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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Darryl Cohen is a Geographer in the Population Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, where he has worked since 1998. He has worked on reviewing and revising the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards for defining metropolitan areas. He also works on maintaining the geographic base for the Census Bureau’s intercensal population estimates. In addition, Darryl helps design and maintain various metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area data products, including Census 2000, and post-censal population estimates table packages, and various definition and geographic relationship files publicly available on the Census Bureau’s website. Frequently, he responds to inquiries from the media, congress, other government agencies, and the general public.
Darryl’s research on settlement classification, census geography, and population data has been published in journals and government reports, and serve as the subject for numerous conference presentations. He holds a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in Geography with concentrations in Urban Planning from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. In 2001, Darryl received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award as a member of the metropolitan area standards review team. He currently lives in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
This profile was published in 2004. Darryl is currently still a geographer in the Population Division of the U.S. Census Bureau.
AAG: Did you always know you wanted to be a geographer?
Darryl: No, actually I found geography almost by accident. My original intention was to become an urban planner. I have always been fascinated by cities, which probably stems from having grown up in the District of Columbia, and learning about the L’Enfant plan and how the city was laid out. Finding the right undergraduate program was a bit of a journey for me, but in the end I was fortunate enough to find an urban planning concentration in the geography program at UNCG.
AAG: And now you have the rare job title of Geographer. How does that feel?
Darryl: It’s not as important to me as the fact that I enjoy what I’m doing. It doesn’t really matter what’s on my business card, as long as my work is intellectually stimulating and I’m contributing something valuable.
AAG: Well said.
Darryl: I think the variety of job titles among geography professionals speaks to the nature of our discipline. There are so many different opportunities and areas of specialization that often your job title is not going to be geographer. Even here at the Census Bureau, there are a lot of people who have degrees in geography, but do not have the job title of geographer; they are statisticians, or cartographers, or social science analysts. There are a lot of different jobs for which people with degrees in geography are qualified.
AAG: What is your favorite part of your job?
Darryl: Probably the research. Discussing — from a conceptual standpoint — what constitutes a metropolitan area and how the areas should be defined.
AAG: What kinds of discussions come up?
Darryl: One fascinating thing . . . is taking a look back at research done previously and finding that many of the same issues come up over and over again. Say, 50 years ago they were having some of the same discussions that we are having today regarding determining the extent of metropolitan boundaries, what measures of integration to use, how to assign titles . . . all those things have been addressed by various people here at the Census Bureau and other agencies since the 1940s. That’s something that I’m working on – a history of the development of the standards for defining metropolitan areas.
AAG: What major new research potential do you see on the future horizon?
Darryl: Well, one is certainly on the micropolitan statistical areas, since OMB has only been defining them since 2003. We only have 4-5 years of data using those definitions, so that’s an area that’s certainly becoming ripe for research.
AAG: What do you see about your work that is important for others?
Darryl: It is important that the definitions add value to our data products – and that they are as good as they can be – because so many people depend on the data for various levels of decision-making, whether it’s setting policy at the federal level, state or local government planning, location analysis in the private sector, academic research, and so on.
AAG: Do you get to make it to the AAG Annual Meeting every year?
Darryl: Usually, yes. The Census Bureau is very supportive of our participation in professional associations and conferences.
AAG: Why do you most like to go?
Darryl: Mainly to build contacts with people, particularly people I may not know personally, but I may share a research interest with them. Over time, you develop a professional relationship with folks and look forward to seeing them year to year.
AAG: Why is that important?
Darryl: Part of the reason why we try to remain active in the AAG and participate in meetings is that our work is and should be done in an open manner – not only do we want to share what we are doing, but we also want to learn about how people are using the data that we publish.
AAG: What do you think would inspire more young people to do geography like you?
Darryl: Looking at how geography has grown in leaps and bounds, I think they are already inspired. That may be in part because we live in an increasingly global society, and it’s more important now to have information about places that aren’t necessarily close to where you live. Since so much information from different parts of the world is so readily available, geography has become more important now than ever. And . . . it can be a very fulfilling career choice.
Dr. Patricia Solis, 2004
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.
