"Beloved"

During a three-week period, the Colleges lost a current teacher, two professors emeriti, and a long-time trustee and benefactor. Together, their deaths remind the institution that it is also a community.

Sometime on November 18 the campus learned that current teacher Romana Lashewycz-Rubycz had died. Hours later, word spread that the Colleges had also lost Richard "Doc" Heaton, beloved professor emeritus.

Days later, Warren Hunting Smith, long-time beloved trustee and library benefactor, died. And, within the next few weeks, during that moody, introspective time between the Fall and Winter terms, news came from Florida that Katy Cook, another beloved former teacher, had passed away, only weeks after her 90^th birthday. Rarely was beloved so common and so apt.

It was nothing but coincidence, of course, that so many meaningful partings would come in so short a span. But added together they seemed to give the Colleges pause, and reason to remember that, as well as a curriculum and a mission and an annual budget, a college is also people and those people form a family.

Lashewycz-Rubycz, a professor of chemistry, lost a hard-fought and lengthy battle to cancer. She came to HWS in 1980 shortly after receiving the Ph.D in inorganic chemistry at SUNY Buffalo, and served as chair of the department in 1989-1995. Her involvement with the Individual Majors Committee was extensive and through that venue she helped many students design programs of study that met their individual needs.

"Romana's work with students and individual majors was of great value to the institution and very important to and for the students," says David Craig, professor of chemistry. "But even more remarkable was the way in which she cherished all her work at the Colleges. Her work here gave her strength and her strength and courage were an inspiration to everyone around her."

An on-campus tribute service for Lashewycz-Rubycz has been planned for January 30. For information, call 315: 781-3586.

Richard "Doc" Heaton retired in 1994 after 33 years teaching religious studies at the Colleges, and was long one of the most respected members of the faculty. He was a co-founder of the religious studies department (with Valerie Saiving).

Heaton, described by a social-work colleague as "a teddy bear in a suit of armor," will be warmly remembered for both his "experiential" teaching style and for his great service to others. As was reported in the Spring 1998 issue of The Survey, Heaton has been involved in myriad community service causes, most notable, perhaps, his role in the establishment of a hospice program in Ontario and Yates counties.

"One of the pleasant memories I have was the sense of solidarity I had when I came here in the 1970s," explains Mary Gerhart, professor of religious studies. "[Heaton and Saiving] supported each other and would support me too."

"Doc left an incredibly enduring legacy of students who attended here," notes Susan Henking, professor of religious studies. "A huge number of students have remained connected to him and to the Colleges through him. He really changed lives, both on and off campus."

Katy Cook, for whom there will be a memorial service on campus this spring, was the first contemporary recipient of the Alumni and Alumnae Associations' Distinguished Faculty Award that just a few years after she'd also received an honorary degrees from the Colleges.

Cook joined the English faculty in 1943, and brought a spirit of innovation to her teaching. She developed comparative literature and the course Modern Novels before either became popular, and was one of the architects of the Western Civilization curriculum. She taught until 1979, continued to chair the Honors Program for four years, and still entertained former students at her Geneva home until recently. Perhaps no HWS teacher touched so many students.

Warren Hunting Smith was a grand-nephew of the founder of William Smith College, and on paper seemed to have no other cause for connection to HWS. But, as a Yale graduate with years of scholarly research and writings on his resume, Smith, the quintessential man of letters, attached himself to both the community and collegiate libraries of Geneva. He was a planner and lead benefactor for the Colleges' new library in 1976.

"He used to pore over all the details of the library," says Librarian Bill Crumlish. "This library would have never gotten off the ground without Warren's guidance." (Smith's importance to the library was discussed also in the Summer 1998 issue of The Survey.)

He had been a HWS trustee since 1958 (the year he received an honorary doctorate, as well) and, to top it off, he is the author of the Colleges' history book.

"Warren's gentle counsel, his quiet humor, and his steadfast commitment to the welfare of the Colleges, in particular its library, will be missed," wrote President Richard Hersh in November.

All four will be missed. As when others in the HWS community pass away, the testimonial quotations pile up, reminding us not that a valuable professional is no longer on the job, but rather that a friend, mentor, or champion has disappeared.

Kathy Marshall/Dana Cooke

Mary LeClair, Kathy Marshall, and Dana Cooke are writer/editors in the Office of College Relations.

This article originally appeared in the Winter '99 issue of The Pulteney St. Survey. To request a copy, e-mail Dana Cooke at murad@hws.edu.