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John Milholland
John E. Milholland, professor emeritus of psychology, born April 18, 1910, in Paris, Ill.
Milholland graduated from Colorado State Teachers College (now Northern Colorado University) in 1932. Jobs were scarce in 1932 due to the depression, and John sold Remington Rand typewriters before returning to Colorado State Teachers College, where he received his master’s degree in 1939. In 1936 he died in 1974.
Milholland’s teaching career began in 1938 at Central High School in Flint, Mich., but World War II intervened, and in 1943 he joined the Navy where he served as an Air Navigation Instructor. In 1946 he returned to Flint and taught mathematics at Flint Junior College. In 1949 he came to Ann Arbor to begin work on his Ph.D. in mathematical psychology, which was awarded in 1953. Milholland began teaching statistics in the Department of Psychology while still a graduate student and continued as a full-time faculty member after receiving his doctorate, rising through the ranks to become a professor in 1961. He served as chief of the Evaluation and Examinations Division of the Bureau of Psychological Services 1956–64.
Milholland was an able and responsible administrator, chairing the undergraduate program of the department for many years. Whether interacting with students, staff or chairs of departments, he was always cooperative. His conscientiousness and careful management contributed much to the good reputation of the undergraduate program both locally and nationally.
He was a model citizen of the University; he also contributed to numerous national commissions and committees, co-chairing a national project to develop model curricula for psychology, serving as program chairman of the American Educational Research Association and as associate director for research of the first National Assessment of Educational Progress. Despite his modesty, he was elected president of the American Psychological Association Division on the Teaching of Psychology.
Milholland joined Robert Isaacson, W.K. McKeachie, Richard Mann and Yi Guang Lin in obtaining funding and carrying out major research programs in teaching and learning in university courses. The publications resulting from this research were among the first to deal with the interaction of student and teacher personality characteristics as well as gender in affecting student achievement.
As a spiker on the championship Psychology Department volleyball team, he was a strong competitor; as an administrator he always was well organized; as a colleague and adviser to students, he was unfailingly positive, good humored and helpful.
Robert Cooper Taylor
Robert Cooper Taylor, professor emeritus of chemistry, passed away. At that time, Taylor himself was diagnosed with lymphoma.
Taylor received a B.A. degree from Kalamazoo College in 1941 and, six years later, a Ph.D from Brown University. In 1942–45, he was employed as a research chemist on the Manhattan project. He joined the chemistry department at U-M in 1949 where he served until his retirement in 1987. From 1967–86 he was associate chairman working with three successive chairs. He also was director of the Chemistry Division, Merit Information Center at the University 1972–89.
His research on the structure and force fields in boron compounds was seminal in character. He was one of the earliest to understand how the computer was completely revolutionizing structural chemistry and vibrational spectroscopy. Taylor’s career closely paralleled the growth of the computer in science and he was an expert source for several generations of chemistry students and faculty. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was appointed assistant editor of the ACS journal Inorganic Chemistry when it was launched in the 1960s.
During Taylor’s years as associate chair of the department he continued to teach the mandatory physical chemistry lab course. His office assigned all graduate student instructors and graders as well as processed fellowship and research assistant appointments. He came to personally know every student in the department over this period, a claim unique in the department. Given his combined expertise in computers and interest in people, he set up a computerized alumni database and was devoted to maintaining it during retirement. He became a departmental history expert with considerable insight back to the early 1900s. Each year, he assisted in writing the departmental newsletter. He leaves a brother, two sons and three grandchildren.
Charles Frederick Cannell
Charles Frederick Cannell, professor emeritus of communications and research scientist emeritus at the Institute for Social Research, born Sept. 10, 1913, in Atrim, New Hampshire, the eldest son of Will and Hattie (Morse) Cannell.
He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1936, died Aug. 13, 2001 at St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital of complications following surgery. He was 72.
A specialist in the field of international politics, Jacobson played a leading role in the creation of the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change program at the U-M. He served as acting director of the ISR from 1992–1995, and as interim associate vice president for international affairs at the U-M from 1990–1992. He also served as president of the International Studies Association and vice president of the International Political Science Association.
“Jake was an accomplished and skilled academic administrator, a beloved teacher at all levels, and a scholar who did as much as anyone to re-establish linkages between the study of international law and organization, and of world politics,” said William Zimmerman, director of the Center for Political Studies at ISR.
Jacobson was a member of the Social Science Research Council’s Committee for Research on Global Environmental Change and the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council’s Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change. He was the convening lead author of the 1994–96 second scientific assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Jacobson is survived by his wife, Jean; his brother Bruce (Georgia) Jacobson of Valrico, Fla.; his children, Knute (Rosemary) Jacobson of Richland, Mich.; Eric Jacobson of Overland Park, Kan.; Kristoffer Jacobson of Philadelphia, Pa.; Nils (Marguerite) Jacobson of Ann Arbor; and grandchildren Peter, Paul, John, and Matthew Jacobson of Richland, Mich.
Wilma Steketee Bean
Long-time Michigan League manager Wilma Steketee Bean died unexpectedly the evening of Jan. 31, 2002. After completing a 12-hour day shift, Linda was driving home when she stopped to assist at a rollover accident, and was struck by another vehicle.
Linda was married, had her children and attended nursing school, completing her RN degree in 1997. After graduation she stayed on and began her nursing career with U-M.
Linda was recognized as a skilled and compassionate caregiver; thorough in every aspect of care. She was quiet, unassuming and always striving to be a better nurse. Her smiles and laughter were infectious. Thank you Linda for touching our lives; your spirit and vigor for life fills the void in our hearts. She loved her work, she loved her family. We loved her.
