To the Middlebury College Community
I write with the sad news of the passing of our colleague Robert R. Churchill, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Geography.
Bob joined the faculty in 1978, when he was hired as Instructor in Geography. Even before he was tenured in 1986, he was the major force behind the shaping of a department that had been in danger of elimination in the early 1980s. In his long tenure as Chair of the Geography Department, he built a strong faculty and a curriculum known for its rigorous standards and substantial contributions to several of the College's interdisciplinary programs. He established the College's program in geographic information systems (GIS), which now not only supports the geography curriculum, but also the environmental studies program and other academic programs on campus. In fact, GIS at Middlebury, and geography as well, is viewed by many in the profession as the gold standard for liberal arts colleges, thanks, in large part, to Bob's leadership and vision.
Bob was one of the most gifted teachers on the Middlebury faculty, able to teach with great effectiveness courses in both physical and human geography, in lecture, lab, or seminar format, and to geography majors or non-majors. Although one of the most rigorous and demanding of professors, he was also among the most admired and appreciated by his students.
Bob received his B.S. and M.S. from Northern Illinois University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. An active researcher, Bob published and presented numerous articles and conference papers on subjects ranging from "The Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom" to "Scale, Context, and Causes of Suicide in the United States," with former Middlebury colleague Malcolm Cutchin. Bob also published a number of scholarly articles with his students, both undergraduates and former students who went on to become academics following their studies at Middlebury. At the office, his focus was always geography, and his interests were always his students.
The recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, Bob was also a strong supporter of geography teaching in Vermont schools and an organizer of the Vermont Geography Bee, held for many years on the Middlebury campus.
Ronald D. Liebowitz
Professor of Geography and
President of the College
-November 2004