a faculty member in the University of Arizona’s (UA) Department of Family and Community Medicine and directed the UA Medical School’s Rural Health Office. She was also the founding editor of the research journal Complementary Health Practice Review.

She earned a bachelor’s degree at Wayne State University in 1957, a master’s at University of Michigan in 1978, and a PhD in geography from Arizona State University in 1983.

Gordon was the author of the Arizona Rural Health Provider Atlas and co-editor of the books Alternative Therapies: Expanding Options in Health Care, and Encyclopedia of Complementary Health Practices.

Gordon retired in 2002 from Arizona State University East where she helped develop a new health and wellness baccalaureate degree.

Rena Joyce Gordon (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(3): 28.

See All Memorials
    Share

Sean Webster

Former geography professor at the University of North Texas (UNT) and retired Navy officer Sean Webster died on November 6, 2005. He was forty-six.

Webster was born in California in 1959. He moved to Texas before joining the Navy and serving as an electrician. He retired as a Lieutenant Commander. Webster earned an associates degree from Santa Ana College in 1987, a bachelor’s from University of New Mexico in 1989, and completed studies at Florida Institute of Technology in 1995. Webster came to UNT as a student in the fall of 1999 and graduated in the summer of 2004 with a master’s degree in applied geography. While completing his master’s degree, Webster served as a teaching assistant. After graduation, he became an adjunct professor at UNT, teaching courses in earth science, physical geology and culture, and environmental and society. Shortly before his death, he had accepted a full-time faculty position at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Sean Webster (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(6): 16.

See All Memorials
    Share

James Murry Hunter

James Murry Hunter, eighty-three, a longtime professor of geography at Georgetown University, died October 15 at his home in Rockville, Maryland of complications from a stroke.

Hunter joined the Georgetown faculty in 1946 and taught political geography until he retired in 1986. He was the author of Perspective on Ratzel’s Political Geography, published in 1983, and he co-wrote several other books on geography with other professors. He also was a visiting professor at Boston University and wrote numerous articles for professional journals.

Born in Homer City, Pennsylvania, Hunter graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He earned a master’s degree in geography from the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate in geography from the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

During World War II, he served in the Army Corps of Engineers at Fort Belvoir.

He was a member of the American Association of Geographers and the American Association of University Professors.

James Murry Hunter (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(11): 17.

See All Memorials
    Share

John M. Hunter

John Melton Hunter was born in Windsor, Canada on January 1, 1928. His parents thereafter returned to the United Kingdom. John wase ducated at Bemrose School, Derby and went on to receive his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Reading in 1954. During his time at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, he was planning officer and adviser for the preparation and enumeration of area maps and census reports for the 1960 Ghana Census. After returning to Great Britain, he taught at the University of Durham from 1964 to 1967 before beginning his tenure at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan in 1967.

Throughout his career at Michigan State University, he received numerous honors awards and appointments, including the Distinguished Faculty award in 1982, an Honors Award from the Association of American Geographers, 1983, Appointed to serve on the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Board of Science and Technology for International Development, Juba Valley Advisory Panel, 1986-88, Appointed Member of WHO Commission on Health and Environment, 1990-92, and University Distinguished Professor, 1990.

He is survived by his wife, Kathleen, two children and three step children.

See All Memorials
    Share

Wade Currier

Wade Richardson Currier died September 18, 2005 at age seventy-seven. He was a long-time professor at Rowan University and served as Department Chair from 1983 to 1989.

Currier earned his BA and MA in geography from George Washington University and did post graduate work in geography at Clark University. He began his career with the U.S. Geological Survey and continued as a civilian with the U.S. Army Map Service, contributing research that led to the selection of the first lunar landing sites for NASA’s Apollo missions.

In 1965 Currier began at Rowan University as a professor of geography. He served as Chair of the Department of Geography and Anthropology from 1983 to 1989. In 2000 he retired from Rowan but continued to teach as an adjunct professor through 2004.

Wade Currier (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(6): 16.

See All Memorials
    Share

Gimpel Wajntraub

Dr. Gimpel Wajntraub, retired Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Shaarae Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel, and active member of the Bible Geography Specialty Group (BGSG), died September 9, 2005 in Jerusalem. He developed an interest in old maps of the Holy Land, co-edited the Israeli Map Collector Society’s Journal, wrote almost one hundred articles and a number of books including Hebrew Maps of the Holy Land, and attended the Annual Meetings of the AAG contributing papers in “Geography of the Bible” sessions. Gimpel amassed a very large “maps of the Holy Land” and “books on the Holy Land” collection.  He co-authored two articles, with his wife Eva, in the BGSG’s new book, Geography of the Holy Land:  Perspectives. The work of Gimpel and his wife Eva was featured in a April 22, 2005, article about geography of the Bible in the Intermountain Jewish News and about their papers presented at the AAG’s Annual Meeting in Denver 2005.

GImpel Wajntraub (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(1): 29.

See All Memorials
    Share

John Gertken

AAG member John Anthony Gertken died August 10, 2005, at age sixty-one in Lake St. Louis, Missouri.

Born April 27, 1944, Gertken was a 1962 graduate of Christian Brothers College Military Institute in St. Louis. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve and attended Marquette University in Wisconsin, where he was a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve Academy.

Gertken spent over forty years as professional in the business of conveyor and automated handling systems. He earned an associates degree in 2003 from St. Charles Community College and shortly before his death graduated from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Cum Laude, with a BS in geography.

John Anthony Gertken Jr. (Necrology). 2006. AAG Newsletter 41(6): 16.

See All Memorials
    Share