C. Nicholas Raphael

C. Nicholas Raphael died of a heart attack February 21, 2004. He was born September 3, 1937 in Detroit, MI, the son of R. George and Angela Raphael. Nick graduated from the Upper Canada College Preparatory School in Toronto, Canada, earned his undergraduate degree from Wayne State University, his master’s from Eastern Michigan University (EMU), and his Ph.D. in coastal geomorphology from Louisiana State University (LSU). He received full support from the National Academy of Sciences for his doctoral research in Greece. After his fourteen months of field research he returned to LSU to complete his dissertation.

He joined the faculty at EMU in 1967, where he remained as a full professor in the department of geography and geology until his death. During his career Nick served as a guest professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, Coventry College of Education in England, the University of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, the College of Education in Shanghai and Earth University in Costa Rica. He also served as consultant to the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Nick was an active member of Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), the International Geographical Honor Society, and served as the national editor of the GTU Journal, and was also a member of the Association of American Geographers, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, the Michigan Academy of Science and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

Memorial contributions in Nick’s memory may be made to the Hogar Rafael Orphanage in Guatemala. Checks may be written to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 3109 Scio Church Rd., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103. Please state that the check is in memory of Nicholas Raphael.

C. Nicholas Raphael (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(5): 19.

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Tom McKnight

Tom McKnight died peacefully of kidney problems on February 16, 2004.

Shortly after his 75^th birthday, he underwent hip replacement and during the rehabilitation process developed the kidney problems that lead to his death.

McKnight earned a bachelor of arts degree in geology at Southern Methodist in 1949, a master’s in geography at Colorado in 1951, and a Ph.D. in geography and meteorology at Wisconsin in 1955. He began a distinguished teaching and writing career at UCLA in 1956. He retired there in 1993, having gone from Assistant Professor to Full Professor, and was Professor Emeritus at the time of his death. He played many roles at UCLA in those thirty-seven years, and served as departmental Chair from 1978-83.

It was during his term as Chair that he initiated an outreach effort to community college teachers in Southern California. Periodic meetings of varied teachers led to a creative and stimulating interaction between faculty in different academic settings. The seeds of the national Geographic Alliance movement were planted in this McKnight-UCLA innovation. The National Geographic Society diffused this extraordinarily popular concept of teachers from K-12 through to graduate level all working together in the promotion of increased geographic interest, both in education and public awareness.

McKnight’s breadth of belief in geography is shown in his love of the concept of “landscape appreciation” which he defined as “an understanding of everything that one can see, hear, and smell—both actually and vicariously—in humankind’s zone of living on the earth.” During the last decade of his life, McKnight and his wife, geographer Joan Clemons, carried these interests to all corners of the world, and Tom wrote of the wonders of such geography in a number of evocative texts and numerous articles. Although Australia received the lion’s share of McKnight’s foreign fieldwork and writing, his global interests were catholic and touched all continents except Antarctica.

Anyone wishing to remember Tom McKnight in a more formal way is encouraged to send contributions to Friends of Geography (FOG) c/o Department of Geography, 1255 Bunche Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524.

Tom McKnight (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(5): 19.

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George Beatty

George F. Beatty, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana died on December 3, 2003. He was born in Cowan, Indiana on June 9, 1918. Beatty received his B.S. from Ball State University in 1949 and M.S. and Ph.D. from University of Illinois in 1951 and 1958 respectively. From 1943-54 he worked at the Department of Geography at Calcutta University, India on a Fulbright research grant. Before coming to Ball State, George worked for the University of Tennessee at Martin and Northern Illinois University. He joined Ball State in 1958 and retired in 1983.

George F Beatty (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(2): 18

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Raj Mathur

Raj Bahadur Mathur was born February 1,1936 in Hasanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. He died on December 1, 2003 in Orange, California. Mathur earned his bachelors degree in geography at Camp College in Delhi and a master’s in geography and economics from Punjab University, Camp College, Delhi. He came to the United States in 1966 and at the University of Minnesota he earned a master’s degree in economics and in 1973 completed his Ph.D. in geography. Through his graduate study and early career, he was involved in the creation of the Historical Atlas of South Asia, eventually published in 1978.

He taught at California State University, Northridge before joining HDR Ecosciences in 1977 as and economic geographer. In 1983, Mathur joined Tetratech Inc., where he later became vice president, and in retirement, a consultant.

Raj Mathur (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(3): 11.

