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.

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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.

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Keiichi Takeuchi

Keiichi Takeuchi died on June 26, 2005. He was a major influence in establishing bridges between the Japanese and Western cultures and in promoting collaboration between scientists.

Born July 12, 1932, Takeuchi graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1956 with a degree in geography, and in 1959 earned a master’s degree from the same institution. From 1966 to 1994, he taught at Hitotsubashi University of Tokyo on the faculty of social science, serving as Dean from 1988 to 1990 and later Professor Emeritus after his retirement from Hitotsubashi in 1994. He went on to teach in the Department of Geography at the University of Komazawa, Tokyo, until March 2003.Takeuchi was visiting professor at many institutions around the world including the University of Ireland, Galway (1973-74), Luigi Bocconi University in Milan, Italy (1974), the University of Indonesia, Jakarta (1975-77), the University of Paris VII, France (1985-86), and at Sheffield University, Great Britain (1985-86). He also gave lectures in many universities in Japan and abroad. His main interest was human geography. Starting in 1950 he dedicated himself to the study of Mediterranean regions, especially southern Italy. He spoke Italian and served as a Director of the Italian-Japanese Cultural Center. He was also Chair of the Commission on the History of Geographical Thought within the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science (IUHPS), President of the Association of Japanese Geographers (1994-96), and President of the Japanese Association of Economic Geographers (1994-2000). Takeuchi was also a member of the International Geographical Union, the Societa Geografica Italiana, Societe de Geographie Francaise, and the Academia Geografica Argentina.He published numerous papers and books on these topics not only in Japanese but also in other languages. Among his works in Japanese are Topologue (Tokyo, 1992), Experiences of Nineteen Senior Geographers (co-author, 1999), and Data-Book of the World Countries (2000). His writings in English include Modern Japanese Geography: An Intellectual history (2000), and 1945-1964: A Japanese Perspective in the edited volume Japan: A Self-Potrait, Photographs 1945-1964 (M. Feustel, ed, Flammarion, Paris, 2004, also in French and later published in Japanese by Iwanami-shoten).

Keiichi Takeuchi (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(8): 29.

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Robert Goodman

Geography professor at Wayne State University, died April 15, 2005, at age eighty-six.

The youngest of four children, Goodman was born in Gwinn in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He studied geography at the University of Chicago, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 1941, he went to work for the U.S. Army Map Service in Chicago and in 1942, was drafted by the Army to make war-related maps in Washington. He was honorably discharged as a technical sergeant in 1945.

Goodman earned his PhD in geography at Northwestern University. He also met his wife, Marjorie Smith, a fellow geography student at Northwestern; they married in 1950.

He joined Wayne State University’s geography department in 1948.

In his teaching, Goodman used more than 10,000 photo slides from a lifetime of trips to Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Before the days of computers, he also allowed students to draft their maps in his Grosse Pointe Woods basement, which was filled with overhead cameras, tables, desks, and maps. He eventually incorporated film into his lesson plans and made a movie called “Growth Patterns in Detroit.”

In 1961, Goodman earned a Fulbright scholarship to spend a year in India to establish a geography department at the University of New Delhi.

He won numerous accolades including the Wayne State Excellence in Teaching Award in 1979 and a Distinguished Teaching Award from the NCGE in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in 1983. Goodman retired in 1983.

Robert Goodman (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(6): 19.

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Henry Bruman

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.

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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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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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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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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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Jim Goodman

Long-time faculty member and former Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Oklahoma, Jim Goodman passed away on November 15, 2004. .

James M. Goodman was born in Henryetta, Oklahoma on July 23, 1929. He earned his BA at the University of Oklahoma in 1952 and his MS and PhD at Northwestern University in 1953 and 1961, respectively. He taught at Western Kentucky State University (1956-64); Wisconsin State University-Oshkosh (1964-66); Oregon College of Education (1966-67); and the University of Oklahoma (1967-93), where he was Chair of the Department of Geography in his last seven years. During his tenure at OU, Jim was President of the National Council for Geographic Education (1980-81). He was founder and the first Director of the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education. He was the author of The Navajo Atlas, which was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1982. After Jim retired from OU, he served as geographer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC, for two years before moving with his wife Mary to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jim Goodman (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(11): 17.

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