The Advocate

THE ADVOCATE

Newsletter of the Towson University Retired Faculty Association

Spring/Summer 2020

President’s Message

I write this from my home where I am keeping away from others—even the gym has closed!! Who knew what this year would bring when I wrote my letter in the fall—or even a month ago?

The year certainly has been busy. Under TURFA sponsorship, we have toured the Amazon distribution center, brushed up on skills to use Towson’s online interface, and learned about “The Power of the Presidency and the Impeachment Inquiry,” a talk given by Professor Jack Fruchtman (Political Science). While we planned another talk for the spring semester, the closure of TU’s campus has put that on hold.

Our website, which has been redesigned by President-Elect candidate Ron Matlon and is being maintained by Peg Benner, is a good source for information about TURFA news and about ongoing and future TURFA programs and events: https://www.towson.edu/retiredfaculty/.

We have just received notification from the president of AROHE (the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education) that they will include on their web site the survey that TURFA conducted several years ago, tabulating the post-retirement productivity and activities of TU faculty and librarians, as a resource for all member institutions to use.

This year has brought updates to operating procedures and to relationships with the main TU community. TURFA has a voting membership on the Academic Senate, and we continue to work to have faculty emeriti included in the University Catalog. As we address issues of concern to retirees, we find holes in past practices (years when the Senate minutes did not list faculty emeriti, for example). Our presence on the Academic Senate and in the faculty lists of the TU Catalog serves as a reminder that we are still vital members of the University community.

In any case, I cannot say strongly enough how grateful I am for the support of the Provost and her office, particularly AVP Maggie Reitz and Kameron Croup. Through much transition and turmoil, they have guided and assisted us in our operations. In addition, the TURFA Executive Committee is a varied and talented group of people. I thank them for their wisdom, creativity, and patience.

Elections for TURFA’s 2020-2021 officers will take place primarily online. Also online will be new by-laws, which you will need to approve. Keep safe and keep in touch.

Sincerely,

TURFA Executive Committee Tracy Miller, President * Ron Matlon, Present-Elect * Fran Bond, Past President Jane Wolfson, Secretary * Ray Castaldi, Treasurer * Peg Benner, Representative at Large * Jim Paulsen, Representative at Large Committee Chairs Programs and Events, Donna Cox & Jim Paulsen * Scholarship, David Larkin * Oral History Project, Don Forester * Newsletter, Florence Newman

either a slave or an indentured servant before he The TURFA Fall Meeting: A was freed and took the name Anthony Johnson, History of Slavery Close to after which he held land, paid taxes, owned slaves, Home borrowed and lent money, and signed legal documents, just as did white settlers. In the mid- Florence Newman seventeenth century, Hedberg noted, there were few differences between the rights of freemen/owners, The TURFA fall meeting was held Oct. 10 in the those of indentured servants, and those of slaves. In South Pavilion. After greetings by TURFA President 1664, however, in response to repugnance against Tracy Miller, Jo-Ann Pilardi introduced the featured racial intermarriage, the Act Concerning Negroes speaker, Jacqueline Simmons Hedberg, author most and Other Slaves decreed that all children born to recently of Plantations, Slavery, and Freedom on slaves would be slaves for life. One Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Hedberg, who currently result, Hedberg pointed out, was that the line lives in Baltimore and taught history for many years between slave and free shifted to one between black in the Baltimore County Public Schools, was born on and white. Still the law affected relatively few Hooper’s Island in Dorchester County. Her post- people: in 1680, there were 1,611 slaves in retirement research into family history has produced Maryland and servants outnumbered slaves four to a number of books and essays on Hooper’s Island. one.