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Meera Schoen

Professor emeritus, Department of Geography, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana died on November 18,2003 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born in West Bengal, India Meera received her Ph.D in 1951 from the London School of Economics and joined Ball State University in 1970. Before her arrival to Ball State, Meera worked at Western Washington State University, Calcutta University, and the Indian Institute of Management and Social Welfare in Calcutta. Schoen retired from Ball State in 1988.

Meera Schoen (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(2): 17.

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Terry Jordan

Past president of the Association of American Geographers, died at his home in Austin, Texas, on 16 October 2003, from pancreatic cancer. (In recognition of his 1997 marriage, he began using the name Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov as his professional nom de plume, while retaining his birth name for other purposes). Born in Dallas in 1938 as a sixth generation Texan, Terry earned his master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin (where he met Walter Prescott Webb) and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His dissertation was later published as German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas (1966). This was to be the first of fifteen authored or co-authored books and textbooks published during his lifetime. These include The Upland South: The Making of an American Folk Region and Landscape (2003); The American Backwoods Frontier: an Ethnic and Ecological Interpretation (with M. Kaups, 1989), one of a handful of books that offer a truly original interpretation of the American identity; and The Human Mosaic: A Thematic Introduction to Cultural Geography (nine editions 1976-2003, with Mona Domosh and Lester Rowntree), a classic textbook. At the time of his death he had completed field research in sixty-five countries, reflected in books and journal articles focused on Australia, Siberia, and the European source regions of Texas folk culture. A book expressing his view of the discipline, My Kind of Geography, is forthcoming. Terry was elected President of the Association of American Geographers (1987-88) and also received the AAG Honors Award in 1982 and Distinguished Scholar Award from the AAG American Ethnic Geography Specialty Group. For many years he chaired the geography department at the University of North Texas before joining the Department of Geography at the University of Texas at Austin in 1982 as the Walter Prescott Webb Professor of History and Ideas. He received awards for his work from the Pioneer America Society, National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Texas State Historical Association, Texas Heritage Council, American Association for State and Local History, and the Agricultural History Society. He was elected a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, and a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association. Sessions in Terry’s honor have been organized by his students for the 2004 AAG Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. In accordance with his family’s wishes, donations in Terry’s name may be may be made to the UT Department of Geography and sent to the Department of Geography, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712.

Terry Gilbert Jordan (Necrology). 2003. AAG Newsletter 38(11): 26.

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Ruby Miller

Longtime AAG member Ruby Miller, of State College, PA died 7 October 2003. She was born in Templeton, PA, 16 August 1911. Miller attended Chatham College in Pittsburgh and earned her elementary teaching certification at Clarion University. She pursued graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh and later spent

eight years teaching school in western Pennsylvania. In 1941 she married geographer E. Willard “Will” Miller, who was married to her for 61 years. At the end of World War II the Millers moved to Penn State where Will started the Geography Department and Ruby became the map librarian. Ruby established and developed the library’s map collection and was instructor for courses on the use of maps. She retired in 1977, but remained active, co-authoring more than twenty books with her husband and traveling in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. For those wishing to make memorial contributions, please contact the Miller Geography Lectureships, Office of University Development, The Pennsylvania State University, One Old Main, University Park, PA 16802.

Ruby Miller (Necrology). 2003 AAG Newsletter 38(10): 19.

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Louis Seig

Louis “Lou” Seig, former editor of the Journal of Cultural Geography, passed away on 1 October 2003 at his home in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He was born 4 May 1931 in New York City.

Seig attended Louisiana State University where he earned his B.A. in 1954. Following graduation he entered the Air Force as an officer and served on active duty for two decades. He later returned to Louisiana State University for graduate study, earning his M.A. in 1961. During the 1960s he was assigned as a geography instructor to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. His performance at the Academy was such that in 1966 he was selected by the Air Force for graduate study. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1968.

A veteran of the Vietnam War, Seig retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1974 and became chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Louisville. In 1978 that department named its Outstanding Undergraduate Geography Student Award in his honor. Following a series of career changes in the late 1970s and early 1980s he moved to New Mexico where he administered the research and development program in the state’s Energy and Minerals Department. In 1986 he joined the faculty of Oklahoma State University. Upon retirement in 1996 he assumed editorship of the Journal of Cultural Geography.

A longtime member of the AAG and staunch supporter of geography, he will be remembered for his service to the discipline. For those wishing to make memorial donations, please contact theDepartment of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078-4073.

Louis Seig (Necrology). 2004. AAG Newsletter 39(1): 15.

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Terence Burke

Terence Burke, longtime professor and administrator at the University of Massachusetts, and associate to the president at the University of Arizona from 1982 until 1998, died 17 June 2003 at the age of 72. He is survived by his wife of 19 years, Philanne “Toppy” Burke, four children, and five grandchildren.

