Archived Public Figure Obituaries Prior to Current Year (2010 - 2018) 

Walter Thomas Alsop (1942-2024)

Tom Alsop was born July 27, 1942, in Indianapolis to Russell Alsop and Carolyn (Alberti) Alsop. His Catholic faith informed his philosophy on life, particularly as it relates to his compassion and idealism, which would become essential values in his future teaching career. He attended St. Anthony's Catholic School and Sacred Heart High School before pursuing undergraduate work at Marian College - including a semester at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia - and then a Master's degree at Indiana University. 

Tom's passion, adventurous spirit, and creativity characterized his distinguished professional career, spanning 58 years teaching Spanish at the middle-school, high-school, and college levels, with his longest tenures spent at Ben Davis High School and Butler University. He authored over 350 books and classroom teaching materials, led countless student trips abroad, directed teacher workshops in Spain, Mexico, and Cuba, and served multiple state and national professional language teaching organizations. For his dedication and efforts, he received numerous accolades, including a Rockefeller fellowship, The Nelson Brooks Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Culture, and the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Languages Founders Award for promotion of language learning, leadership, and contribution to the field.

Outside teaching, Tom led an equally full life. He loved music, concerts, and dancing, was an ardent Indianapolis sports fan who reveled in the highs and lows of the Colts and Pacers and had a tremendous enthusiasm for travel. Loyal in support to family, friends, and colleagues, his greatest pleasure was having fun with those who were important to him. Tom was most proud of his three grandchildren, who received his unending praise and attention.

Tom's light will shine on through the many people who had the joy of knowing him, especially his loving family: his wife of 56 years Jill (DeShon) Alsop, his son Dan Alsop, his daughter Nicole Alsop-Arbuckle, his grandchildren Cooper Alsop-Arbuckle, Tristan and Tinsley Alsop, and his siblings Sharon (Alsop) Thiesing, Diane (Alsop) Beal, and Ron Alsop and their families.

Bernard A. Lopez (1951-2024)

The AATSP Metro New York Chapter is saddened to inform its members and friends of the passing of our Chapter President, Mr. Bernard A Lopez.  Below is his obituary, written by his son.
 
With a heavy heart, I share the passing of my beloved father, Bernard Lopez, who left us on July 14, 2024. Born in 1951 and raised in the Bronx, Dad's life was a testament to dedication, love, and the profound impact one person can have on their community.

Dad's journey as an educator began with the inspiration he drew from his high school teachers. He devoted his life to teaching Spanish and Italian at Monsignor Farrell High School, McKee High School, and Taft High School. His passion for education extended beyond the classroom; in the evenings, he dedicated his time to helping first-generation adults in Staten Island earn their GEDs, offering them a chance for a brighter future.

His commitment to education and his community saw him rise through the ranks to become a school administrator, eventually overseeing over 150 schools in Queens as a district administrator. His leadership and vision were instrumental in shaping the educational landscape for countless students and teachers.

Dad's contributions to education were not confined to local schools. For over 15 years, he served as the president of the Metro New York Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), championing the importance of language education and cultural understanding on a national level.

Despite his many professional accomplishments, Dad's greatest joy was his family.

See the rest of this obituary by clicking here.

Joy Renjilian-Burgy (1942-2024)

Joy Renjilian-Burgy, Associate Professor of Spanish (Emerita), Wellesley College, and AATSP Life Member and President (2000), passed away peacefully on January 14, 2024. A beloved teacher, colleague, friend, and mentor, she tirelessly devoted her life to the profession, holding numerous leadership positions: President of the AATSP, Massachusetts Chapter (2012-2022), Co-Chair AATSP Northeast Regional Conferences (2009 and 2019), Chair, Northeast Conference (1992), President, Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (1986), plus leadership roles in ACTFL and NECLAS, to name just a few. In 2008 she received the AATSP Robert Mead Distinguished Leadership Award and in 1994 she received the AATSP Teacher of the Year Award, University Level.

Furthermore, she received numerous other awards for her teaching that include the Harvard University Romance Languages Prize for Excellence in Teaching (1976), Massachusetts Spanish Teacher of the year (1981), Wellesley College Pinansky Teaching Award (1983), and Distinguished Teaching Award, Harvard Extension School (1997). In 2017 she was named Dama de la Orden de Isabel la Católica by His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain.
At Wellesley College she taught all levels of Spanish language, as well as Chicano Literature, Hispanic Literature of the USA, Caribbean Literature and Culture, and Latin American Film. Throughout these courses, she focused on issues of race and class manifested in Hispanic literature that also reverberated in Hispanic art and film. She gave numerous workshops and talks related to her teaching, many of which were on literature and film, especially at AATSP and ACTFL conferences.

