Dear Colleagues,

With very deep sadness yet joyous remembrance, we write of the passing of our dear colleague and friend, Dr. Clare D. Klunk, on December 5, 2023.  Clare served as President of AAACE, 2010-2011 (including 2009-2010 as President-Elect and 2011-2012 as Immediate Past President), and as Secretary prior to that. In addition to serving as Chair, AAACE Annual Conference, 2011, she also served as Chair of AAACE Conference Proposals for the national conference, 2007 to 2009, Co-Chair, Commission of Workforce and Professional Development (CWPD), Co-Chair, Human Resource Development (HRD) Special Interest Group (SIG), Commission of Professors of Adult Education, 2002 to 2005, and others. Her many contributions to AAACE have received recognitions such as the President’s Achievement Award (2013) and the President’s Appreciation Award (2007). She  also served as a Board of Directors member and Secretary of the Coalition of Lifelong Learning Organizations (COLLO) from 2017 to 2022.

Clare earned her Ph.D. in Human Development (Adult Learning and HRD) at Virginia Tech/Northern Virginia (VT) in 1999, where her dissertation (“Workplace Devaluation:  Learning from experience”) was selected as Outstanding Dissertation, and as the Outstanding Graduate Research Paper Award at the 18th Annual Mid-West Research-to-Practice Conference, University of Missouri, St. Louis, September 1999.  Subsequently, she served with us as a key faculty member at VT, teaching, developing courses, advising students, and chairing doctoral dissertations. In addition, she also developed a partnership with the Northern Virginia Community College for Instructor development in facilitating adult learning in an on-line environment. Among many other positions in her career trajectory, her work with and contributions to the Office of Training and Development of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was recognized with a Merit Award for Outstanding Professional Work and a Leadership and Mentoring Award.
Clare was a very giving spirit, and a memorable example of the meaning of this season, who will be dearly missed. Rest in peace dear colleague and friend.  
Warmest regards, 

Marcie Boucouvalas, Ph.D.                     
Professor Emerita                                     
Virginia Tech/ Northern VA         

Jean Fleming began her career in adult education as a volunteer literacy tutor in 1975 at the Volunteers Clearing House in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She then had the opportunity to serve in a variety of positions in the field, and thus the opportunity to experience and learn about adult education from a variety of perspectives. She went on to become an ABE/GED Program Coordinator, the Education Director for the Boulder County Jail, a state teacher trainer for the Colorado Department of Education, and Executive Director of the Community Technical Skills Center in Denver. She later became an assistant professor of adult education at Ball State University, followed by additional opportunities to serve as a graduate faculty member in both a full-time and adjunct capacity.

Jean received a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology in 1973 and a Master’s Degree in Adult Education in 1975 from Colorado State University, and then her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in 1996 from the University of Northern Colorado.  In 2013, she became a registered nurse and worked as a patient advocate at her local hospital. Since 2015 she served as Executive Director/CEO of Calvert Hospice in Prince Frederick, Maryland, where she worked on a community education initiative focused on developing a continuum of care for the last chapters of life.

Her work in professional associations has also spanned a period of nearly 40 years. She served in every capacity with both the former Colorado Association for Continuing and Adult Education and with the Mountain Plains Adult Education Association. She served on the board of AAACE three times, most recently as President in 2014—2015. Through her life, she remained committed to the vision of the association as the professional home for adult, community, and continuing educators, where both the common purposes and great diversity of the field can be fully supported and honored. Her legacy and impact at AAACE and the field of Adult Education continue to live on. 

Reposted from Richmond-Times Dispatch.

Read Dr. Huey B. Long's obituary.

Reposted from Jones-Gallagher Funeral Home.

