UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 26, Page 13
April 7, 1994
Memorial tributes honor four members of faculty

     Four deceased faculty members were eulogized by their colleagues
Monday at the semi-annual faculty meeting.
     Remembrances were read for Henry Tingey, professor of mathematical
sciences, Ralph V. Exline and Florence Lindauer Geis, both professors of
psychology, and Walter Rykiel, instructor in the Department of
Communication.
     John Schuenemeyer recalled his colleague Henry Tingey as an
"administrator, reformer, trainer and counselor" who had spent nearly 30
years at the University, introducing thousands of students to the
discipline of statistics. Tingey, who died Feb. 8 of respiratory failure,
also played a major role in secondary education, helping to establish
mathematics reform at the national and state levels and acting as "a
leading force in the development of many math programs through the state."
     At the University, he assisted in the development of the statistical
laboratory, which he later directed, and supervised many theses and
dissertations. As he approached retirement, he was seeking certification in
alcohol and drug abuse treatment.
     In conclusion, Schuenemeyer said, "He could be counted on at times to
intimidate students and colleagues, yet was ready to spend countless hours
helping with a statistical problem. He told us what kind of camera to buy,
how to install the latest version of WordPerfect...and how to get a black
lab to obey (no mean feat)."
     Tom Scott presented eulogies for his two colleagues, Ralph Exline, who
died Dec. 18 just before his 71st birthday, and Florence Geis, who died
Oct. 7 at the age of 60.
     Calling Exline his "professional parent," Scott said that Exline
became a leading authority on non-verbal communication following the first
Nixon-Kennedy debate.
     "He knew, not just at the intuitive level we all share-the level that
led to Kennedy's election-but with formal precision how to evaluate the
tone and tension in the only skeletal muscles we use, not to move
ourselves, but to move others," Scott said. "Ralph knew how much the eyes
told; how dilated the pupils as a measure of interest, how rapid the blink
as a measure of stress or intensity of thought, how direct the regard as an
indication of whether one is involved with one's companion or wishes he
were somewhere else."
     Scott credited Exline with attracting and retaining fine colleagues,
while serving several times as chairperson of the Department of Psychology.
"As an administrator, Ralph had the endearing quality of ignoring or
minimizing our flaws and helping us develop strengths. He was more
avuncular than judgmental, full of kind spirit and mature insight."
     In a tribute to "Lindy" Geis, Scott said she will be remembered most
for her research on gender bias and her devotion to her students. Two of
her monographs on gender and diversity-Seeing and Evaluating People,
co-authored with Mae Carter, and The Organization Woman: Power and Paradox,
co-authored with Carter and Beth Haslett of the Department of
Communication-are now used by institutions across the country, he said, and
for students of gender studies she initiated an annual event, now named in
her honor the Geis Student Research on Women Conference.
     Geis required that her students' papers be "defensible from every
angle," including style, and her students, who went on to receive honors in
their fields, returned to care for "Lindy in her physical decline, as she
had tended them in their intellectual ascent."
     Noting that Geis had received both the University's
excellence- in-teaching award and the Heritage Research Award from the
American Psychological Association, Division 35, Scott noted that his
colleague "chose wisely the words for her tombstone: feminist, scholar,
teacher."
     "He had a genuine love of media in all its forms," said Beth Haslett
of her colleague, Walter Rykiel, who died Jan. 27 at age 47.
     An instructor who taught courses in radio and television production,
public speaking and organizational management, Rykiel had received a
bachelor's degree in English from the University in 1972 and a master's in
communication in 1978. For the next seven years, he served as an instructor
in the Department of Communication and operated a number of retail
businesses with his wife. Establishing an independent video business in
1985, he served such clients as the DuPont Co., Eckerd Drugs and the
Textile Research Laboratory. From 1987-88, he was executive producer for
Shipley Associates in Wilmington, before returning to the University to
teach in 1989.
     Responsible for the Winter Session student television course, Rykiel
shared his "corporate experience and academic knowledge" with his students,
often working until one or two in the morning on editing and production,
Haslett said. She said members of the Department of Communication will
remember his "wry sense of humor" and an "infectious laugh...that invited
you to laugh with him at the ironies of life."
                                                  -Cornelia Weil