Ms. Hedberg began her talk by observing that her investigation of slavery on Maryland’s Between 1680 and 1750, the Maryland slave Eastern Shore was “not merely a work of population grew to 43,450, one third of the personal curiosity but of civic and moral population. Many of these slaves came directly responsibility,” inasmuch as studying history in from Africa. Hedberg explained that this greater order to understand the past can also lead to a dependence on slaves reflected the economic better understanding of our present change called The Plantation Revolution that saw circumstances. She structured her lecture the rise of tobacco farming, the need for more and around the stories of six individuals, some sustained labor, and the consequent passage of laws enslaved, some free. “The history of slavery,” that treated slaves as chattel rather than human she said, “is a history of changing relationships beings. Hedberg cited the story of Denby, a slave based on power,” power which varied by time on a plantation in Talbot County who was shot dead and place, so that slavery in Maryland differed when he refused an order, as just one example of from slavery in the deep South. For instance, the level of violence during this era, when planters the first individual she discussed, “Antonio, a meted out “justice” legitimated by eighteenth- Negro” in colonial records, could have been TURFA Executive Committee Tracy Miller, President * Ron Matlon, Present-Elect * Fran Bond, Past President Jane Wolfson, Secretary * Ray Castaldi, Treasurer * Peg Benner, Representative at Large * Jim Paulsen, Representative at Large Committee Chairs Programs and Events, Donna Cox & Jim Paulsen * Scholarship, David Larkin * Oral History Project, Don Forester * Newsletter, Florence Newman 3 century doctrines about the inferiority and century laws designed to keep manumitted slaves in deficient rationality of blacks. their place, which prevented blacks from voting, By the time of the American Revolution, giving evidence against whites, or own a firearm or tobacco farming in Maryland had given way to a dog. Free blacks from other states were mixed farming, which did not require year- prohibited from entering Maryland, and the round labor, and slaves ceased to be essential to Maryland State Legislature, Hedberg noted, rejected the economy. Hedberg pointed out that at the the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the same time the antislavery movement was Constitution, those which grant citizenship to all gaining strength, based on the argument that persons born in the U.S. and confer on those slavery was incompatible with the ideals of citizens the right to vote. The two-caste system of American freedom and with Christian blacks and whites on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, belief. Hedberg discovered that between 1727- according to Hedberg, persisted into the twentieth 1826 over 300 slaves were manumitted in century. Dorchester County, some of whom went on to Ms. Hedberg concluded her talk by quoting purchase land there and farm it. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama: “A clear-eyed view of manumission was but one response to the history can make us problem of surplus slaves: another was selling uncomfortable.” Hedberg acknowledged that her slaves south to plantations in Georgia and own eyes had been opened by researching her book, Mississippi where conditions for slaves were which began with delving into her own family’s even harsher. Families were cruelly separated, past on Hooper’s Island. Following her formal a point Simmons underscored with the story of presentation, she entertained questions ranging from the Rosses, who were first dispersed to different whether she favored reparations for the descendants plantations on the Shore, then some of them of slaves (it’s complicated) to whether her family’s sold south by their owner. Slaves escaped in slave-owning past was obscured in the records (no) greater numbers than ever before, and one of to how her book was being received on the Eastern the Ross sisters, Araminta, fled up Shore (quite well among historical societies, less so the Choptank River, only to return later to lead among local bookstore owners). President Miller others to freedom. Under the thanked Hedberg for presenting to TURFA and name Araminta chose for herself, Harriet encouraged audience members to buy her book, an Tubman, she became the legendary exhortation many took to heart, “Moses of her people” on the Underground since Hedberg remained afterward signing Railroad. purchased copies until her supply of books ran out.

Oral History Update

Don Forester

The TURFA Oral History Project had a productive late Fall and early Spring. In November, with support from the College of Business and Economics (CBE) we were able to complete an interview with Ray Castaldi (Accounting). That interview is now available for viewing in the Over thirty years, from 1790 to 1810, the University Archives. To view this and other videos percentage of free blacks on the Eastern Shore in the collection search “Libraries.towson.edu”. from 7% to 23%. Free blacks were never fully Scroll down to “Special Collections” and select integrated on the Eastern Shore, “TURFA Oral History Project.” however, Hedberg said, pointing to nineteenth-

George Hahn and Don Forester (interviewer) Annette Chappel and Ray Castaldi (interviewer)

In January, with funding from the TURFA Note: Due to disruptions caused by the membership and the College of Liberal Arts COVID-19 virus pandemic, the TURFA Oral (CLA), three additional oral histories were History Project has been placed on hold, but we recorded: (1) Annette Chappell (English), (2) Jo- hope to continue filming once classes resume in Ann Pilardi (Philosophy and Women’s Studies) the fall of 2020. If you wish to support future and (3) George Hahn (English). All three had long oral histories, you may do so by sending a check and distinguished careers at TU beginning in the to the TURFA account in the University mid-1960s and early-1970s and continuing, in the Foundation (be sure to indicate “Oral History case of George Hahn, until the current semester Project” in the subject line).

