During his 32 years as a UD faculty member, Glancey advised hundreds of students, served as a faculty advisor for student organizations and as the faculty coordinator for the College of Engineering’s Student Machine Shop for seven years. 

“Dr. Glancey mentored hundreds of students, often providing their first real exposure to hands-on fabrication and design,” Adkins said. “His impact as a teacher, innovator, and colleague will be felt for years to come.”

Ajay Prasad, UD Engineering Alumni Distinguished Professor, described his colleague in the Department of Mechanical Engineering as a joy to work with. From 2001 to 2002, Prasad, Glancey and Lian Ping Wang advised a group of 30 UD students in the Solar Decathlon Competition, a nationwide design competition to develop and operate an 800 ft solar-powered house for ten days on the National Mall in Washington, DC. More than 90,000 visitors toured the site.

“Jim dedicated many years to imparting design knowledge and skills to mechanical engineering students,” Prasad said. “He was renowned for his practical expertise, which he shared generously with our students, and for his industry contacts, which he leveraged for student design project sponsorships. Jim was ever gracious, cool under pressure, kind, patient, super smart, and a thorough professional.”

Throughout his UD career, Glancey was a dedicated teacher, instructing students in courses in two colleges at the University. 

“Jim Glancey was one of a kind,” said John Filasky, a UD Class of 1998 alumnus and operator of Filasky Farm in Middletown, Delaware. “He had a unique way of bringing complex concepts off the page and making them tangible.” 

Glancey was known for his practical teaching style. 

“Dr. Glancey expected a lot of us as students,” said Elaine Webb, a UD Class of 1995 alumna and an engineer with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). “He was definitely not an easy professor, but we all respected him because he challenged us.”

Elaine (Zeitler) and Scott Webb, both alumni of the CANR agricultural engineering technology program, say Glancey had a lifelong impact on their careers.

“As a teacher and advisor, he was always top-notch,” Elaine Webb continued. “Many years into my career at DNREC, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Glancey on a project that intersected agriculture with my responsibilities in the state’s Sediment and Stormwater Program. Dr. Glancey treated me with great respect during that project while still challenging me. He was a great mentor.”

Scott Webb, a UD Class of 1994 alumnus and operator of Lea View Farms in Greenville, served as the lab teaching assistant for Glancey’s Power and Machinery course. 

“It was important to him that the students got to experience first-hand the use of tractors and implements, and since I grew up on a farm, I was a natural fit to help,” Scott Webb said. “I learned a lot from Dr. Glancey, and that learning did not end when I got my degree. He continued to stay in touch with me when I returned to the farm after graduation. He even brought some students to our farm to learn about irrigation and further the research he was doing.”  

The University also recognized Glancey’s pedagogical contributions. In 2001, he received the Dean’s Merit Award and was inducted into the University of Delaware’s Mentors’ Circle. The previous year, Glancey was nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award in the College of Engineering and received the North Central Campus Senior-Faculty Recognition Award. UD recognized Glancey for excellence in academic advising in 1997.

Glancey’s research in the areas of agricultural engineering, fluid mechanics, materials, nonlinear dynamics, and solid mechanics led to several patents and dozens of published research papers. At UD, Glancey collaborated with Suresh Advani, the Unidel Pierre S. du Pont Chair of Engineering in the College of Engineering, on a new method for manufacturing composites. 

“The idea was so novel that we were granted a patent in 2014,” Advani said. “Jim played a central role in its realization with his creative imagination and new perspectives. He had no shortage of creative approaches and perspectives to solving practical problems, which he also provided to our senior design students for their capstone projects.” 

Glancey also served as the agricultural engineer for UD Cooperative Extension from 2003 to 2023. His work had a direct benefit on Delaware agriculture. Glancey helped vegetable growers harvest more efficiently and reduce losses by determining the optimal operational parameters of mechanical harvesters, balancing the forward speed of the machine with the operational speed of its internal components. Glancey worked with the town of Middletown, Delaware, to develop a system of supplying treated wastewater from the town’s water treatment plant to neighboring farms for irrigation of crops. 

Ed Kee, former Delaware Secretary of Agriculture and UD Cooperative Extension specialist, described the project as groundbreaking. 

"Jim brought innovation and solutions across a wide range of disciplines to farmers and the agricultural industry,” Kee said. “His work with farmers enhanced their profitability and sustainability. He could relate to the highest level of mathematicians in the morning and then interact with farmers, food processors, and men and women working in agribusiness that same day. He was also one of my closest friends and colleagues for 34 years."

Throughout the course of his career, Glancey received many awards, including the University of Delaware’s George M. Worrilow Award for Outstanding Alumni in 2017 and the Delaware Farm Bureau’s Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award in 2014. Glancey was a co-recipient of the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin’s 2011 Government Award and received a Distinguished Service award from the Delaware Vegetable Growers Association that same year.

As a licensed professional engineer, Glancey ran a successful business, Mechanical Design and Forensic Analysis, offering services as a consulting professional engineer and expert witness in product liability and patent infringement cases. 

Glancey spent his early years helping out on his uncle’s dairy farm, where he developed his passion for agriculture. Glancey is also an alumnus of the University of Delaware, earning a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California, Davis. Jim is survived by his wife, Anna, and son, Quinn.