Marion “Lolly” Templeton, Ed.D. ’88, has lived in a neighborhood near campus for so many years she doesn’t think of her continued involvement in the University’s emeriti efforts as “going back.” “I am happily immersed in the ebb and flow of campus life on a daily basis,” she says.
Dr. Templeton earned her master’s in education from Westfield State in 1988 and completed a doctoral degree in education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She started working at the University as a graduate assistant, then served as a professor in the Education Department for 25 years. During her tenure, she was actively involved in a number of programs on campus, serving as faculty counselor of the national education honor society Kappa Delta Pi and the school’s representative for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Teacher Education Consortium (COMTEC).
Since 2014, Dr. Templeton has worked closely with fellow emeritus Linda Nober, Ed.D., along with the institutional advancement team of Vice President Erica Broman and Lisa McMahon, to promote faculty and staff emeriti initiatives. Dr. Nober, who also earned her doctoral degree at UMass, joined the Education Department in 1976, retiring in 2000. For many years, as an academic affairs administrator, she coordinated accreditation processes for the department.
Dr. Nober says emeriti involvement has grown steadily since the early 2000s, with educators such as Physical Education Professor emerita Tilia “Tilly” Fantasia, Ed.D.; Signia Warner, Ed.D., former senior librarian; Bernard Fleury, Ed.D., an education professor; Robert Brown, Ph.D., history; and psychology professors Bill Duval, Ph.D., Joan Corell, Ph.D., and Suzanne Davis, Ph.D. Many staff emeriti are also involved in these efforts, including human resources emerita Holly Robbins, Math Department emerita Deborah Samwell, and Psychology Department emerita
Lucia Sullivan.
Involvement has grown because of increased enrollment, the addition of many departments, and the enlargement of the emeriti program, through which the Advancement Office sponsors at least two events for retired faculty annually, allowing them to reconnect with former colleagues and see how the University is growing. “We all enjoy returning to campus and reconnecting with former colleagues while feeling pride in the development of the University,” says Dr. Nober.
There have been three emeriti events recently, featuring speakers such as Martin Henley, Ph.D., author of Scoundrels Who Made America Great and a former member of the Education Department; Dr. Brown, the unofficial city of Westfield historian and History Department emeritus;
and Andrew Bonacci, D.M.A., current chair of the Music Department.
Drs. Templeton and Nober love the opportunities to recconect. Dr. Nober supports an annual scholarship for an outstanding student in special education. Dr. Templeton continues to support nontraditional teacher candidates with the annual Templeton Family Endowed Scholarship, and she and her husband, Jeff, funded the Templeton Family Multi-Media Computer Lab at the Woodward Center. “I feel a tremendous responsibility to give back ‘in kind’ what I received so many years ago when I was an adult learner,” she says.