(55 years). TURFA Elections to Be Conducted Online

Because of the postponement of the Faculty Brunch on June12, TURFA will conduct the 2020-2021 elections of Executive Committee officers electronically. The Nominating Committee has made the following recommendations for 2020-2021 candidates: President-Elect: Jane Wolfson (2020- 2021) (President 2021-2022) Member-at-Large: (2020-2022) Jim Di Jo-Ann Pilardi and Peg Benner (interviewer) Lisio and Tom Maronick. Vote for one. TURFA Representative to University The University Archives is in the process of Academic Senate (2020-2021): Martha Siegel. transferring its electronic collections to a new on- Alternate to TURFA Representative to line location, and so the CLA videos will not be University Academic Senate (2020-2021): Jim accessible until later in the semester. In the Anthony and Jim DiLisio. Vote for One. meantime, the plan is to make them available TURFA members may send additional through YouTube. For the link, check the Archives nominations to Fran Bond by April 25. Include Website (Libraries.towson.edu). the nominee’s name and position of interest. In May, an email will be sent to TURFA members in good standing with information about the candidates and a ballot to return to the Provost’s Office electronically.

she retired from Towson after 32 years.

on Fran Bond

It would take three other people to accomplish what Frances Bond has over the course of her long, varied, and distinguished career. And she’s nowhere near done yet. It all began with her deep interest in how young children learn, which led her to an undergraduate major in Early Childhood Education at Towson State College, followed by a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology and Elementary Education: she was the very first student to graduate in Elementary Education from Towson because, as Yes, just when most of us would be she says with a smile, the seven students in her putting our feet up and relaxing at the prospect of class crossed the stage in alphabetical order. carefree days ahead, Fran Bond joined the Peace Teaching the children of faculty and staff at Lida Corps. To be precise, she became the Associate Lee Tall Laboratory School, where she was able Director of the Peace Corps Fellows Program, to put into effect her ideas about the importance of which arranged for returning volunteers to study creativity and hands-on learning, satisfied to some in colleges and universities nationwide. She extent Bond’s original calling, but, she says, “I moved to DC, where her colleagues included wasn’t through learning yet.” Even as she was politicians and statesmen like Sargent Shriver, promoted to supervising student teachers at Lida who developed the idea for the Peace Corps. Lee (“the best of both worlds: teaching adults and When the Director of the program stepped down, being around children”), Bond earned a Ph.D. in Dr. Bond took his place. She was invited by the Human Development, Guidance and Counseling, Peace Corps Director to train volunteers in and Research Methodology from the University of Romania, Nepal, Kazakhstan, New Dehli, and Maryland, College Park. She continued on the Tashkent. After five years with the Peace Corps, College of Education faculty, teaching Bond . . . (wait for it) . . .received a presidential undergraduate and graduate courses, prior to appointment as Special Assistant to the U.S. becoming the Chair of Early Education in 1974. Secretary of Education (you thought I was going Under her administration, the program was to say she finally became a lady of leisure, didn’t recognized by the Middle States review team for you?). In her new capacity, she promoted program innovation, and Bond was named by prekindergarten programs throughout the students as Outstanding Teacher of the year and country and coordinated the federal work-study Outstanding Teacher of Adult Learners. Dr. Bond program America Reads. (The need for early took the next step in her academic career when she education, on which she lectured in various served as Associate Dean of the College of places, “was not an easy sell,” Bond says, given Education. One of her initiatives in that position the attitude of some parents that public was establishing a student teaching abroad prekindergarten amounted to the government program and faculty exchange program with “taking” their children.) Professionally, Bond institutions in the United Kingdom—a seeming had apparently come around again to her deep prelude to her second career, which started when interest in the education of young children.