Her first book, Album, Cuentos del mundo hispánico, an anthology widely used at both the high school and college levels, was published in 1984 and revised in 1993, 2005 and 2014. She also was the lead author of Caminos (an elementary textbook with ancillaries) published in 1999, 2002, and 2008 and Reflejos (an intermediate level textbook with ancillaries) published in 2004. In addition, she was the co-editor of two volumes of essays: Cambios y conexiones (2012) and Justicia para todos (2022) commemorating AATSP Northeast Regional Conferences hosted at Regis College and Wellesley College, and was co-editor of a number of books published by the Armenian International Women’s Association.
Although most of her teaching was at the college level in Massachusetts, Joy never forgot her formative years as a high school teacher in New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts, in addition to teaching at Wellesley and Harvard (at its undergraduate, extension and education schools), she taught part-time at Tufts University, Boston College, MIT, and Framingham State. She was an amazing, gifted teacher whose students and colleagues adored her and who was able to mobilize and motivate everyone with whom she came in contact, through her dedication to the profession, intelligence, wisdom, creativity, and unending supply of energy. She had a true gift, a “don de gente” which lit up the room wherever she went. She cared about each and every person with whom she came in contact and generously gave her time to help improve each and every life she touched, whether the person was a student, a colleague, a needy neighbor or someone on the street. She was an amazing cook, loved and lived life to the fullest, and had a delightful sense of humor that enriched everything she accomplished.

by Mary-Anne Vetterling

P.S. A lovely online tribute to Joy with videos, stories and lots of pictures can be found at:
https://www.forevermissed.com/joyjoyjoy/about

Crystal Vicente (1973-2023)

The AATSP mourns the loss of longtime member Crystal Vicente. She directed the AATSP Poster Contest from 2009-2022, leading the contest through its 50th Anniversary celebration that was held at the AATSP Annual Conference (San Juan, Puerto Rico). With style and energy, she gracefully embraced the Poster Contest, which grew in stature and participation under her leadership. Vicente was also a former member of the AATSP Board of Directors (K-8 Representative, 2015-2018) and served on the Nominating Committee (2018) among other committees. She taught Spanish for many years at Athens Academy in Athens, Georgia and served as media specialist in the Valdosta City Schools District, Valdosta, GA.

Billie Tarbutton Hulke (1942-2023)

Billie Tarbutton Hulke, born in McAllen, Texas, on April 16, 1942, passed away on October 29, 2023, in Clifton, Texas. Widely recognized for her disciplinary expertise, teaching excellence, and service to the profession, Billie was a loving and beloved teacher, a tireless mentor of former students and those new to the profession, and a valued colleague who upheld the highest standards for classroom teaching and student achievement. Billie earned a B.A. from Baylor University in 1965, changing her major from music to Spanish and English because she was inspired by a great teacher. She completed her M.A. at Monterrey’s Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores. Billie served for decades as a teacher, district-wide program coordinator, and/or department chair at Richfield and Waco high schools and Midway High School. Following her retirement, she traveled nationwide conducting AP language and literature institutes, and in August 2006, Baylor’s Department of Modern Foreign Languages asked her to take a position as a temporary lecturer. She was hired as Permanent Lecturer the following year, and was later promoted to Senior Lecturer. She retired from Baylor in 2019. Billie acted as a consultant for the College Board and was a member of the Texas FLA, ACTFL, AATSP, and the Southwest and Northeast Conferences on Language Teaching. Billie’s colleagues found her to be the consummate professional—thoroughly knowledgeable, principled, innovative, and supportive. Billie was preceded in death by her daughter and parents and is survived by her husband Frank, two sisters, and many nieces and nephews.

For further information, please read her Legacy obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/wacotrib/name/billie-hulke-obituary?id=5351

Written by Elizabeth Moore Willingham, Baylor University

Dr. Enrique Ruiz-Fornells

Dr. Enrique Ruiz-Fornells, age 97, of Tuscaloosa, AL, passed away on March 13, 2023. Dr. Ruiz-Fornells was born December 6, 1925, in Madrid, Spain. He taught at the University of Alabama from 1963 until he retired in 1991 as University Research Professor. He authored and edited 15 books and over 100 articles. He founded the Revista de estudios hispánicos, a literary journal, which he edited for 18 years at the University. He received many national and international awards, including being named Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language in the United States. 

