In Memoriam: Faculty and Friends

Notices sorted by graduation date

Sue R. Allen (Faculty) of New Haven, Conn., died Aug. 25, 2011. She was a graphic artist, independent scholar and a faculty member at the Rare Book School for 18 years. Among the longest-serving instructors at the Rare Book School since its founding at Columbia University in 1983, Ms. Allen inspired hundreds of librarians, conservators, book dealers and collectors as she taught them about the book bindings that became her passion.

Charles M. Heuchert (Faculty) of Waynesboro, Va., died Sept. 23, 2011. He was a retired professor at the Curry School of Education. After serving in the U.S. Air Force as a psychiatric social worker technician, stationed at the Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, Mr. Heuchert attended the University of Michigan and Syracuse University. He began his higher education teaching career as a lecturer in special education at Syracuse in 1963 and held posts at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University before joining the Curry School faculty in 1969 as an assistant professor. He remained at U.Va. for three decades before his retirement in 1998 as associate dean for undergraduate programs and licensure. Mr. Heuchert served as international president of the Council for Exceptional Children, president of the Virginia State Federation of the Council for Exceptional Children, and president and founder of the Virginia State Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders. Survivors include a son, Daniel N. Heuchert (Col ’86 L/M); a granddaughter, Michelle E. Heuchert (Col ’15 L/M); and a stepdaughter, Mary Scott Willoughby (Col ’93 L/M).

Ray Nelson (Faculty) of Charlottesville died Aug. 19, 2011. Mr. Nelson was an English professor and former dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1958 to 1962. In 1996, he was elected the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English; the next year he moved to a newly created chair, the Arts & Sciences Professorship, which he held until his death. That professorship, thanks to an anonymous donor, will now become the Raymond J. Nelson Professorship. He received the Thomas Jefferson Award, U.Va.’s highest honor, at Fall Convocation in October 1999. Among his scholarly work, he edited and annotated a book of Melvin Tolson’s poetry, Harlem Gallery and Other Poems. Mr. Nelson also published Van Wyck Brooks: A Writer’s Life and Kenneth Patchen and American Mysticism, which won the Poetry Society of America’s Melville Cane Award as the best critical book of 1984 on American poetry. He also wrote numerous articles on other American writers, including Herman Melville, Chester Himes and Weldon Kees. In the 1990s, he studied photomicrography. An exhibition of his photomicrographs, Everything Up Close, was held in Fayerweather Hall in 1998. He was also a book collector and dealer. Survivors include a daughter, Sylvie Nelson Casper (Col ’82 L/M); and a granddaughter, Ariane L. Casper (Educ ’11 L/M).