English Department Archive

Legacy Roll Call

Grossmont College treasures the institutional memory of its many dedicated past faculty, who are more than a legacy to us. Here in the English Department, language arts educators have always been innovators at the front lines of shifting paradigms and transformative learning technologies, and many of us owe our choice of profession to past English professors whose values for rigor, compassion, and innovation have become the foundation for our own ethos as educators. This archive, then, was developed in part as a testament to the enduring influence of our past English faculty.

 

The term "past faculty" is used throughout these pages to identify any full-time instructor who accepted an offer of salaried employment in the English Department but who is no longer working full-time. Below is a roster of these educators. The vast majority of them were tenured faculty who retired after many years of devoted service. (Some even return to the department as part-time emeritus instructors.) Included, however, are faculty who ended their Department tenure for one of the following reasons:

 

[T] Transfers

From 1961 to 1968, Grossmont Junior College contracted faculty with multiple teaching skill sets so that they could instruct in two (or more) related disciplines. Consequently, some of our earliest faculty members began their tenure teaching for the English Department but retired while in service to another department or program. As our department developed into an umbrella of specialized language arts programs, one of them, the ESL Program, broke away in 2006 to become a stand-alone department. Consequently, ESL instructors hired in or before 2006 are given due consideration in this archive as contributing members of the English Department. Faculty who retired in other departments are labeled along with their chosen disciplines. Dates shown memorializ these instructors' service to the English Department only and do not reflect actual date of retirement from the District.

 

[A] Administrative Transitions

Some of our English faculty began their career in a full-time teaching position, then transitioned into an administrative or governance position, effectively ending their tenure in the English Department. These individuals are labeled in the roster accordingly.

 

[D] Departures

Marked below with the letter "D," a very small number of instructors chose to leave their tenured positions or never completed their tenure track in the first place, either because they elected to pursue other careers or because they accepted positions elsewhere. In the rarest of cases, some instructors were forced to resign. Regardless of their circumstances, all have contributed in their own way to the growth and legacy of the Grossmont College English Department.

 

Department Chairs

Faculty who served as Chairs to the English Department are highlighted on the chart below. All dates shown reflect Department tenure and not years served as Chair. For a more comprehensive look at the English Department's history of leadership, visit "Past Chairs" in the Archive menu.

 

Faculty Profiles

Over the course of 2021, this archive will restore and expand its Faculty Profiles section about our past English Department faculty, including overviews of their professional teaching awards and accomplishments, educational background, selected bibliographies of their publications, additional faculty photos, and more.

 

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English Department Faculty, 1961 to present

Joan Ahrens 2005-2018 A	Dorothy Alexander 1964 - 1981	Ruth Anderson 1970 - 1999 Chair	Carol Duffy Baker 1968 - 1991
	Judith Barkley 1965 - 1999	John Barnier 1970 - 2003 Assistant Chair	Jack Barranger 1970 - 1979 D	James K. Bell 1961 - 1963 D
Patricia Bennet 1987 - 2006 T: ESL	Virginia Berger 1991 - 2006 T: ESL	Peter Bradley 1971 - 1999	Stanford T. Carlson 1967-1992
	Bob Danielson 1961-1986 Chair	Fidelia Dickinson 1966-1966 D	Tony Ding 2000-2017	Mary Donnelly 1983 - 2003 Chair
Mike Evans 1969 - 2003	Barbara Faber 1963 - 1965 D	Leone Finalle 1963 - 1972	Martin Gerrish 1961 - 1964 T: Theater
	Vesta Gibbs 1964 - 1993	Ryane Harris 2005-2006 D	Cathy Harvey 1992-2018	Nancy Herzfeld-Pipkin 2000 - 2006 T: ESL
Oralee Holder 1990 - 2019 Chair	Marilyn Ivanovici 1999 - 2011 a.k.a. Marylin Estep	Sue Jensen 1995 to 2010	Elizabeth Juul 1964 - 1967 D
	Kamal Kapur 1992 - 2006	George Kirazian 1962 - 1986 Chair	Charline Lamons 1961 - 1983 Chair	Glenn Lane 1967 - 1991
Dorothy Ledbetter 1970 -1994	Harold Loumeau 1966 - 1967 D	Homer Lusk 1969 - 2004 Chair	Jack Lynch 1964 - 1983
		Elaine McLevie 1975 - 1979 A	Joe Medina 1990 - 2012	Linda Mitchell 1996 - 2013
Stephanie Mood 1991 - 2012	Robert Moore 1966 - 1981 Chair	Sylvia Musik 1964 - 1979
		Lloyd Norwood 1968 - 1976 D	Nelson Paler 1990 - 2004	Chester H. Palmer 1961 - 1965 D
Z. Dean Parks 1964-1991 A	Chuck Passentino 1995 - 2006 T: ESL	Scott Pearce 1977-1999	Len Pellettiri 1968 - 1986
	George Peranteau 1966-1967 D	Evan Phillips 1962-1965 D	Gary Phillips 1995 - 2011 Chair	Ray Reynolds 1961 - 1968 T: Journalism
Glenda Richter 1968 - 1997 Chair	John Saetti 1962 - 1965 T: Humanities	Qais Sako 2001-2018	Jane Spooner 1962 - 1963 T: Speech
	Fred Stollenwerk 1967 - 1991 Chair	Marie Sweadner 1964 - 1986	C. Frank Vittor 1966 - 1982 Chair	Geo. M. Washington 1961 - 1965 T: Spanish

 

Sources

The following images appearing on this page have been used with permission:

• Stanford T. Carlson (The Hockaday School, Dallas, TX)

• Fidelia Dickinson (Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives at the Copley Library of the University of San Diego)

• Jack Lynch (Legend Yearbook, El Cajon Valley High School)

• Kamal Kapur (© author Kamla K. Kapur)

• George Peranteau (Archives, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL)

• C. Frank Vittor (University Archives Photograph Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Library and Information Access, San Diego State University)

• George M. Washington (El Recuerdo Yearbook, Grossmont High School Museum)

Likenesses used under public domain or copyright exemption under FAIR USE act for purposes of education and archival preservation include the following:

• Ryane Harris
• Elizabeth Juul
• Harold Loumeau

All remaining faculty photos, property of Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District or Grossmont College English Department.

 

Thanks

Considerable gratitude is owed to numerous individuals and agencies for their contributions of media content and institutional memory, or for their help in securing permissions for use of archival images that have helped to build the Grossmont College English Department Archive. Please visit the Acknowledgments page to find out who they are.