Professor Ruiz-Fornells was an AATSP Life Member since 1981 and received the Distinguished Service Award in 1986. He was a member of the Board of Directors, starting in 1970, prior to his role as President. From 1989-2011 he collaborated with the AATSP and Spain’s Ministry of Culture (Subdirección General del Libro, la Lectura y las Letras Españolas del Ministerio de Cultura) to invite new and notable Spanish authors and filmmakers to present their work at special sessions during the AATSP’s annual conferences. In 2006 at the AATSP Annual Conference in Salamanca, he organized a special tribute to the Real Academia Española and the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. When the Salamanca Chapter of the AATSP was formed, Professor Ruiz-Fornells was named an honorary member. 

Professor Ruiz-Fornells’ indefatigable energy and devotion to the profession were exemplary. He was a visionary leader and a true gentleman whose hard work has contributed to the AATSP’s own longevity and success. In 1976 when he was AATSP’s President, in his observations from Hispania’s “President’s Corner,” Enrique offered advice that is relevant for us today about the importance of Spanish and Portuguese: “Habrá que coincidir con muchos en que las lenguas española y portuguesa por fuerza del elevado número de personas que las hablan en el mundo, su puesto dominante en el mapa lingüístico nacional, y sus literaturas han de tener un lugar destacado en los programas de nuestros centros,” and the need to be adaptable to a changing world: “Luego podemos decir que nuestra asignatura tiene un futuro si sabemos adaptarnos a las necesidades de un mundo cambiante, en que la rapidez con que se suceden las nuevas situaciones hacen que tengamos que estar preparados y alerta para recibirlas.” Hispania 59.3 (1976): 468.

Professor Ruiz-Fornells will be honored posthumously with the 2023 AATSP Lifetime Achievement Award this June at the 105^th AATSP Annual Conference in Salamanca, Spain. 

Kimberly "Kim" Geeslin

Long time AATSP member Kimberly Geeslin passed away unexpectedly of complications from cancer treatment on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. You are invited to read her full obituary here.

Mario Fierros

Mario Fierros, former Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (SHH) Director and long-time AATSP member, passed away peacefully in his home December 25, 2022, at the age of 96. Mario was very proud to have served as the national director of the SHH from 1990 to 1996, after having previously served as President and Vice President. He led the organization with remarkable dedication during a time when the SHH experienced tremendous growth. Outside of teaching, he always enjoyed classical music, traveling, gardening, stamp collecting, photography, cooking his famous pozole, and family. To read Fierros’s full obituary, click here.

Photo reprinted with the permission of the Hinsdale Humane Society.

Marilynn Pavlik

Marilynn Pavlik passed away in March of 2022. She was a Spanish teacher at Lyons Township High School in Illinois for most of her career. She joined the AATSP in 1967, and she was active in on many of our committees. At her school, Pavlik administered the National Spanish Examinations and co-sponsored a chapter of the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica for her students. She served as Hispania’s Section Head for Pedagogy: Secondary Schools from 1984-92. Throughout her years as an AATSP member, Pavlik participated and presented at our annual conferences and local/state chapter meetings, including her own Chicago Area AATSP Chapter. She further served the AATSP on the Executive Council (now called the Board of Directors) from 1987-89 and 1995-97, including as President of the association in 1996. Beyond the AATSP, Pavlik was an active member of ACTFL and ICTFL (Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages). Lyons Township High School named her Distinguished Teacher of the Year in 1988. 

Cynthia Sue Young Ruiz-Fornells

(1931-2021)

Cynthia hizo del español, desde muy temprana edad, el eje de vida, estudios y carrera. Al terminar sus estudios en la Universidad de Alabama trabajó en el Departamento de Estado en la Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Madrid, enseñó español en la Universidad de Alabama y durante varios años orientó a los estudiantes interesados en seguir cursos en el extranjero desde su puesto en la Oficina de Estudios y Programas Internacionales asimismo de la Universidad de Alabama. Por sus estudios y actividades académicas recibió el máximo honor al integrar la lista de miembros de Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society y fue también miembro de Sigma Delta Pi, AATSP, SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association), AHA (Hispanic Association for the Humanities), ALDEEU (Spanish Professionals in America). Puede obtenerse más información en sus libros The United States and the Spanish World o Forever in My Heart, próximo a publicarse.

Click here to view Cynthia’s obituary in the Tuscaloosa News.

Irving Rothberg

(1921-2020)

Irving Rothberg, a former President and Vice President as well as a  former editor of Hispania and Enlace, passed away on November 28th 2020 surrounded by his family at home in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Click here to read a bio provided by his son, Adam.