In Memory
 Dr. Rosemary Caffarella

Rosemary S. Caffarella, PhD, Professor Emerita of Adult Education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University,  passed away at her home in Ithaca, NY December 30, 2022 after a lengthy illness.  Rosemary was proceeded in death by her husband, Dr. Edward Caffarella, and is survived by daughter, Christy, and two grandsons. Rosemary Caffarella was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame, received the prestigious Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education and has authored or coauthored 14 books including multiple editions of Learning in Adulthood and Planning Programs for Adult Learners.   Rosemary dedicated the later years of her life, from early 2000, to helping women with breast cancer, especially in Malaysia where she collaborated with faculty and staff at the Universiti Putra Malaysia.  She founded the CARE Program of Malaysia in 2003 (now called KanWork - a program to bring awareness about breast cancer).  Rosemary,  along with Drs. Maznah Muhamad, Sharan Merriam and Sandra Daffron, worked tirelessly to advance the fight against breast cancer among Malaysian women. The KanWork program now has hundreds of survivors who continue the work Rosemary started.  Rosemary Caffarella was a pioneer of adult education and unselfishly gave much of her life to our field. She was one of the most caring women in our field and will be sorely missed.

Dr. Cleasther “Cle” Anderson

July 3, 1937-November 8, 2021

On November 8, 2021, Dr. Cleasther “Cle” H. Anderson entered into eternal rest at the age of 84.  Her family called her, “Cle,” “Aunt Cle,” “Mama Cle,” or “Grandma Cle,”  To those of us in the field of adult education like her family, we knew her as “Cle.”  Cle joined the American Association for Adult Continuing Education (AAACE)  where she faithfully served for 18 years as the Association Manager and Director of Membership services.  In addition to this, prior to working with AAACE, she worked for several years at the National Science Foundation; and after her service to AAACE she worked in retail at Forman Mills in the Washington DC area.   

Cle graduated with a Bachelor Science Degree in Business Education from Fort Valley Stat College and continued with extensive graduate students in Guidance and counseling Education at For Valley State College, Fort Valley Georgia, she was crowned as Miss Fort Valley State. After a courageously short battle against cancer, Cle departed from this earth surrounded by her family.  The family shared in her obituary that Cle, “…is the loving wife of Robert S. Anderson for 48 years, the mother of five daughters, the Spiritual adopted mother and mentor of many of all ages.”  She was the founder of “More Than Conquering Women Inc.” author, “Victory in Spite of the Circumstances,” received an Honorary Doctorate in Biblical Studies/Divinity; and was honored as a Woman of Influence in the Prince Georges County Community at a luncheon for Senator C. Anthony Muse. 

I know many of us have very wonderful and loving memories of Cle and her contributions to the field of adult education.   I recall meeting Cle in the early to mid-ninety’s while I was a student at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and served as a member of the Board of Directors during that time. She was always available and willing to serve and provide me with information and assistance as a new Board member.   I know many of you knew her and have fond memories of her, as well as her daughter Krystal who supported and assisted her during the many conferences that Cle managed over the year.   Her spirit  and love for God was ever present in her work and life; and I am very grateful for what she did in AAACE as well as for us.

Submitted by AAACE President Vanessa Sheared

I and many colleagues were sad to learn of the death of a dear colleague Dr Paul Armstrong, on the 31^st May 2020, during the Coronavirus pandemic. Paul was a generous, caring man and colleague. He was always mindful of others, what they said and wrote, and maybe this interest in people and their stories brought him to the life history method to which he made a major academic contribution. More of that in a moment.

Paul Armstrong held a number of posts in university adult education: at Leeds, Hull and Birkbeck College, University of London. He worked in further education too.  At Leeds, he was based at the Middlesbrough Adult Education Centre and contributed to the provision of a varied part-time accredited liberal adult education programme across Teesside and North Yorkshire. He was an inspiring, tireless teacher, for whom students always came first. He tirelessly fought for adult education at Birkbeck, at a time when the Department of Adult Education was struggling, despite the College’s roots being in part-time study for adults. Birkbeck was a place, at least for a while, where adult education was taken seriously as an academic discipline, and this work was close to Paul’s heart.

