Academic Excellence Celebrated

Honored at the Honors Fellows Fundraiser were: William Phelan, Community Fellow Loung Ung, Thaddeus Osmolski, May Futrell, Rudy Deanin, Mary Beaudry, Braxton Hinchey and Jon Hellstedt.

UMass Lowell honored seven retired faculty members and its first Community Fellow at the Honors Fellows Fundraiser on Thursday, Oct. 16, raising $45,000 for student scholarships. Those honored were chosen for their legacy of educational excellence that inspires the UMass Lowell Honors Program.

This year’s honorees were: Mary Beaudry, Faculty Teaching Center; Rudy Deanin, Engineering; May Futrell, Nursing; Jon Hellstedt, Psychology; Brack Hinchey, Management; Thaddeus Osmolski, Biological Sciences; and William Phelan, Graduate School of Education. Human rights activist Loung Ung was named the program’s first Community Fellow.

“This is a great institution because you all have committed your lives to making it a great institution,” said Chancellor Marty Meehan at the reception held at Allen House.  “Thank you for all you have done for students.”

UMass President Jack Wilson congratulated the honorees, noting that “UMass Lowell is the heart and engine of economic development in this part of the state. …Your commitment to challenging the UMass system’s top students is commendable.”

“This event has always been about honoring the past while building the future,” said Executive Vice Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, noting the Honors Program celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The Honors Fellows Endowment, which supports scholarships and extracurricular events for the Honors Program, now stands at more than $150,000.

Chancellor Meehan noted that the recently opened Honors House in Eames Hall, where honors students live with a faculty member in residence, is becoming a model for other future learning communities on campus.

The Honorees were:

• Mary Beaudry was the founding director of the University’s Faculty Teaching Center a position she retained until her retirement in 2006. Under her leadership, the FTC established seed grant programs to promote scholarship and instructional development, conversation dinners to encourage collegiality and dialogue, faculty institutes for professional development, and a connection with the Carnegie Initiative to raise the status of teaching through scholarship and the development of teaching models that promoted deep engagement of students for enhanced understanding of content.
• Rudolph Deanin was leading a successful research and development career in industry when the Lowell Technological Institute Plastics Engineering Department turned to him to found its graduate program in 1967. In addition to developing a strong master’s degree program, Deanin initiated a joint Ph.D. program with chemistry in 1981 and coordinated the creation of the Doctor of (Plastics) Engineering in 1986, programs he coordinated for decades. He was named Educator of the Year by the Society of Plastics Engineers in 1985 and inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2003. He retired in 2008.
• May Futrell joined the Lowell State College Nursing Department in 1970. In 1975, she developed the nation’s first graduate program for the preparation of gerontological nurse practitioners. Her work led to over $1 million in training grants and scholarships to the University for graduate nurse practitioner education. Internationally recognized for her scholarship in aging, she became a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 1980, received the State Award for Excellence by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 1995, and was named a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America in 1997. Futrell served for more than two decades as chair of the Nursing Department before retiring in 2005.
• Jon Hellstedt joined the faculty at Lowell State College in 1969. An avid athlete, his interests in marriage and family counseling expanded to parent involvement in their children’s sports activities, leading to several articles and a co-authored book, “On the Sidelines: Decisions, Skills, and Training in Youth Sports.” Hellstedt served for many years as NCAA faculty representative to the Athletic Department, and was director of the UMass Lowell National Youth Sports Program from 1992 to 2007, which provided hundreds of at risk youth with summer athletic and academic engagement as well as a link to the University. Hellstedt also served as chair of the Psychology Department. He retired in 2002.
• Braxton Hinchey joined the Department of Economics at Lowell Technological Institute in 1965. He has served as chair of several University departments: economics, marketing, and, finally, the Department of Management where he served as chair for 15 years. Hinchey combined national and international experiences in marketing management, research and advertising with consistently outstanding teaching to help prepare numerous students to meet the challenges of the 21st century global economy.  He retired in 2002.
• Thaddeus Osmolski was a faculty member the Department of Clinical Lab Sciences as well as the Department of Biological Sciences, where he was chair for 12 years. Osmolski was instrumental in the founding of the Honors Program as a member of the Honors College Implementation Group, and was dedicated to elevating the educational experience on campus through his work on the Freshman Year Experience Commission, the Biotechnology Task Force, the Honorary Degree Committee and Sigma Xi, an honor society for all fields of science and engineering. He retired in 2006.
• William Phelan joined College of Education at the University of Lowell in 1974. His research in the sociology of education and the academic pathways of at-risk youth resulted in numerous publications and involvement in school affairs and policy across the region. On campus, Phelan taught undergraduate sociology courses in addition to developing several graduate courses in education, supervising 17 doctoral dissertations, and serving as faculty chair of the Graduate School of Education from 1997 until he retired in 2004.
• Loung Ung was 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power in her native Cambodia. Her experiences during the genocide that followed — being forced into hiding in the countryside, losing her parents and two siblings, and being forced to train as a child soldier — became the basis for her award winning book, “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.” Among her many accomplishments, she has spoken at the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing and on racism in Durban, South Africa, and was selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the “100 Global Youth Leaders of Tomorrow.” She is the National Spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World, and a human rights activist of international renown.

Visit UMass Lowell photo gallery to view pictures from the event. Watch the entire event at this video link.

- Kristen_OReilly