THE FACULTY ADOPTED four memorial resolutions during the academic year for Donald McCluskey ’36 in October, Mary Jane Bradford in March, Joe Martin in April, and William Holstein in May.
An Easton native and Lafayette graduate, Donald McCluskey ’36 was a member of the faculty for 34 years, retiring in 1980. Associate professor emeritus of English, he died Sept. 20 at the age of 96.
McCluskey, who spoke seven languages, taught the first-year writing course, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and survey of English literature. His Shakespeare classes often spent Sunday afternoons at his home listening to recordings of professional theater productions. Dozens of students enrolled in non-credit evening classes in Sanskit that he taught at his home.
A longtime supporter of Skillman Library and member of the Marquis Society, McCluskey also was involved in many community organizations. Neighbors recall listening to him play the harp on his porch on summer evenings. He received his Ph.D. in English literature from Yale University and was a master sergeant in the U.S. Army Service Forces from 1941 to 1945.
Mary Jane Bradford, associate professor emerita of biology, who died Nov. 18, was a member of the faculty for 25 years. When she arrived in 1960, her research focus was immunology. Her early work with H.R. Wolfe and C.A. Herrick at the University of Wisconsin, where she completed her Ph.D., led to a series of pioneering studies on the application of serum antibodies for neutralizing parasitic infections.
While at Lafayette, her interests turned to ecology, where she and R.L. Smith published a popular guide to ecology. She received the Jones Faculty Lecture Award in 1975 and spoke on the evolutionary meaning of animal social organization. She retired in 1985 and with her husband moved to a farm in Maine to raise Suffolk sheep.
Joe Martin, associate professor emerita of English, died Feb. 5. He joined the faculty in fall 1967 and specialized in 19th- and 20th-century British literature and literary theory, with interests in Joseph Conrad, Samuel Beckett, Margaret Drabble, John Fowles, and James Joyce.
Martin, who received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, directed the Theodore Roethke Poetry Festival in 1980, 1985, and 1987 and was assistant head of English from 1985 to 1990. From 1993 until his retirement in 2004, he was internship coordinator. He served as chair of the Academic Progress committee, and received the Jones Faculty Lecture Award in 1974.
A member of the faculty for 34 years, William Holstein, associate professor emeritus of civil engineering, died March 6. He taught courses in surveying, highways, transportation, materials, computer analysis, and steel and concrete design.
He helped students bridge the gap between the classroom and the world of engineering consulting by involving them in his surveying and computer analysis projects. He was also faculty adviser for the student chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers.
Holstein, who came to Lafayette in 1959, was an early advocate of the use of computers. When the College installed what was then a state-of-the art computer in 1966, he was put in charge of introducing faculty and students to the “new age.”
Read the full resolutions.