(Posted May 8, 2001)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Two Juniata College faculty members who retired at the end of the 2000-2001 academic year were honored recently at the Faculty Retirement Dinner, May 11. The retirees are: William Russey, Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry, and Robert Washburn, professor of geology.

At the Faculty Retirement Dinner, both faculty members received a copy of a citation, a Juniata College stained-glass shield and a Juniata College chair. In addition, the college’s Board of Trustees granted both faculty members honorary emeritus status.

William Russey joined the Juniata Faculty in 1966 after earning his master's degree and doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University. During his career at Juniata, he has served as chair of the chemistry department, director of the international exchange program and as a participant on numerous faculty and administrative committees.

Russey's academic interests center on synthetic organic chemistry and scientific writing. He has published numerous articles and co-authored several books. He also has translated into English a variety of articles and books for publishers in Germany and the United States. He will continue as an editorial consultant and translator for Wiley-VCH Publishers in Germany.

After earning a magna cum laude bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1961 from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Russey studied as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Bonn. As a graduate student at Harvard, he held National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Woodrow Wilson Fellowships, and was elected to Sigma Xi.
He received the Beachley Distinguished Professor Award from Juniata in 1975. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Robert Washburn, professor of geology, also joined the Juniata faculty in 1966. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1959 and master's degree in geology in 1961, both from the University of Nebraska. He went on to earn a doctorate in geology in 1966 from Columbia University.

Washburn's research interests are in structural geology, sedimentology and environmental geology. At Juniata he has served as chair of the geology department, chair of the curriculum committee and acting chair of the science division. He also has served on a number of faculty and administrative committees.

He recently received the 2001 Outstanding Educator Award from the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). He has kept current in his field by pursuing additional studies at Stanford University, and Penn State University. Over his career, he also has completed several short courses offered by AAPG and the Geological Society of America. He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Sigma Xi. He was named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1995.

He was a member of the Huntingdon County Planning Commission for more than 20 years. He received the Huntingdon County Environmental Achievement Award from the Huntingdon County commissioners in 1997.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.