The University of Rhode Island recently celebrated the decades-long careers of 10 retired employees who all worked at least 40 years at the school.
The Lifetime Service Society held its induction ceremony in September, and honorees received a commemorative brick engraved with their names and years of service, as well as citations on behalf of Gov. Gina Raimondo, as well as members of the Rhode Island State Senate and House of Representatives.
University of Rhode Island President David M. Dooley said the Lifetime Service Society has inducted more than 125 members since its inception in 2013, and he thanked the newest members for their dedication.
“At URI, we talk about building a vibrant and inclusive community. One way to achieve such a goal is to have faculty, staff and administrators who are dedicated to serving the University with their talent and energy,” he said. “Those we honor here today have brought their skills, commitment and sacrifice to the University not just for years, but for decades. And we are better for it.”
Among this year’s inductees are:
Charles Collyer, of Westminster, Md., professor of psychology, 40 years
Edward Durbin, of Sarasota, Fla., professor of oceanography, 40 years
Norman Finizio, of Westerly, professor of mathematics, 55 years
Linda Hufnagel, of Narragansett, professor of biology, 42 years
Gabrielle Kass-Simon, of Warwick, professor neuroscience, 43 years
Sharon Kirk, of Wakefield, Enrollment Services information technologist, 40 years
Albert Martin, of Wakefield, Graduate School of Oceanography building superintendent, 42 years
John Peterson, of Kingston, professor of psychology, 52 years
Gary Richman, of Exeter, professor of art, 49 years
George Willis, of Wakefield, professor of education, 45 years
Charles Collyer, Professor of Psychology
Collyer earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton University in 1976. He has had a 40-year career in the Department of Psychology at URI, which he joined in 1976. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1981 and full professor in 1991. He served as chair of the Department of Psychology from 1996–2000, and again from 2013–2014. Professor Collyer is nationally recognized for his expertise and leadership in perception and cognitive psychology as well as sensitivity to violence and harm reduction. He co-founded the URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies in 1997. He is an outstanding, award-winning teacher, beloved by both undergraduate and graduate students. He has collaborated on numerous grants and has published more than 50 research papers, many in highly prestigious journals. Collyer is a fellow in the teaching division of the American Psychological Association and has served in numerous leadership and service positions at URI, in the community, and in his profession.
Edward Durbin, Professor of Oceanography
Durbin earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from Auckland University in New Zealand and his Ph.D. from URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Durbin was appointed research associate in 1976, supported by a National Science Foundation grant he received with his late wife, Ann Gall Durbin. He became an assistant professor at GSO in 1980, an associate professor in 1982, and a professor in 1993 and has carried out a diverse research program ($11.87 million received). Most recently he was the lead investigator on a large research program to the West Antarctic Peninsula supported by the NSF. Both graduate and undergraduate students participated on the cruises. He is presently submitting a proposal with investigators from four institutions to continue this research.
Norman Finizio, Professor of Mathematics
Finizio enrolled as a freshman at URI in September 1956. He received his Bachelor of Science in 1960, his Master of Science in 1962, then commenced his 56-year URI teaching career. Professor Finizio has taught more than 10,000 students. He served as chair of the Mathematics Department for three years, faculty senator for nine years, acting department chair for eight months, chair/member of numerous university and departmental committees, and was major professor to six mathematics Ph.D. recipients. A Foundation Fellow of the Institute of Combinatorics and Its Applications, Finizio is author/co-author of more than 100 mathematical publications, including two textbooks and 87 research articles in refereed journals. In 2006, he received the Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Research Award. Professor Finizio earned his Ph.D. in 1972 from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.
Linda Hufnagel, Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology
Hufnagel earned her Bachelor of Science in 1961 and her Master of Science in 1963, both in zoology, from the University of Vermont, and her Ph.D. in biology in 1967 with John R. Preer Jr. and Thomas Anderson at the University of Pennsylvania. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University and academic appointments at Columbia University, Oakland Community College and Wayne State University, she became a lecturer in the Department of Microbiology at URI. She became a professor in 1986. Her research at URI is in the field of molecular and cell biology of Hydra and Tetrahymena. She has published 38 articles and book chapters.