Except that she had never really abandoned the Maryland Senior Citizens Hall of Fame, and has that interest—which brings us to Bond’s been selected to receive the prestigious GERI Award, third career, the first part of which took place the highest honor given for extraordinary humanitarian simultaneously with her first. community service to seniors in Maryland. Bond’s While teaching full time at Towson, Dr. commitment to young children continues as well, now Bond proposed to Baltimore County Public from the perspective of a grandparent. She has written Schools a television series for parents of young over 25 articles on grandparenting for the Senior children, to be aired on Baltimore County Public Digest and given talks at Baltimore County Senior School’s Educational Channel. Bond wrote and Centers on such topics as “Communicating with Your co-produced 32 half-hour segments for the Grandchildren,” “Having Fun with Grandchildren,” program, called First and “What’s So Fun About Steps, which was filmed on site at locations such Grandparenting.” Asked what guidance she as the Maryland Science Center, featured would offer TU retirees who are grandparents, conversations with teachers, parents, she recommends making an effort to stay pediatricians, and experts on child development, connected by, for instance, sending photos and and addressed issues of concern to parents such as visiting when possible. And, of course, the #1 instilling values, preparing children for Rule of her “10 Rules about Grandparenting”: kindergarten, and encouraging a lifetime love of “Don’t give advice to your adult children about learning. The content, Bond observes, “is still as parenting unless they ask for it—and, even then, timeless today as it was then.” The videos were proceed with caution.” distributed to Baltimore County schools and sold to childcare centers and schools more generally. Bond produced First Steps over the course of ten Programs and Events: TURFA years while her own children were growing up: “It Finds Fulfillment at Amazon and was so much fun.” Given her media experience, it should come as no surprise that when Bond later Elsewhere left the federal administration, she took the job of Director of Professional Development for the Jim Paulsen and Janet DeLany Ready to Learn program, developing curriculum and outreach material for PBS Kids programs and overseeing the implementation of the curriculum in PBS stations nationwide. After three years with PBS, Bond (no, she didn’t take an extended vacation) returned to teaching part-time at Stevenson University for another six years. Since then, Dr. Bond has volunteered with numerous organizations, committees, and boards, including TURFA and Villa Assumpta School Sisters, where she chairs the social action committee on human trafficking (Maryland, she notes, is the ninth highest state in the U.S. for human trafficking, owing to its location on the I- 95 corridor and the proximity of casinos). Bond On the evening of Dec. 10, also collects clothing monthly for TURN 2019, TURFA members were treated to an AROUND, a non-profit organization helping exciting basketball game between the TU Tigers abused women. “I get worried when I don’t have and the UMBC Retrievers. TURFA something to do,” she explains. Her professional hosted retired faculty from UMBC at a and volunteer work has not gone unrecognized: in reception in the SECU Hospitality area before the last five years, she has received the Spirit of the game. The game was a fast-paced thriller Towson University Award, has been inducted into between teams fairly evenly matched with the TURFA Executive Committee Tracy Miller, President * Ron Matlon, Present-Elect * Fran Bond, Past President Jane Wolfson, Secretary * Ray Castaldi, Treasurer * Peg Benner, Representative at Large * Jim Paulsen, Representative at Large Committee Chairs Programs and Events, Donna Cox & Jim Paulsen * Scholarship, David Larkin * Oral History Project, Don Forester * Newsletter, Florence Newman 7

lead score changing multiple times throughout sued over a statement she made disputing the the game. Ultimately the Tigers edged out the work of an English Holocaust denier and had to Retrievers within the last two minutes of the move to England to participate in a long, very game. A great time was had by all who came out involved trial, the story of which is shown in the to this event. movie Denial. She was to speak at a synagogue On Feb. 21, eighteen members of in Baltimore in February, but the talk was TURFA, including some spouses, attended a cancelled due to the pandemic. fantastic free tour of the Amazon Fulfillment Early April and May, the group will be Center at 2010 Broening Highway. Everyone on discussing the Pulitzer Prize winner by Isabel the tour was blown away by the experience. This Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The place is an amazing example of organization and Epic Story of America's Great Migration. computer genius. The handling Focusing on three people's lives, Wilkerson of packages and the robotic movement of objects goes into great detail about the cause of the is absolutely brilliant. Furthermore, the tour Great Migration: the degrading and terrifying guide was quite knowledgeable and informative; experiences of black Americans in the South she answered a myriad of questions from our during the Jim Crow era. She then reports on members. At the end of the tour, we all left with the surprises, good and bad, that awaited them two gifts and a better knowledge of how Amazon after they moved North. It's a long book, so manages to deliver so many packages to so many we're discussing it in two parts: first half in people in such a short time. April, 2020; second half in May 2020. On Feb.28, a small group of TURFA members visited the Hackerman Place at the Walters Art Museum. Robert Hansen, retired Mathematics faculty member, served as docent, guiding a tour of the recently renovated first floor rooms. It was a fascinating journey through the history of this beautiful historical building.

