ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
NEW RIVER VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Three area residents were honored for meritorious service and significant contributions to NRCC during the college's commencement ceremonies on May 10.
Douglas D. Warren, dean of financial and administrative services, received a medallion and the title of Dean Emeritus. He will retire in this month. Warren has been involved with higher education since 1961, when began his career at the New River Vocational-Technical School in Radford, which became NRCC in 1970.
Dorothy L. Talbott and Bonita W. Leathers, both retired faculty members, received medallions and the titles of Faculty Emeritus.
Leathers retired in 1990 as associate professor of accounting. She also started her career at the New River Vocational-Technical School as an instructor of secretarial science.
Talbott began her career at New River in 1974 as an instructional assistant in the Office of Continuing Education. She later became assistant director of continuing education. She retired in 1989 as assistant professor of business.
RADFORD UNIVERSITY
Margaret Bassett, a nursing professor and health care activist at the university, recently was selected as a fellow in international development by the Partners of the Americas in association with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She is one of 20 chosen fellows from across the country.
Partners of the Americas is a private, non-profit organization that links volunteers in 46 U.S. states with 31 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean. During the two-and-a-half-year fellowship, Bassett will be linked with an educator from Brazil.
Joyce L. Graham recently was appointed a member of the Standing Committee on Teacher Preparation and Certification with the National Council of Teachers of English. Graham is an assistant professor of English at Radford University, where she has been since 1991. She received her Ed.D degree in 1991 from Virginia Tech. She taught at Shawsville High School from 1981-1988. She is a resident of Elliston.
VIRGINIA TECH
John Hosner, the founding head of Virginia Tech's College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources, recently received the Forest Landowner of the Year Award. The award recognizes someone who has made major contributions to southern forestry. Hosner is responsible for building the forestry program and steering the school into a college with a full-fledged graduate program.
Two professors from the Department of Dairy Science have been selected for professorships in the university's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The appointments were named by the university's board of visitors and are 10-year appointments.
R. Michael Akers was named the first Horace E. and Elizabeth F. Alphin Professor of Dairy Science. Akers has been a faculty member of the Department of Dairy Science since 1981. Akers is a native of Pulaski County. He now lives in Blacksburg.
Frank C. Gwazdauskas was named as the first David R. and Margaret Lincicome Professor. The professorship will allow him to conduct goat research, teach and conduct extension work in the College. Gwazdauskas has been a resident of Blacksburg and a member of the faculty since 1974.
Paul H. Ribbe, a professor of mineralogy at Virginia Tech, was awarded the 1995 Schlumberger medal by the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The award is the mineralogical society's highest award.
Ribbe teaches in the Department of Geological Sciences at the university, where he has been since 1966. His areas of research are silicate mineralogy and crystallography.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Marine Corps has awarded Victoria R. Fu with a $542,000 grant to fund a project to develop child-care programs and child-care provider training programs for the Marine Corps. Fu is the lead investigator of the project which involves faculty members from the Department of Family and Child Development.
Michael Kosztarab, a retired professor in entomology who lives in Blacksburg, recently finished writing the book Scale Insects of the Northeastern North America. To write the book, Kosztarab used information he has collected for 37 years and visited 19 states, the District of Columbia and four Canadian provinces. Scale insects are tiny creatures that can have devastating effects on fruit, nut and forest trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. In addition to discussing the hundreds of species already known to science, the book introduces 11 species that are described for the first time.
The book is published by the Virginia Museum of Natural History.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Talbott, Leathers, Warren.by CNB