Gabrielle Kass-Simon, Professor of Biological Sciences
Kass-Simon joined URI in 1973. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan, her Master of Arts in English from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Zurich. She did post-doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin. Her multifaceted approach to invertebrate neuroethology employed electrophysiological, behavioral, immuno-histochemical, and biochemical methods. With students and collaborators, she published some 50 papers and numerous conference abstracts, earning national and international recognition. She mentored and trained 23 graduate students and approximately 100 undergraduates. A founding member of URI’s Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, she served on its first executive committee and led the development of its curriculum. She taught courses in neuroscience, physiology, and animal behavior, originating the ethics-oriented Biology and Society seminar. She was active in promoting women in science, co-editing a volume of essays, “Women of Science.” A founding member of URI’s Association for Professional and Academic Women, she served as its first co-coordinator.
Sharon Kirk, Information Technologist
Kirk worked at the University for much of her career in Financial Aid, which later fell under the purview of Enrollment Services. Kirk helped lead the department’s transition from paper to electronic financial aid processing. She was widely regarded to be a subject matter expert as financial aid evolved to become more systems-based. She led the development of PeopleSoft at URI, teaching and assisting her colleagues in Enrollment Services. Kirk was also known to be a student-matter expert. She advocated for students, championed them, mentored them. Students came regularly and often throughout these 40 years to seek her assistance, and to thank her.
Albert Martin, Building Superintendent
Starting his career in December 1973, in what was then called the Physical Plant (now Facilities Services), Al Martin literally made an impact on all of the infrastructure across both the Kingston and Narragansett Campuses in his 43 years of service to the University. Working primarily as a janitor, he also filled in for short periods as both a laborer in Lands & Grounds and also as a Residence Hall Security Officer in Residential Life before transferring to the Graduate School of Oceanography in May 1988. Al was then promoted to senior janitor in 1998 and moved back to Kingston for a short time before returning to GSO to assume the role of principal janitor in 2005. In 2008, he was promoted to building superintendent at GSO where he coordinated the work crews to ensure the science labs, lecture halls, offices and the research vessel Endeavor were all shipshape.
John S. Peterson, Professor of Philosophy
Born in Boston in 1937, Peterson received his Bachelor of Arts in 1959 from Boston College, where he majored in English and minored in philosophy. He served three years as a teaching assistant in the Philosophy Department at Indiana University where he earned his Ph.D. in 1965. In 1963, he became a philosophy instructor at URI, where he remained until 2016. His scholarly work concentrates on scholastic philosophy and, in particular, scholastic metaphysics and epistemology. He has presented scholastic philosophy around the notion of formal identity, arguing in Introduction to Scholastic Realism (New York, Peter Lang, 1999) that knowledge, truth and right action are defined in terms of the relation of conformity and that the latter, in turn, consists in formal identity. In Mind, Truth and Teleology (editiones scholasticae, 2015) he defends teleology in metaphysics, arguing that though practical truth is irreducible to theoretical truth, a common core nonetheless links the two and that is the relation of a thing (in practical truth) or a proposition (in theoretical truth) to its source. In each case the source serves as the end or telos of the thing or proposition, respectively.
Gary Richman, Professor of Art
When Richman started teaching, the art world was shifting away from an entrenched and exclusive marketplace toward emerging new genres that attempted to circumvent the elite gallery system. The medium of artists’ books appealed to him because book artists revered the object but sought to make art available to everyone. He enjoyed creative writing and was trained as a printmaker. Limited edition publishing provided the public with uncensored democratic alternatives. New distribution networks offered him an opportunity to speak to larger audiences. Over the past 50 years, he has published 24 books. He has enjoyed teaching, drawing and relief printmaking, and he has shared his aesthetic beliefs and personal values along the way. He has conveyed his enthusiasm to his students and made a positive impression on his colleagues and a big difference in the lives of those around him.
George Willis, Professor of Education
Willis joined the faculty of URI’s Department of Education as an assistant professor in 1971 after completing his Ph.D. in education and curriculum studies at Johns Hopkins University. He was promoted to associate professor in 1977 and full professor in 1981. He also served as a visiting professor at the Universities of Victoria, British Columbia; Utah; Canberra, Australia; and Yale. Willis’ scholarly work centered on curriculum studies. He authored/co-authored/edited a dozen books, including four editions of Curriculum: Alternative Approaches, Ongoing Issues, which he co-authored with Colin J. Marsh. This book is aimed toward educators and includes critical assessments of both the practice of curriculum development and the entire field of curriculum. In addition, he authored 40 articles and chapters in books and journals including Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educational Leadership, and Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. Willis also authored major reviews of numerous books focused on curriculum development and studies.
For more than 30 years, Willis was an active member of professional associations, including The John Dewey Society, the American Educational Studies Association, Society of the Study of Curriculum History, and the American Educational Research Association, the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. In 2012, he received the American Educational Research Association’s Division B: Curriculum Studies Lifetime Achievement Award.