Since the last event, the TURFA Programs and Events Committee has (pending) plans to visit the following:

1) Walters Art Museum special exhibition 2) Ladew Topiary Gardens 3) Baltimore County Bird Walk 4) Boordy Vineyards 5) Theatre production by TU Theater Dept. 6) Panel discussion concerning the Arts in Baltimore

7) Visit to the Mormon Temple For Wilkerson’s book, we'll have virtual meetings via Zoom. We had a test meeting TURFA Nonfiction Book Group last week to familiarize ourselves with Zoom. Jo-Ann Pilardi I asked Retired Librarian Yvonne Lev, one of our members, if she knew how to set one up, Last month the group discussed Deborah and she graciously came through for us. April Lipstadt's Antisemitism Here and Now. Lipstadt 2 will be our first meeting on the book. If you is well known in the field of Jewish history, are eager to remain intellectually and especially Holocaust Studies. She was famously interpersonally engaged during this period of

social isolation, please consider joining the Fruchtman pointed out, prosecuted more people TURFA nonfiction book club. You can under the 1917 Espionage Act than did all contact me at [email protected]. previous presidents combined.

TURFA Talk: Prof. Jack According to Dr. Fruchtman, we need to view President Trump against this background Fruchtman on Presidential when he declares, “I have the right to do Power whatever I want to do as president.” Alexander Florence Newman Hamilton anticipated all the problems we see today with the executive branch, Fruchtman On November 1, Jack Fruchtman of said: impeachment is the one remedy granted the TU Political Science Department Congress to remove from office a president who delivered a talk titled “Presidential Power has abused the power of the presidency. As and the Impeachment Inquiry” to a large, with other portions of the U.S. Constitution, highly engaged audience of TURFA however, the language of the impeachment members, active faculty, and students. He clauses is “vague” and “non-self-defining,” began with an historical review of especially the phrase “other High Crimes and presidential authority in relation to the other Misdemeanors.” Fruchtman analyzed the three branches of government from the time of previous cases in which Congress raised articles the Founding Fathers through the twentieth of impeachment against a president: Andrew century, using slides picturing key figures in Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. In no historical events, quoting from the case was the president impeached by Congress: Constitution and other public documents, votes on articles of impeachment against and listing important dates and ideas. Johnson and Clinton failed in the Senate, and Fruchtman moved on to note how George Nixon resigned after the evidence was W. Bush’s vice presidential selection of assembled but before a vote could be taken. Dick Cheney, with his doctrine of the Both Nixon and Clinton were charged with unilateral executive, as well as Bush’s obstruction of justice; Clinton was also accused response to 9/11 (the authorization of of perjury in his depositions by the Office of attacks on Afghanistan, the USA Patriot Independent Council before a secret grand jury. Act, the opening of the Guantanamo Detention Center) led to expansion of executive power. The accruing of power by the White House continued during the Obama administration, Fruchtman pointed out, as the president circumvented the Republican Congress by issuing executives orders. Extreme rendition of suspected terrorists, drone strikes, military action on Libya all exemplify the growing reach of the executive branch of the American government, unchecked by the legislative or judicial branches. As presidential power— and, arguably, abuses of that power—have grown, so has whistle-blowing by people such as Bradley/Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, who released classified documents to the public in order to raise the curtain on U.S. policies and practices meant Fruchtman then went on to review the to remain clandestine. President Obama, events underlying the current impeachment TURFA Executive Committee Tracy Miller, President * Ron Matlon, Present-Elect * Fran Bond, Past President Jane Wolfson, Secretary * Ray Castaldi, Treasurer * Peg Benner, Representative at Large * Jim Paulsen, Representative at Large Committee Chairs Programs and Events, Donna Cox & Jim Paulsen * Scholarship, David Larkin * Oral History Project, Don Forester * Newsletter, Florence Newman 9