Paul was a key member of the Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (SCUTREA) for more than 30 years. Here is a contribution to be savoured.  He was SCUTREA’s Chair, Secretary, archivist, communications officer and photographer at various times. He would hire a minivan and transport people to and from rail stations. Nothing was beneath his dignity. Paul, in all these senses, was SCUTREA. He compiled a CD-ROM containing all the papers from SCUTREA conferences over a 25-year period: it sits here on my desk. Old technology, I know, but still of value. It was used by the British Education Index, and the entire collection went online. Paul was also part of the influential Kellogg exchange with colleague adult educators in the USA; and later with Canadian, European and Australian adult educators, using diverse lifelong learning networks. He will be missed by colleagues in the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education as well as by other colleagues across the English speaking world.  

Paul published one of the first systematic accounts of life history as a research methodology in the United Kingdom (Armstrong 1987). What characterises the work was good, even inspiring writing, but also an Annotated Bibliography, encompassing sociology, psychology, feminism as well as adult education. This was characteristically Paul: drawing together a range of resources that others could then exploit. He was a great support to others, like me, who were attracted to the method, and its epistemological as well as methodological assumptions about really worthwhile knowledge. He wrote that ‘the life history is documenting the inner, subjective reality as constructed by individuals themselves, showing how they interpret, understand and define the social world around them, but at the same time, the life history method is able to convey a sense of process (Armstrong, 1987: 8). Of people and lives in movement – like the proverbial adult learner, beginning to see and experience the world in a quite different light – where meanings are made and remade in the company of others. Coming alongside, seriously listening to what is being said, and turning stories into life history – via interpretation and theory – asks a great deal of our humanity, and Paul did all that rather well, as  a thoroughly magnanimous human being.

When I published my first book – Beyond fragments, adults, motivation and higher education, a biographical analysis -  partly born out of frustration at forms of research that most often excluded the human subject  - he was generous in praise. He came to the launch, and remarked to this nervous author, ‘Linden, it is so good to see life history done professionally’. That captures something of Paul, as a man, colleague, adult educator and chronicler of people’s lives. A generosity of spirit and an empathic sensibility for which we owe a great deal. I understand he suffered much from illness in recent years. But his memory, and his life story as an adult educator, will stay with me, as it will countless colleagues. Thankyou Paul for your generosity, and your warm capacity to give and receive from others: the essence of the inspiring adult educator and human being.

Armstrong, P.F. (1987) The life history method in theory and practice. Newland Papers. social and educational research. Hull: School of Adult and Continuing Education.     

Ps I am grateful for some notes produced by Nod Miller, Miriam Zucas and Rebecca O’Rourke in crafting this appreciation. 

Professor Campbell Gibson was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2011 (https://halloffame.outreach.ou.edu/inductions/hof-2011/gibson/). 

by a friend and colleague - John A. Henschke

Alexander N. Charters died on the night of August 7 2018 during his sleep, just a couple of weeks short of his 102nd birthday.  He was one of Adult Education's 'icons'; a very prominent mover, shaker and important force in our field.  He served for a number of years prior to his retirement as Vice-President of Continuing Education at Syracuse University, New York.  Alex was present, active or served as an officer, and visible when any adult education organizations in the USA or around the globe held annual or periodic conferences.  (These included at least:   American Association of Adult and Continuing Education [AAACE], University Professional Continuing Education Association [UPCEA]; Association for Continuing Higher Education [ACHE]; International Society for Comparative Adult Education [ISCAE]; UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning [UIL]  International Council of Adult Education [ICAE]; Commission on International Adult Education [CIAE] of AAACE; Commission of Professors of Adult Education [APCE]; etc.)  My first connections with Alexander was in DC, September 1986, and Hollywood, FL at AAACE in October 1986, when I carried his baggage from one hotel to another, since even back then he had heart problems.  

