retirement celebration

Wednesday, December 16, 2020 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. Virtual Format

Dr. Richard Gillin Ernest A. Howard Professor of English, Emeritus

Dr. Eugene Hamilton Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus

Dr. Michael Kerchner Associate Professor of Psychology, Emeritus

Dr. Robert Mooney Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing

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welcome remarks Dr. Wayne Powell Interim President of the College

citation for dr. richard gillin Dr. Michael Harvey Interim Provost and Dean of the College appreciation Dr. Sean Meehan Chair and Professor of English response Dr. Gillin

citation for dr. eugene hamilton Dr. Harvey appreciation Dr. Shaun Ramsey Chair of Math and Computer Science, Associate Professor of Computer Science response Dr. Hamilton citation for dr. michael kerchner Dr. Harvey appreciation Dr. Lauren Littlefield Interim Chair and Professor of Psychology response Dr. Kerchner

citation for dr. robert mooney Dr. Harvey appreciation Dr. Meehan Chair and Professor of English

response Dr. Mooney

closing Dr. Harvey Dr. Richard Gillin

Richard Gillin, a specialist in British Romantic and Victorian literature, retired at the end of the Fall 2019 semester after 46 years of teaching at Washington College. He held the rank of Ernest A. Howard Professor of English Literature from 2007 until retirement. Gillin joined the faculty in 1973, after completing intensive study of Wordworth’s poetry in Rydal, , and a doctoral degree in English Romanticism from Bowling Green University. Over the course of the next five decades, Gillin served in many leadership roles: as chair of the Department of English, director of the Humanities program, acting director of the College’s graduate program, director of the Freshman Common Seminar, and director of the Eastern Shore site of the Writing Project. He also briefly served as Interim Associate Dean in 2007. For 20 years, Rich and his wife, Barbara, led a group of Washington College students on a literary trip to Northern England and Ireland. The Hall Experience— which celebrates the connection between the natural landscape and the works of William Wordsworth and other Romantic writers—became one of the College’s most popular study abroad programs. Combining strenuous hiking through the Lake District, the Haworth Moors, and the cliffs along the North Sea with readings and reflections on works written in or about those same landscapes, the program uses as its home base , the ancestral home of Maryland’s Calvert family in North . The Gillins, who had spent two summers in England’s Lake District as graduate students, designed the Kiplin Hall program to ground the study of Romantic literature in the natural landscape that inspired it. In addition to the couple working together to help undergraduates come to a greater appreciation of Romantic literature as well as their own strength and endurance on the trail, Barbara Gillin managed the logistics of transporting, feeding, entertaining, and watching after students. His book about the Kiplin Hall program is expected to be published in 2021. Dr. Eugene Hamilton

Eugene Hamilton, a brilliant professor of mathematics and one of the world’s leading experts in variational derivatives, retired at the end of the Fall 2019 semester after 41 years of teaching at Washington College. Before joining the faculty in 1978, Hamilton taught mathematics for four years at Vanderbilt University and served for one year as an operations analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses in Arlington, Virginia. A graduate of University of Delaware, Hamilton received his master’s degree and his PhD in applied mathematics from Cornell University. He has published ten major mathematical papers covering four areas of mathematics, and has delivered several papers at meetings of the American Mathematical Society. Hamilton continues cutting-edge research in his subject areas and is currently working on a magnum opus that will gather into one cohesive book much of his research and current theory in calculus of variations, along with new material. Over the course of his tenure at Washington College, Hamilton has served on several committees, most notably lending his expertise to the Finance Committee and serving on a number of search committees that built the department of mathematics and computer science. Dr. Michael Kerchner

Michael Kerchner, a behavioral neuroscientist who taught in the College’s Department of Psychology for 28 years, retired at the end of the Fall 2019 semester. Kerchner joined the faculty in 1991, after completing postdoctoral training at Villanova University. He holds a bachelor of science degree in psychology from American International College in Massachusetts, and master’s and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology from Lehigh University. He was instrumental in creating at Washington College what was then one of the few undergraduate behavioral neuroscience programs in the country. Today, thanks to his efforts, WC now offers a major in the discipline. In addition to campus leadership roles including service as department chair, director of the behavioral neuroscience program, director of the graduate program, and as the inaugural president of the Sigma Xi chapter supporting scientific research on campus, Kerchner has been an important voice for science educators nationally. He was active in the organization FUN (Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience), Project Kaleidoscope, and the Council for Undergraduate Research. With support from the W.M. Keck Foundation, Kerchner was one of three principle project leaders in a three-year PKAL initiative to facilitate interdisciplinary learning among a select group of 28 institutions of higher learning. Well-known for involving his students in various research projects with applications in pharmacology, genetics, and substance abuse, Kerchner was presented with the Alumni Association’s Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1998. While on sabbatical during the 2002-03 academic year, Kerchner conducted research as a National Research Council Senior Research Fellow at the Military Research Institute for Chemical Defense (MRICD), where he worked on projects to identify therapeutic neuroprotectants to mitigate the effects chemical nerve agents. Today, he is serving his second term as Executive Director of Nu Rho Psi, the national honor society in neuroscience. He is looking forward to returning to teach for his second summer at Harlaxton College, outside Grantham, England, where he has taught neuroscience courses to talented undergraduates from the . Dr. Robert Mooney

Robert Mooney, associate professor of English and creative writing and former director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House, is a short story writer, novelist, and executive editor of Etruscan Press, a nonprofit literary press working to promote books that nurture the dialogue among genres, cultures, and voices. He is retiring this month after 23 years of teaching at Washington College. Mooney joined the Washington College faculty in 1997, after receiving his PhD from SUNY- Binghamton. Mentored by novelists John Gardner and Larry Woiwode, he was hired to run the creative writing program at Binghamton while also pursuing his doctoral degree there. He was director of Washington College’s creative writing program and served as director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House until 2005. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, Mooney has published works of short fiction in several journals and magazines, including the Paterson Literary Review, Artful Dodge, MSS, Timbuktu, and Esquire. He has served as editor of New Myths Press and the acclaimed literary journal New Myths/MSS. He has also been involved with Narrative Four, a worldwide story exchange—initiated by Colum Mcann—whose mission is to promote “radical empathy.” Mooney’s first novel, Father of the Man, was published by Pantheon Books at Random House in 2002.