inquiry into the actions of President Trump. obstruction of Congress in the Ukraine Carefully avoiding any definitive opinion of investigation, and abuse of power with respect his own, Dr. Fruchtman raised the crucial to Ukraine. Whatever the outcome of the questions about the transcript of Trump’s impeachment inquiry, Dr. Fruchtman observed, phone call with Ukraine’s President Trump’s belief in his limitless powers raises the Zelenski (“Is he asking the president of a question “Where does it end?” : “Those who foreign country to intervene in a U.S. follow this president will also claim the same election? Or is he just asking him to powers to do anything.” Fruchtman concluded investigate corruption?”) and about the that “we are at a formative moment in American involvement of Rudy Giuliani, Rick Perry, politics, weighing presidential authority and its and Gordon Sondland in Ukraine (“Are they extent against the sovereignty of the American engaged in non-official foreign policy people to be free from foreign interference,” circumventing ordinary diplomatic Throughout Prof. Fruchtman’s talk, there channels?”). The current impeachment was considerable back and forth, with inquiry seeks to answer such questions, comments and questions from a clearly well- following procedure much like those of informed audience, often with laughter at the previous impeachment trials, with Trump or speaker’s ironic humor. The same energetic his lawyers given access to all materials and engagement continued when Fruchtman invited being allowed to attend hearings, present questions after his presentation. When, after an independent evidence, ask questions, and hour and a half, Fruchtman stated that he should object to witnesses’ testimony. Given that probably end, even though he had more the Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely material, someone interjected, “No, go on!” and to vote to impeach the president, Dr. others echoed that eagerness to hear more about Fruchtman proposed that a Congressional this controversial and important topic. censure of the president—a formal statement that the presidents’ actions were wrong—might be more feasible and Research and Scholarship Grants potentially more damaging. Available

TURFA is pleased to announce that is has secured a small but significant amount of funds that we can use to fund grants to support TURFA member’s scholarly activity. Examples of the kinds of expenses that TURFA is interested in supporting are travel expenses and registration fees to meetings, page costs and expenses incurred in publishing research and scholarship articles, supplies and equipment associated with a project. These grants while small are a recognition of the value TURFA and Towson University place on the contribution retired faculty continue to make to University Setting aside that option, Fruchtman community and to society at large. More listed the possible articles of impeachment information on these grants and how to apply against President Trump, including can be found on the TURFA obstruction of justice in the Russian website https://www.towson.edu/retiredfaculty/ investigation undertaken by Robert Mueller, (Grants and Scholarships)

