It is difficult to summarize briefly Paul Benson’s contributions to the University of Dayton over the past nearly 40 years. While Paul holds a special place in the hearts of those of us in the philosophy department, given his origins therein as faculty member and then department chair, it is safe to say he is among the most respected and widely beloved administrators in UD’s history over the past few decades.  

Paul received his Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton in 1984 and began at UD as an assistant professor in 1985. He became department chair in 2001 and served in that capacity for several years before entering the dean’s office as an associate dean in 2005. He became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2007 and began serving in the provost role in 2014. Among his many contributions as an administrator at all of these levels is his ongoing commitment to diversity. As chair, he made assiduous efforts to increase the department’s number of women and minority faculty, and, as dean and provost, he has been a forthright and consistent leader in the university’s efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion.  

Paul has remained impressively active as a scholar despite his duties as a high-level administrator. His CV lists 17 peer-reviewed articles, as well as numerous book reviews, a good number of them being published since he began serving as dean and  provost. In addition, he has given countless conference and other professional presentations, some philosophical and others focused on university life and administration, again with many occurring while he was dean and then provost.  

As an administrator, Paul has built and maintained supportive personal connections with many individual faculty. One faculty member with a foreign name recalls that Paul “was one of the few people on campus who learned my name and pronounced it correctly the first time we had a conversation. He also remembered the content of our in-person conversations and referred to them correctly later.” Another faculty member recalls that, over the years, Paul has taken care to inform him of relevant professional opportunities and of recent research that might be of use to his scholarship, as well as joining him for several philosophical discussions over lunch.

Paul has been unfailingly supportive of academic freedom and the entitlement of faculty to research and teach according to their own professional judgment. One faculty member recalls that, as dean, Paul “backed my right to teach environmental concerns in my engineering ethics classes. Some students objected to my critical analysis of the use of nuclear power and dirty energy. Paul was familiar with some of the material I assigned and upheld the value of teaching these topics.” Another reports that, when she informed Paul of an upcoming publication that would likely prove controversial, he emphasized her freedom to publish the material in question and gave helpful advice for anticipating and handling any potential fallout.  

In addition to his many duties as an academic administrator, Paul has been a civically committed citizen of the Dayton community. One faculty member recalls that when the City of Dayton was trying to weaken drinking water well field regulations, Paul and his wife Stephanie testified at the City Commission meeting for preservation of strong water quality regulations. Another faculty member remembers that “Paul spoke on behalf of UD leadership at the gun violence forum I organized to mark the anniversary of the Oregon District shooting. It was the first big event I’d organized in Dayton, with numerous civic leaders and political officials present, and I was naturally quite nervous. Paul’s poise and readiness to speak to the moment put me at ease and helped make the event a success.”

Alongside his unfailing professionalism, Paul can also be quite funny. One longtime philosophy faculty member recalls that, as department chair, “Paul came into my intro class to tell me he had added three more students to the section (for a total of 38). I asked him if he thought it was fair that what he was doing in this class was precisely what I would be talking about in my next class: Marx's account of exploitation, profit and the labor theory of value. He paused and laconically enough said ‘probably not.’ ”

As one faculty member observes in summary, “somehow, in spite of his numerous promotions, Paul has managed to retain his ethical compass and his interest in philosophy.” Another aptly calls him “scholarly, elegant, and witty ... a gentleman and a mensch.” We in the philosophy department, alongside so many others in the UD community — students, faculty and staff — will miss Paul a great deal, and we wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement. 

During his 22 years at the University of Dayton, Rob Crutcher established an impressive record of scholarship, teaching, thesis mentorship and service to the department and the university. Rob is a cognitive psychologist, and his program of research examines memory processes, human learning and skill, expert-novice differences, language processes, the use of verbal report methodologies in studying mental processes and applications of cognitive psychology to improving human memory and thinking skills. He is widely regarded as an expert in his areas of specialization, and his work features meticulously conducted, multi-study investigations of memory processes that require precise, single-subject data collection. His work has been featured in some of the highest impact journals in the field. 

Rob’s contributions to the education of our students have been equally impressive. Rob routinely taught several of the most challenging and foundational courses offered by the department. He is widely regarded by colleagues and students as a truly exceptional instructor. Students routinely sought out his courses, despite his reputation of being among the most challenging instructors in the department. Students regard him as knowledgeable, fair, caring, organized, passionate and rigorous. His peers have also recognized his teaching excellence. A peer reviewer of one of his graduate statistics classes once noted that he “wished (Rob) had been my statistics professor when I was in graduate school.” 

Rob’s many contributions to the department will be felt for years to come. Rob has been a trusted and knowledgeable voice in the department and a close friend to many. He will be missed greatly, and the department will not be the same without him.

Since joining the UD faculty in 1998, Susan Gardstrom has led and shaped the Music Therapy program, making it the largest major in the Department of Music and earning recognition as a leading music therapy program in the country.

Her stature as a researcher in the field, with a recent focus on music therapy for women with additions, has been recognized this spring with a lifetime achievement award from the Great Lakes Region of the American Music Therapy Association.

Her research has informed her teaching and mentoring through work on the pedagogy of music therapy, as well as many publications and presentations co-authored with UD students and alumni.

Part of the remarkable legacy she is leaving in the Department of Music is that two of her former students are now members of our faculty. Susan has not only been a wonderful mentor to these young colleagues, but has embraced and encouraged the new ideas and directions they have brought.