Dr. Alexander N. Charters’ leaves a most lasting legacy to our field in his “Charters Library in Adult and Continuing Education” at Syracuse University, which has the world’s largest collection of adult and continuing education materials.  Adult Educators from around the globe may research and learn there (with some funding support from Alex and Margaret-his wife) for decades, perhaps centuries to come.

The Field Abundantly thanks you both,                                                                            Alexander and Margaret Charters 

She was born on October 19, 1941 in Columbus, Ohio to the late Charles McLaughlin, Jr. and Emma Marguerite Rubush McLaughlin. The oldest daughter in a family of 6 (later 10) children, she was raised by strict parents on a working family farm in nearby Marysville, Ohio. From an early age, she learned the value of responsibility and hard work, and it was here that she also began her lifelong love of animals. She attended Magnetic Springs High School where she was a drum majorette and graduated as salutatorian. She began her college education at Ohio State University and completed it at Mount Carmel School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio in 1963.

In 1964 she moved to Los Angeles and began working at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, where she opened the first pediatric cardiology ICU in the country-- an accomplishment she considered the highlight of her nursing career. It was there that she met Dr. Donald Buckner, whom she would marry in 1967 in Columbus, Ohio, during which time they both worked at Columbus Children’s Hospital. Prior to her marriage, Marjean converted to Judaism and would remain an active member of her synagogue, Beth David Congregation in Miami, FL, for the remainder of her life. The family then moved to Louisville, Kentucky where she would give birth to 2 sons. In 1973 they moved to Miami, Florida where Don began teaching at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and it was here that, in 1975, they adopted their daughter. In the years that followed, she pursued and completed her Masters and Doctorate in Health Education at Florida State University. Her ensuing career in health education included positions at the University of Miami and as a consultant to the federal government.

Following heart surgery in 1991, she launched her next career in adult education with a focus on English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in the Dade County Public School System. She would go on to lead several of the most prominent national adult education associations, including the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) and the Coalition of Lifelong Learning Organizations (COLLO). In 1996 she suffered a stroke which affected her language abilities. However, using her trademark grit and determination, she worked hard to recover and returned to teaching within a year. Her lifelong commitment to education and her significant contributions to the field of adult education were recognized by her induction into the International Adult and Continuing Education (IACE) Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Iasi, Romania in April 2014.

After retiring from teaching in 2015, she dedicated time to her family, fulfilled her passion for helping animals and cultivated her yard and gardens, which became a Certified Wildlife Habitat. She is survived by her husband Donald, her children David, Michael and Leigh, her granddaughters Julia, Mackenzie and Catherine, her sisters Ila, Mary, Carolyn, Patricia, Eilean and Kay, her brother Jerry, daughter-in-law, Melissa, as well as her 5 beloved cats.

Funeral services will be held on February 22, 2019 at 12 pm at Beth David Congregation with graveside service to follow at Mount Nebo Cemetery (Kendall) at 5900 S.W. 77^th Avenue, Miami, FL 33143. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the American Heart Association and Operation PAW in Miami, FL.

It is with a very heavy heart that I share the sad news of Arthur L. “Butch” Wilson’s passing. Butch unexpectedly crossed over last week due to recent health complications. He was surrounded by his family and close friends. Butch and his wife, Barbara, were enjoying retirement in Lexington, Virgnia, for the last few years. He was exceptionally proud of his daughter, Kaitlin Botts, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Kaitlin and her husband, Chris, have a young daughter, Mia. Being a grandparent was one of Butch’s dearest joys.

Butch’s scholarly contributions to the theory and practice of adult education has been deeply influential. Before retirement, Butch was chair and professor of adult education in the Department of Education at Cornell University. With standards held high, he was dedicated to his students and to the historical and philosophical foundations of adult education. Butch’s research on adult learning and program planning notably centered on the role of power and ethics in adult education. He and Ron Cervero produced a number of works on adult education program planning and the politics of adult education, including: Planning Responsibly for Adult Education: A Guide to Negotiating Power and Interests (1994), What Really Matters in Adult Education Program Planning: Lessons in Negotiating Power and Interests (1996), Power and Practice: The Struggle for Knowledge and Power in Society (2001), and Working the Planning Table: Negotiating Democratically for Adult, Continuing, and Workplace Education (2006). Throughout his career, Butch also took on several editorial roles. He was honored to serve as coeditor of the Adult Education Quarterly and coeditor of the Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education (2000), both with Elisabeth Hayes. These are just a few reminders of the impact Butch has had on the field. 