Click here to read the full obituary for Irving Rothberg.

Photo by José Gomariz

Ivan A. Schulman

(1931 - 2020)

Click here to read testimonies about Professor Schulman along with his full obituary compiled by Jose Gomariz and Fernando Burgos.

Click here to download a PDF of the complete In Memoriam published in Revista Iberoamericana.

Carlos Alberto Solé

(1935 - 2020)

Carlos Alberto Sole Jr., Professor Emeritus in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin, passed away on January 7, 2020 at his home in Houston, Texas. 

Click here to read his full obituary written by Elizabeth Willingham.

Vernon A. Chamberlin

(1924 - 2020)

The distinguished scholar of 19^th century Spanish literature, Vernon Chamberlin, died at age 95 on January 25, 2020. At the time of his death he was Professor of Spanish Emeritus at the University of Kansas. Vernon received his BA from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas and his MA and PhD from the University of Kansas. His dissertation, written under William Shoemaker, was on blind characters in the novels of Galdós. Before his definitive arrival at the University of Kansas, Vernon had taught in public and private high schools, at UCLA, and at Oklahoma State University.

Vernon was the author of the books Galdós and Beethoven: Fortunata y Jacinta: A Symphonic Novel (Tamesis) and the retrospective “The Perils of Interpreting Fortunata’s Dream”and Other Studies in Galdós (Juan de la Cuesta). He co-authored (with William Bull) Clarín: The Critic in Action (Oklahoma State UP) and (with Iván Schulman) La Revista Ilustrada de Nueva York: History, Anthology and Index of Literary Selections (U of Missouri P). Vernon was an internationally known interpreter of Galdós. He published some 100 articles and as many reviews on Galdós and his contemporaries: Pardo Bazán, Clarín, Valera, Pereda, Blasco Ibáñez, and Palacio Valdés. His principal focuses were name, color, and animal symbolism; word plays; novelistic structure; dreams; and the relationship between fiction and music. Knowing both German and Russian, he published various articles and reviews of German and Russian books on Galdós. He was for a time book review editor of Anales Galdosianos. He was editor of the 1970 monographic number of Hispania dedicated to Galdós. Though much of his work involved Galdós’s novelas contemporáneas, in his final years he also was publishing studies on the late episodios nacionales. His final study appeared in 2019, but he was working on others. A book chapter is soon to appear.

Vernon was a gentle, patient (and very often humorous) man who loved his wife and family, vacationing often in the mountains of Colorado. The hobby he shared with his wife Marilyn was compiling family genealogies. He spent countless hours each week in the library, but he made time for church and civic involvement. His students found him easy to get along with, but he was insistent upon the need for rigorously used bibliographies. He did not tolerate a student “going it alone” or basing an argument on textually unsubstantiated hunches. He always patiently outlined things and searched for the evidence before he wrote. Honesty was his watchword. He was not ashamed of asking for help, and he had the kindness to acknowledge his helpers in his published studies. After his own students graduated, he took an interest in their work and helped them with sources if they asked him. He was not afraid to tell you if your ideas seemed wrong, but he did not berate you for your lack of knowledge. He soon became the true friend that you wanted to work with.

Written by Tom Franz, Ohio University

Dr. Robert Cabat

Click here to read Dr. Cabat's full obituary. 

Dr. James Ray Chatham

(11 November 1931 - 12 August 2019)

Dr. James Ray Chatham, 87, passed away on Monday, August 12, 2019.  A Memorial Service will be 2pm Thursday, August 15, 2019, at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, 105 N. Montgomery St, Starkville, MS 39759.

James Ray Chatham was born in Caryville, FL on November 11, 1931, to Clifton Lee Chatham and Sadie Mae McMinn Chatham.  He was a parishioner at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Starkville, MS. 

Dr. Chatham was department head of Foreign languages at Mississippi State University from 1964-1983 and Executive Director at The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese from 1984-1993.  After his retirement he taught at MUW in Columbus and EMCC for many years. 

He enjoyed taking walks, seeing the beauty of large bodies of water and watching birds.

Survivors include his daughter, Stephanie (Joey) Engelman; sister, Joyce Purdue; grandchildren, Amanda Allen, Sarah (Tyler) Weeks and Alexander Allen; and several nieces and nephews and a host of friends.  He was preceded in death by his wife, Nina McCoy Chatham; parents, Clifton and Sadie Chatham and brothers, Phillip Chatham and Thomas Chatham. 

Click here for service details. 

Click here to read the obituary posted by Mark del Mastro of Sigma Delta Pi