In Memoriam English Department in 1966 after teaching at the University of Minnesota and West Chester University. He specialized in the Joseph Briscuto, Department of Music, literature of the American South, Mar. 1, 2020. Dr. Briscuto earned a bachelor’s particularly the work of William Faulkner. degree in music from the St. Louis Institute of An avid sports fan, Prof. Friedman Music, followed by two Master’s degrees from developed a course in Sports Writing while MillikinUniversity in woodwinds and music at Towson and continued to follow his education. He received his Ph.D. in music favorite teams, including the Duke Blue education from the University of Iowa and, after Devils and Philadelphia Eagles, even after teaching elementary, junior high, and high he and his wife, Karen Blair, retired to school, joined the Towson University music Troy, a small rural town in North Carolina. faculty, teaching saxophone and music Dr. Friedman served as Acting education. “Joe was a terrific saxophone English Department Chair, CLA player—world-class—without a doubt, and I’m representative to the University Senate, and not exaggerating when I say that,” said David President of the AAUP/Faculty Marchand, a longtime friend and colleague and Association, He received two teaching chair of the TU Music Department for many excellence awards from the SGA, as well as years. “He was also a terrific teacher and of a the President’s Award for Distinguished faculty of 60, one of the top three or four.” Service to the University. His colleague His former student Stephen Holmes Carl Behm says of him, “George combined observes that Prof. Briscuto’s students “are now brilliance and humor in a way that most of scattered over the state and country and they are us could only marvel at. No wonder, then, a testament to his talent, gift for teaching, and that students loved him and that a generous sense of humor.” Richard Hauf, who classroom in the Liberal Arts Building studied saxophone and music education with bears his name.” Stories of Friedman’s wry Briscuto and, like Holmes, now teaches music sense of humor (described by colleague Jan himself, says, “He shaped me as a person and Wilkotz as “a little deadpan, a little future educator. Not only did he teach me how mocking, a trace of quarrelsome”) are to teach and how to become a better musician, legion. George Hahn, for many years the he taught me how to care for your students.” Dr, English Department Chair, remembers him Briscuto supervised his students’ student not only as “an accomplished teacher and teaching, and Susan Hopkins recalls how, when scholar” but as “an accomplished he came to observe one of his students on a day comedian,” who, as acting department of an assembly, “there was the normal myriad of chair, “with British swagger, marched ‘broken’ instruments to deal with minutes down Linthicum Hall’s second floor as before the concert was supposed to start. Joe classes began and called to professors and took off his jacket and tie and proceeded to fix classes at every open door, ‘Carry on.’” the clarinet and saxophone problems.” Such And when former CLA dean Annette literal hands-on attention to his students’ Chappell was ordained into the success helps explain why, in Dr. Marchand’s Episcopalian priesthood, Jim Dilisio opinion, as a “tough but fair” teacher of future recalls, “with all of the Episcopalian teachers, “there was none better” than Prof. pageantry . . . music, banners waving, Briscuto. bishops in their regalia . . . George leaned over and said to us, ‘In my next life I want George Friedman, Department of to come back as an Episcopalian.’” English, Feb. 1, 2020. Dr. Friedman was a Dr. Friedman honed his skills as a native of Philadelphia and received his B.A. writer in workshops with W.P. Kinsella and from Temple University and his M.A. and Ph.D. Toni Morrison, publishing his own novel, from Duke University. He joined the TU TURFA Executive Committee Tracy Miller, President * Ron Matlon, Present-Elect * Fran Bond, Past President Jane Wolfson, Secretary * Ray Castaldi, Treasurer * Peg Benner, Representative at Large * Jim Paulsen, Representative at Large Committee Chairs Programs and Events, Donna Cox & Jim Paulsen * Scholarship, David Larkin * Oral History Project, Don Forester * Newsletter, Florence Newman

11 Three Years, in 1985. A former student in continued to teach as an adjunct for several Friedman’s Sports Writing course, Glenn years afterward. The Department of Physics, Small, describes him as “a great man and Astronomy, and Geosciences says of him: fabulous teacher” who helped connect him to “As a science educator, Dr. Johnson served his first writing job covering sports for the as an excellent role model; students Towson Times. A few years after graduating, consistently praised his organization, his Small had lunch with Dr. Friedman and patience, his concern for their learning and another Towson English professor, just after general welfare, and the usefulness of the Three Years had come out: “I assured him that knowledge he imparted. All of us valued I would read the book, letting him know that I him as an exceptional instructor and intended to borrow it from a Towson friend. outstanding role model, who inspired ‘Buy the book,’ he implored.” Small admits students to want to teach science better.” that he owes “a debt of gratitude” to Prof. Friedman. So do many others at TU, who, thanks to George Friedman, know that the capital of Vermont is Montpelier.

Robert Johnson, Department of Physics, Astronomy, & Geosciences, Oct. 12, 2019. Dr. Johnson received both his B.S. and Ph.D. in Science Education from Wayne State University and his M.A. in Education Administration from the University of Michigan. He came to Towson University as an Associate Professor in 1969, after serving as an Instructor of Science Education at Wayne State. He delivered and published numerous papers on subjects such as asking the right questions in teaching science, “How does the Child come to Know the World Around Him?,” “Teaching Science to Preschoolers,” and “Wondrous World of Water.” In addition, he revised and edited the textbook Elementary Physical Science published by The Calvert School. At Towson, Dr. Johnson taught lower and upper division courses in Physical Science and Earth Space Science. His interest in science learning by children is reflected in his service as a Judge for the Baltimore Science Fair, his role as a seminar speaker on the Gifted Child in Science sponsored by the Towson Education Department, his service as Assistant Director for the TSU Institute for Gifted and Talented Students, and his position as Director for 5 EESA Externally Funded Grants totaling $50,000 for K-12 in Baltimore County Public Schools. Dr. Johnson retired from full-time teaching in 2003 after 33 years, although he