Most importantly, Butch was our colleague, teacher, and friend. I will be forever grateful for his mentorship and enduring friendship. If you knew Butch well, you would know that he would prefer these words be sincere yet brief.  To that end, I will raise a glass and play a song in his honor. I welcome you to do the same. 

For anyone who would like to offer condolences, you are encouraged to do so by contacting Barbara Bryant at:cedarknollflowers@gmail.com. 

In solidarity,

Kim Niewolny

_______________

Kim L. Niewolny, Ph.D.

Associate Professor | Community Education and Development

Department of Agricultural, Leadership, & Community Education (0343)

Virginia Tech | 282 Litton-Reaves Hall

175 West Campus Drive | Blacksburg, VA 24061

tel: 540.231.5784 |email: niewolny@vt.edu

Robert C. “Bob” Mason

1940-2016

Robert C. “Bob” Mason, 76, of Scottsdale, AZ, passed away at home on December 3, 2016 with his family at his side. He was a much-loved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend. He was also a highly respected educator. Bob was born in Waco, Texas, on February 26, 1940. During his teenage years his family moved to near Elgin, Nebraska. Bob graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1962 with an agricultural education degree. He later returned to the university to complete his doctoral degree in adult education in 1969. He taught vocational agriculture in Seward, Nebraska, served as associate dean at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, and then moved to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois in 1970 where he served on the faculty for 31 years before retiring in 2001.

At NIU, Bob led the development of the graduate studies program in adult continuing education into a nationally and internationally recognized program. He was a visionary leader who surrounded himself with some of the best adult educators at the time. Bob was student-centered which showed in his push to expand the off-campus reach of the program throughout Northern Illinois and Chicago and worked hard to increase the minority student population in the program. He moved into an administrative role as associate dean of the college of continuing education in 1979 where he promoted lifelong learning and the interaction of graduate studies with the practice of adult education. At the time of his retirement he was director of the Office of Research and Evaluation in Adult Continuing Education at NIU (REACE), where he used his grant writing skills to generate multiple opportunities for graduate students to gain experience in the practice of adult education.

Bob was active in a number of professional organizations, including the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE), the National University Continuing Education Association (NUCEA), the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE), and the Illinois Adult and Continuing Educators Association (IACEA). He authored and edited books, chapters, and articles that focused on leadership and administration of adult education programs and agencies. Bob was a mentor to many students who became successful administrators and adult educators in their own right.

Shortly after retirement, Bob and his wife Madene moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. In retirement Bob and Madene loved to travel and completed the goal of traveling to all seven continents in 2012. Besides his wife Madene, Bob is survived by two sons, Terry (Beth) Mason of Menomonie, Wisconsin, and Scott Mason of Phoenix, Arizona, and three grandchildren, Samuel, Suzanne, and Shannon. He is also survived by three brothers, two sisters, and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. A memorial service was held at Park Congregational UCC Church of Elgin, Nebraska on December 10, 2016. Memorial contributions will be donated to the National Parkinson’s Foundation or the Park Church Cemetery Association of Elgin, Nebraska.

His sons are making arrangements to come to Minneapolis.

I spent the evening with him Wednesday night.  He ate the tomato soup I made without "sharp edges", he had ice cream.  Prior to that time he had ice cream and tapioca pudding.  After chatting some, it was evident that he was tired.  He dozed off at about 7:30 p.m. and each time he would wake up I'd check on him and he would smile and wave to me.  Phyllis tucked him in at about 9:30 p.m.

