Don Melander is a Senior Professor of Humanities, retired, at New England College where he has taught mostly literature and writing for 45 years. For the last decade he has served as dramaturge for the Open Door Theater. He holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Syracuse University; his dissertation is on the 20th-century American poet, Wallace Stevens. This seminar on early 20th-century American poets is his twelfth for LINEC.
Don Melander often makes reference to films in his teaching of literature. Since 2010 he has taught a Communications course on movies and film directors. Although he has no formal training in film, he has been ‘reading’ serious films as serious literature since 1958.
Curtiss Rude has a BS in Physics from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MS in Electrical Engineering (solid-state physics) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He worked in the microelectronics industry for IBM in Vermont for 20+ years in a variety of engineering and engineering management roles. His second career was as a high school chemistry and physics teacher for seven years. Upon retirement, he took up astronomy as a hobby. He also plays club chess most weeks. Curtiss has previously taught LINEC courses on astronomy, cosmology, political geography, and the history of money.
John McCausland was an English major once upon a time and continues to find enjoyment and wisdom from reading and sometimes rereading novels, while discussing them with others. Retired from careers as a lawyer and Episcopal priest, he finds in LINEC a family of interesting and engaged friends who enliven each other’s lives and help make the golden years truly golden.
Glenn Stuart is a Professor of Theatre Emeritus at New England College, where he taught for 38 years, designed 125 theatre and dance productions, and was the founding director of the Open Door Theatre, for which he designed and directed 20 productions, including King Lear, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, As you Like It, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew. He holds an MA in Theatre from the State University of New York, Albany, where he studied with Roger Herzel, Jack Burian, and Judith Barlow.
Lisa M. Melander holds a BA in philosophy from NEC, where she was a student of the late R. Peter Sylvester and an M.Ed. in education from Plymouth State U. She has served as a 4th, 5th, and 6th-grade teacher in public and private schools.
Eric J. Simon, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Biology and Health Science at New England College, in Henniker, New Hampshire. There, he teaches introductory biology, human, biology, and tropical marine biology. Dr. Simon has also taught a series of international travel courses, including ones to Belize, the Galapagos, Tanzania, Cuba, the Amazon river, and Patagonia. Dr. Simon received a B.A. in biology and computer science and an M.A. in biology from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University. Dr. Simon is the author of a widely used series of college biology textbooks with over 2 million books in print that help teach biology to students in over 40 countries.
Elliott Berry, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1971 with a B.A. in Far Eastern Studies (concentrating on China). From 2006-2009 he taught during the fall semesters at the Law School of the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. He first visited China (Taiwan and Hong Kong) in 1970 and Mainland China in 1977. Since 2004 he has visited China 10 times, and has traveled extensively throughout the country. He has a “degree of fluency” in Mandarin Chinese. Elliott has been a lawyer at NH Legal Assistance since moving to New Hampshire in 1975.
Deborah Brown is UNH Professor Emeritus (English). Her book of poems, The Human Half was published by BOA Editions in April, 2019. Her first book “Walking the Dog’s Shadow,” was a winner of the A. J. Poulin Jr. Award from BOA Editions and of a New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry. The title poem of the collection was awarded a Pushcart Prize. She edited, with Maxine Kumin and Annie Finch, Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics. With Richard Jackson and Susan Thomas, she translated the poems in Last Voyage: Selected Poems of Giovanni Pascoli. She lives in Warner, NH.
Dick Hesse, a retired professor of law, holds a master’s degree in history and has studied civil rights from both the legal and historical perspective. Civil and human rights have been the focus of his study and law practice for more than 50 years. He has been a frequent presenter for LINEC, OLLI and AIL.
Betsy Holmes is a plein air artist, retired library director, and lifelong learner. She has taught art history courses at Saint Anselm College, New England College, and the NH Institute of Art, with an emphasis on non-Western art.
Jane Oneail is an independent scholar with a master’s degree in Art History from Boston University and a master’s in Art in Education from Harvard University. Jane is a New Hampshire native and has worked at some of the state’s most esteemed cultural institutions, including the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, where she served as Executive Director, and the Currier Museum of Art, where she held the role of Senior Educator. Jane has also taught at the college level for over a decade, most recently at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.
Mary Lee Sargent is a retired professor of History and Women’s Studies. She taught at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, for 35 years and was Director of the Women and Gender Studies Department. After moving to New Hampshire in 2003, Mary Lee was an adjunct instructor at Southern New Hampshire and Plymouth State Universities, Lakes Region, and NHTI Community Colleges.
Sen. David Waters, NH State Senator for District 4 since 2012, was a long time Professor at the University of New Hampshire where he taught American literature, New England studies, and New Hampshire literature and culture. He is a Board Member of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, and writer and co-host of the film I Was a Slave, Even Here in NH: The Concord Black Heritage Trail.
Elaine Clow
Prof. John Graebe directs the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service and is a professor of law at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law. He teaches constitutional law, civil procedure, and related courses. His scholarship focuses on constitutional law, federal courts, and civil rights litigation. Professor Greabe is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court; the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits; the United States District Courts for the Districts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts; the New Hampshire Supreme Court; and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He also writes a monthly Constitutional Connections column for the Concord Monitor.
Joanna Henderson received her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont, a Master’s degree in sociology from Dartmouth College and an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She directed the Tucker Foundation off-campus internship program at Dartmouth and then moved into the field of admissions at several institutions including Colby-Sawyer College and Marietta College. She teaches courses for OLLI, AIL and at LINEC.
Julie Machen
Fran Philippe is an elementary school educator for whom LINEC has played a big part in her retirement, both as a ‘student’ and administratively. She shares her time between local volunteer opportunities and experiencing the beautiful environment in which we live, in any manner she can.
Eleanor Strang, received her MA from the University of Michigan, and her MLS from the Simmons College School of Library and Information Science. She served as the director of the Kelley Library (the public library of Salem, NH) for 15 years. Since retiring, she has pursued her interest in American and Canadian history, and has done presentations for the OLLI and a variety of historical societies and libraries.
Carolyn Timbie, is the granddaughter of Grace Banker. Carolyn’s family has an extensive collection of letters, documents and items that belonged to her grandmother that allowed her to delve deeply into her grandmother’s story. Carolyn has contributed information to the book The Hello Girls, America’s First Women Soldiers by Elizabeth Cobbs, The Hello Girls Documentary, The Hello Girls Musical, and the children’s book Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call by Claudia Friddell. In March 2021, the Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act S.692 was introduced and has been co-sponsored by NH Senator Maggie Hassan. Carolyn is actively raising awareness to see that women are recognized with this great honor.
Carol Zink, is a retired high school history teacher who taught Modern World and AP European History. She currently teaches online for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Hawaii. She is also a retired Navy Captain, grandmother of five, and an avid hiker, kayaker, swimmer, and chef. She usually divides her time between New Hampshire and California, but this year is going to ‘try winter’ and spend a year and a half in New Hampshire.