She has maintained fertile soil and planted seeds that will ensure long-term growth in our program, and we wish her all the best as she turns this energy to her own garden in retirement.

Pete Hovey has been associated with the University of Dayton for most of his life. His father worked at UDRI, and Pete himself joined the UD family when he enrolled as a mathematics major in 1971. He graduated in 1975 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Kentucky. He returned to UD to join the Research Institute in 1980. Except for a three-year stint at AFIT, he worked at UDRI until 2011, when he joined the Department of Mathematics as a tenure-line faculty member. 

Pete’s first project at UDRI was a statistical evaluation of probability of detection (POD) for nondestructive inspections of aircraft structures. He was the first to use logistic regression to analyze the data, and he became a world-renowned expert in estimating POD. Pete was one of the developers of the probabilistic software PROF, which projects the probability of fracture in aircraft structures based on limited information about crack sizes, as well as the probability of detecting cracks during routine inspections of the aircraft. This became the standard program used by the Air Force’s Air Logistics Centers to help manage aging aircraft, and Pete represented the Air Force Research Laboratory in intergovernmental committees on using probabilistic risk assessment in the design of aircraft structures.

As a faculty member in Mathematics, Pete has taught introductory statistics for non-STEM majors, a statistics course for computer science and other STEM majors, the probability and statistics sequence for mathematics majors and four different graduate statistics courses. He has often volunteered to teach the actuarial probability seminar, which prepares actuarial science minors for Exam P, the first of many actuarial exams – even though this teaching assignment constitutes an overload. He has supervised seven graduate Math Clinics, eight undergraduate capstone projects and two honors theses. He has served on six Ph.D. committees and nine M.S. committees in the School of Engineering and the School of Education and Health Sciences. 

He has been involved in organizing the department’s annual events. The Biennial Alumni Career Seminar invites our alums back to campus to talk to our current students about their careers and Undergraduate Mathematics Day is a conference that showcases students’ work in mathematics and provides them with the opportunity to network with students from other institutions. Pete served on the search committees for all but one current tenure-line statistics faculty, chairing three of them. He was the advisor to UD’s chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon, a national mathematics honor society.

Pete’s research has largely been collaborative. He has made many contributions to research related to POD, and he has an extensive collaboration record with colleagues in civil engineering. He has given numerous presentations at statistics conferences, and he has been very involved in the American Statistical Association. His professional activities within the ASA have included serving as chapter representative for the Dayton Chapter, organizing a conference held at UD and serving as chair of the Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences.

Pete has been a great department citizen. He has always provided thoughtful input in departmental discussions. He loves the department and wants it to succeed in providing an excellent education for the mathematics majors and every other student who takes a mathematics or statistics class. His colleagues will miss his presence and cheerful participation in department activities.

Dave Johnson joined UD’s Chemistry department in 1985. During Dave’s time at UD, he taught a variety of classes including general, environmental, analytical chemistry and, most recently, courses for the Premedical programs office and advised numerous students.

Research played a big role in Dave’s time at UD, and he spent most of his research time engaged in aircraft lubricant development with researchers at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Not surprisingly, Dave’s work led to numerous research publications.

Not being one to shy away from a challenge, Dave was appointed as department chair twice starting in 2004 and 2014. As chair, Dave oversaw numerous renovation projects which helped modernize the chemistry department. The most recent (and extensive) project was the consolidation (and renovation) of multiple laboratory spaces into a shared instrumentation facility and an advanced synthesis laboratory.

Dave has been an integral part of the chemistry department and UD community as a whole for over 37 years and will be missed by his colleagues.

Dr. Jayne Robinson has faithfully served the Biology department, the College of Arts and Sciences and the University for 28 years. She joined UD in 1994 as an asssitant professor in the Department of Biology, was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and to full professor in 2005. Jayne’s primary teaching and research areas are microbiology and microbial ecology.

Jayne served as Associate Director of the Honors and Scholars program from 2000-05 where she was instrumental in expanding the quality and impact of the Stander Symposium from a three-hour event to the current multi-venue multi-modal event.  As part of the Honors Program, Jayne developed the River Stewardship and Global Responsibilities program in 2004 with then Honors Program Director Dr. Steve Dandaneau. Their objective was to expose the students to service in the spirit of UD and to explore in depth the role of the rivers in the history of Dayton and the immense resource of which students must be “stewards”. This program laid the groundwork for the incredibly successful UD Rivers Institute and their flagship River Steward program.

Jayne served two four-year terms as the Department of Biology Chairperson during which she successfully hired eight tenure line faculty and saw the doubling of the departmental research funding and number of majors. While serving as chair, she also maintained an active and well- funded research program right up to her retirement in July 2022.

Jayne has mentored 20 undergraduate Honors Thesis students and 17 graduate students. Her research effort has resulted in $2M-plus of funded research, 30-plus publications, and Intellectual Property (two patents awarded, one in-process). Her research effort also resulted in the establishment of the SMART Center with Dr. Shawn Swavey (Chemistry) which was renamed as our current Integrative Science and Engineering Center (ISE).

Jayne’s strong commitment to teaching, research and service has contributed to the success we have today in the Department of Biology, the College of Arts and Sciences and the university. She has been a role model for being successful in all three faculty areas: high-quality teaching, high-quality research and scholarship, and impactful service.