He had wonderful visits from friends and family and I asked him last night if he wanted to continue open door visits and he said yes.  I had read him the last journal entries, and he smiled. 

Plans are for a green burial cremation.  At some point there will be a memorial. 

Larry was a quite, but powerful force for adult learning and education for social justice, human rights and peace. He is under-appreciated in the academic community — in large part I think because he elected to publish little—keeping his head, hands and heart always “on the ground” in activism, with the people, rather than in ivory towers! For many many years he generated a news letter “Popular Education News” that featured stories and events “from the underbelly of the world’s forgotten and abused.” He had links to The Highlander Center, the Catalyst Centre (http://www.catalystcentre.ca - “a collective of educators committed to democratic, social justice education and community development. “). He was the quintessential “popular educator” and collected “definitions” of “popular education” which he published in his newsletter (more than two dozen! See: http://www.popednews.org/newsletters/definitions.html). His champions included Paulo Freire, Julius Nyerere, Myles Horton, and many other radical adult educators. He was very close friends with Phyllis Cunningham, and John Gaventa. You and Andre mention him in your book on John Ohliger on page 237!
 
He was Founder of NAAPAE (The North American Alliance for Popular Adult Education (1994-2001); was North American representative to the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE); involved with popularizing the Danish Folk School movement here in the US; was an antiracist activist; and strong proponent of feminism in AE long before it became widely popular.

He was a personal friend, visited Jim and me in Atlanta, I visited him at his home in Minnesota. So so much more could be said of him…but I’ll leave that to others.

In an interview of him, March 2012, the following exchange occurred, Published in Popular Education News:

"What has allowed you to sustain your participation in popular education and social movements?
 
Once a vision is formed of the possibility of social justice and a peaceful world, I don't see any way to step back from working towards that end. By the late 1960s, I had spent nearly three years in Africa and made the overland journeys from Europe to Singapore and back, experiences that showed me dramatically the relationship between my relative wealth and poverty in the world. As I mentioned above I was working in teacher training at the University of Minnesota when I encountered Paulo Freire and shortly after that was introduced to critical theory by colleagues in the Radical Caucus of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum. These developments led to my turning away from a career in teacher education. Fortunately after a difficult year and a half of unemployment, I found my lifework as an adult educator at Metro Community College. During my 26 years at the college I was able to have the luxury of my teaching job being part of my work for social justice and peace. And during that time was able to connect to and be inspired by people I met with the International Council for Adult Education, The Participatory Research Group, The Highlander Center, and other organizations of adult educators for empowerment and social change. When I ended my job at the end of 1999 with enough so I didn't have to work for money in the new millennium, I was able to continue the work.
 
Why is popular education important for our times?
 
There is still much to do to make a better world. Those for whom education is either their primary work or is part of organizing and activism, can find in popular education things that will help - in the words of the mission of the Popular Education News: to improve the educational work against oppression and violence and for democracy, sustainability, justice, and peace. We can do better - and there are still roads to be built by our walking.
 
What niche did you fill in developing the Popular Education News?
 
When the North American Alliance for Popular and Adult Educationfinally gave up all but the ghost after the 2001 World Assembly of Adult Education in Jamaica, there was no longer any network to communicate about popular education gatherings and popular education materials. For more than 25 years I had been collecting materials for my personal library, materials that were not well known among organizers and activists, nor among adult educators for that matter. These materials, and having met many of the people producing them, had been an inspiration in my own work. Gathering the materials together for the use of organizers, activists, and community-based educators in my own community was something I could do. I both began to build the library of materials to add to the library at the Resource Center of the Americas and began The Popular Education News to let people know about old and new materials I thought might be helpful in popular education and community organizing work. And I did my best to find "Where Popular Educators Will Gather" and publicize that in the newsletter and on the web site.

It has been as the question suggests, a niche. But then one of my hopes for my life is to be a cog on the big wheel of social change. I am pleased that others are continuing. There is much still to be done. The work continues."

--Nikki LaSorella