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Spring 2024

WSU faculty

Spring 2004

Late history professor, chairman was popular with students, faculty peers

Raymond Muse became a teacher at the urging of his father, a farmer in the Ozarks, who didn’t want to see his son spend the rest of his life “looking at the hind end of a team of mules.”

During more than three decades at Washington State University, the history professor earned “favorite teacher” status from thousands of students. Faculty peers praised his leadership. His tenure as chairman was the longest in the department (1956-79).

Muse died October 28, 2003 in San Diego after a long illness. He was 88.

His teaching career began at age 18 in a rural one-room school, not far from … » More …

Fall 2005

A life of science and beauty: 1953–2005

We were all stunned and saddened by the death, from an aneurysm, of Vincent Franceschi. The director of both the School of Biological Sciences and the Electron Microscopy Center, Franceschi built a rich and diverse career in his 52 years. As a plant cell biologist, he worked on structure-function relationships in plants. Microscopy was a major tool in his work, and the beauty that he recorded of the microscopic plant world will remind us of his skill and perception.

 

Click here for more on Franceschi.

Click here for an article by Franceschi about plant microscopyin … » More …

Fall 2005

Thinking about Washington State

Adapted from a talk the author delivered April 2005, upon receiving the Washington State University Eminent Faculty Award.

I am honored, pleased, and humbled by the recognition that has been bestowed upon me. I’d like to take this time to share some thoughts with you.

First I want to tell you about the nature of science. Newton said it best: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” What is true for Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest physicists of all times, is certainly true for a physicist with significantly fewer accomplishments. The shock wave research effort at … » More …

Fall 2009

WSU Presidents—An evening of honors

In late June nearly 200 people gathered to recognize Washington State University’s presidents emeriti Glenn Terrell (1967–1985), Sam Smith (1985–2000), and V. Lane Rawlins (2000–2007). The event kicked off a fundraising effort for need-based scholarships for students who might have to drop out of school because of tuition hikes and the poor economy.

Welcoming the crowd to the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, WSU President Elson S. Floyd said he seized the opportunity to get all the presidents together, “so that we could say hello, share stories, and have some photos taken together.”

“These were dedicated men,” said Rawlins of his fellow presidents. “During their tenure … » More …

Spring 2009

Wallis Beasley, 92 – Sociologist, administrator, interim WSU president

From young faculty member to acting president, Wallis Beasley had a profound influence on the direction of Washington State University.

Beasley died at age 92 of age-related causes at Bishop Place in Pullman on May 20, 2008.

He was born in Red Bay, Alabama, on October 8, 1915, the youngest of seven children born to J. T. and Emma Shamblin Beasley. He attended Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, where he met Totsie Smith, whom he married. They had more than 40 years together.

After serving for a brief time as a minister of the Church of Christ, he enrolled at Peabody University in Nashville, … » More …

Fall 2002

An expert on human evolution, a long-distance driver

Grover S. Krantz, world-renowned anthropologist and longtime Washington State University professor, died on February 14, 2002 in Port Angeles, Washington after an  eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Professor Krantz, or Grover, as everyone knew him, was born November 5, 1931, in Salt Lake City. He obtained a B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

After receiving his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 1968, Grover came to the Department of Anthropology at WSU in 1968. When he came to Pullman, Grover planned to spend a “couple of years at WSU.” Those couple of years turned into 30, until he … » More …

Fall 2002

Alex Kuo wins American Book Award

Alex Kuo’s Lipstick and Other Stories has won him the honor of the American Book Award. Kuo is Washington State University’s first writer-in-residence and chair of the Comparative American Cultures Program (CAC) and an English department faculty member. “The Peking Cowboy,” a story from the collection, appeared in the Spring 2002 Washington State Magazine.

Kuo teaches Asian American and Native American literatures in the CAC, cultures of the American West in American Studies, and creative writing in English. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship and grants from the United Nations and the Idaho Commission for the Arts for background … » More …

Spring 2002

Robert Bates named University provost

For starters, alumnus Robert C. Bates wants to get reacquainted with Washington State University, its goals, and needs “so we can work together to make this fine institution even better.”

Bates began his duties as new provost and academic vice president in January. He is responsible for all academic issues, ensuring the excellence of WSU programs. His early plans, he said, include meeting with students, faculty, staff, and administrators throughout the state to become familiar with all aspects of the University’s land-grant mission.

The longtime administrator at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was the clear choice in the national search to fill the provost’s … » More …

Spring 2002

Maloney honored for contributions to wood materials engineering

Growing up in the mill town of Raymond, Washington, alumnus Thomas M. Maloney may have been destined to wind up in the wood products industry. In fact, he spent his entire professional career at Washington State University working with wood.

Now professor emeritus, Maloney was director of the Wood Materials Engineering Laboratory in the College of Engineering and Architecture from 1972 until 1996. Last summer, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the International Society of Wood Science and Technology for his “extraordinary career contributions to the wood science and technology profession.”

Earning a degree in industrial arts at Washington State in 1956, Maloney led … » More …