Masters Alumni 1980-89

The Department of History at Western Michigan University honors its alumni. If you are listed on an alumni page, please contact us with career updates

1989

Jon Dunbar-Cooper

Dunbar-Cooper is a Government Project Officer at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in Maryland.

M.A., History Western Michigan University (1989)

Timothy M. O'Neil

Jody M. Ross

Dr. Bruce A. Tap

Tap has published two books, Over Lincoln’s Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War (1998) and The Fort Pillow Massacre: North, South, and the Status of African-Americans in the Civil War Era (2013). He has also published articles in various peer-reviewed journals including Civil War History, Illinois Historical Journal, and American Nineteenth Century History. He owns and manages a manufacturing company in Grand Rapids.

Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1995)
M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1989)

John D. Winchell

John Winchell is Archives Curator at the Charles C. and Lynn L. Zhang Legacy Collections Center
at Western Michigan University.

M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1989)

1988

Newton L. Chamberlain

(Deceased January 2013)

Charles Dale Jager

Steven Lawrence Lewis

Allen Lee Pick

Roger Mark Varland

1987

Libby M. Catt

Susan Conklin

David J. DeVries

DeVries is a local history/reference librarian at the Kalamazoo Public Library.

M.A., Political Science, Western Michigan University (1994)
M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1987)
M.L.S., Western Michigan University (1981)
B.A., History, Western Michigan University (1975)

Michael D. Kowalski

1986

Michael P. Daly

Thomas J. McGaghie

Maria Perez-Stable

Maria Perez-Stable has been head of Central Reference Services at WMU Libraries, since 1997. Prior to that, she held three positions in the University Libraries since coming to WMU in 1979, including social sciences librarian, education librarian, and catalog librarian. Previous to that, she was a catalog librarian at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio.

M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1986)
M.S.L.S., Case Western Reserve University (1977)
B.A., History, Miami University (1976)

Leland Thornton

Thornton has taught courses in American history at Glen Oaks Community College, in Centreville, Michigan. He published When Gallantry Was Commonplace in 1991, bringing together his life-long interest in the Civil War and local history. He did his undergraduate work at Ohio State University and has master's degrees from Michigan State University and Western Michigan University. He is a member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and Phi Alpha Theta.
M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1986)

1985

Clare E. Adkin

Clare Adkin has spent his career teaching history and economics at the secondary level. Since giving up classroom duties in 2003, he turned his academic focus to promoting economic and financial literacy, research, and writing. After 39 years of teaching, Adkin retired in 2003 from the Cary Academy, North Carolina. He published Brother Benjamin: A History of the Israelite House of David in 1990 and Quiet Guilt: The State Of Michigan v. Starr in 2010.

clareadkin@nc.rr.com
M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1985)

Dr. Teresa Turpiano Barry

Barry is an assistant professor of writing, rhetoric, and American cultures at Michigan State University. She teaches first-year composition to science majors.

barryter@msu.edu
Ph.D., Michigan State University, American Studies (2001)
M.A., Critical Studies in the Teaching of English, Michigan State University (1993)
M.A., Western Michigan University (1985)
B.S., English (Secondary Education), Eastern Michigan University (1972)

Brent Coates

Richard A Griffith

Duane Edward Holthof

1984

David Wayne Carmichael

O'Ryan Rickard

1983

Linda A Moore

W. Wilson Woods

1982

George Boston, Jr.

William H. Driver

Tom Mark Greiffendorf

Carol A. Knauss

Linda A Morre

Sidney Mueller

Charles D. Swanson

1981

David Allen Bichle

Larry E. Cable

Gary Lynn Ellis

Donald R. Horton

Russel V. Kohr

(Deceased August 2003)

Dominic L. Mattone

Gloria J. Messner

Robert P. Stoddard

Robert G. Taylor

(Deceased May 2006)

Esther M. Walton

(Deceased October 2013)

1980

Janice L. Azimi

Dr. Robert H. Duke

Duke served as assistant professor of history at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti from 2008 through his retirement in 2013. At EMU, he taught courses preparing students for positions in secondary education in addition to undergraduate and graduate coursework in U.S. History. His research has focused on American political culture, especially the intersection of race and ethnicity with public education policies. Duke has extensive professional experience in K-12 education, having served as superintendent at Gull Lake and Mendon Community Schools and director of curriculum, instruction and community services at Galesburg-Augusta Community Schools. During his doctoral studies, he taught four years as an Instructor of Record. His research interests include Modern United States social, cultural, and political history, U.S. environmental history, and cultural exchange through agriculture. He published Strength in Unity: Lyndon Johnson, Bob Poage, and Federalism in Central Texas in 2014. He is working on his next book, an organizational biography of Tillers International. Duke’s students selected him for recognition at the annual College of Education Celebration of Excellence Convocation at Eastern Michigan University three times. He also received the New Faculty Research Award and the Academic Service-Learning Fellowship in 2009, the Dean’s Program Initiative Award in 2010, and the EMU Foundation’s Women in Philanthropy Award in 2011. As a doctoral candidate at WMU, Duke received the Graduate College Teaching Effectiveness Award, the Robert Russell Writing Award, the Research and Creative Scholar Award, and the Gwen Frostic Doctoral Fellowship. In addition, he received the Albert Shanker Educational Research Award from Wayne State University and was named a Research Fellow by Baylor University’s Institute for Oral History.

rduke@emich.edu
Ph.D., History, Western Michigan University (2008)
M.A., Educational Leadership, Western Michigan University (1987)
M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1980)
B.A. Secondary Education, Western Michigan University (1974)

Mary Joan Fales

Lynn M. Houghton

Lynn Houghton is the Regional History Collections Curator for the Western Michigan University Archives and Regional History Collections. In addition, she has been in the public history field for 30 years working as a museum curator, speaker, historical researcher, writer and librarian. She also teaches Michigan history part-time for the department.

MLIS, Wayne State University (2006)
M.A., History, Western Michigan University (1980)
B.A., History and Pre Professional Librarianship, Western Michigan University (1978)

Paul S. Leavenworth

Thomas T. Lutostanski

Roger A. McCarty

John Permesang

(Deceased December 1998)

Tyrell E. Schmidt

Robert G. Taylor

Kristin M. Tomlin