Born in Leicestershire, England, Burke received Smith-Mundt and Fulbright Awards to study historical geography at Clark University in Massachusetts. After earning his doctorate from the University of Birmingham, England, he served as a Flight Lieutenant with the Royal Air Force for four years before coming back to the United States to begin teaching as an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. During his 20-year tenure at Amherst, he received many awards including the Distinguished Teacher Award, and was widely published. He eventually moved on to become associate to Henry Kofler, the Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts system, and in 1982, followed Dr. Koffler to the University of Arizona to act as associate to the president. He retired from this position in 1998.

A memorial service was held 23 June at the First United Methodist Church of Tucson, Arizona. Donations may be made in Dr. Burke’s honor to the American Red Cross or the Community Food Bank of Tucson.

Terence Burke (Necrology). 2003. AAG Newsletter 38 (8): 21

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Bob Aangeenbrug

Bob Aangeenbrug, a long-time leader in the Association of American Geographers, an early pioneer in the use of technology in geography, and a noted geographic scholar, died May 15, 2003, in Lawrence, KS, his beloved “adopted” home.

Bob was born in Sassenheim, The Netherlands, October 9, 1935, and came to the United States as a child. He earned his B.S. from Central Connecticut State College in 1958, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin in 1963 and 1965.

Beginning his stellar academic career as a lecturer at Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics in the mid 1960s, Bob later became Assistant Professor at Boston University. In 1966, he made the move that helped shape the rest of his academic career, when he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Kansas.

Kansas was the perfect fit for Bob, and he matured as a scholar of distinction, being promoted to Associate Professor in 1970 and Professor in 1979. Bob had an eclectic and productive career, publishing widely in professional journals, technological outlets and the popular presses in spite of his heavy service commitments. In his early years, he studied population geography, regional issues, and transportation, first locally in Kansas, and then in Latin America, an area that became one of his major research interests. Early in his career, he recognized the potential of information systems and graphic representations to the discipline, and by the mid 1970s he had established his reputation as a scholar in population dynamics and the use of the growing digital media. At the same time, his interests in health care were evolving, again incorporating the innovative use of geographic information systems.

Always an active supporter of the discipline of geography, in 1984 Bob took over as Executive Director of the Association of American Geographers, serving until 1989. Bob’s energy, creativity, and enthusiasm were put to work on improving the infrastructure and the outlook of the Association, making great accomplishments toward that goal in the five years in which he led the Association. He hired capable and loyal staff members, he upgraded the AAG’s financial and membership operations, and he expanded the Association’s collaboration with and links to kindred organizations. Building on the foundations of his predecessors, he took the AAG into the digital world, emphasizing the exciting possibilities of technological advances. His successors faced certain challenges when his directorship at the AAG was over, but none in the realms where Bob had focused his attention and efforts. He was held in high regard by the leaders of other scholarly organizations in Washington, around the country, and all over the world.

From the AAG, Bob took on a new challenge as Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of South Florida, where he built a department of distinction, bringing in new young scholars while continuing to push the development of GIS. He stepped down as chair in 1996, but remained a sounding board and source of knowledge for his successors. Among Bob’s outstanding professional and service contributions, most notable were his commitment to the development and use of information systems, and his dedication to developments in epidemiological and health research. He was active on numerous boards, including the Governor’s (Kansas) Technical Advisory Committee on Information and Communication Systems, which he chaired for several years, and the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association of which he was President. In the health arena, he served as a consultant for the National Center for Health Statistics, and for the United National Center for Human Settlement, and chaired the National Cancer Institute Special Environmental Health Research Group. Indeed, the list goes on and on; Bob was clearly a leader and an active shaper of policy. His many honors included being a Visiting Scholar at the U.S. Bureau of Census as a Fellow of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.

Among all this, Bob did not neglect his scholarship and teaching. He was an academic traditionalist, insisting on the highest standards from students, staff and faculty. He put in long hours and expected others to do the same. He insisted that students understand the basics of geography before advancing to higher levels, and maintained an unfashionable concern for regional geography. As an applied geographer, he cared deeply about the relevance of the discipline, constantly seeking ways to better society with his research.

Bob retired from the USF in January 2002, and enjoyed his time in the company of his beloved wife, Mimi, and his family. Tragically, his much-deserved retirement was cut short. His geography family will surely miss him.

Graham A. Tobin, University of South Florida

Bob Aangeenbrug (Necrology). 2003. AAG Newsletter 38(7): 1

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