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Alumni and Friends Making an Impact

One Memorial Gift Honors Two Legacies

Dave and Norma McCarthy ’71 were exploring how to leave a legacy at UD when they met Anne Crecelius ’07. A shared interest in improving students’ experiential learning grew their bond, even into her final days. Now they are honoring her legacy, too.

“Sometimes you meet people who clearly care. Anne was one of those people,” said Dave. “She encouraged her students to do more, and she led by example.”

Crecelius, who died in February, had a vision for what her students could accomplish through updated equipment and an engaging learning environment, and shared it enthusiastically with the McCarthys. They turned the vision into reality with the Dave and Norma McCarthy Integrative Human Physiology Lab.

Now they are continuing their legacy and Crecelius’ work with a gift over $90,000 to further students’ experiential learning opportunities.

The gift will enhance the lab’s existing Anatomage Table — state-of-the-art technology to study anatomy and physiology, according to Diana Cuy Castellanos, health and sport science department chair. By providing 12 accompanying tablets, they are allowing more students to access materials and hands-on learning equipment individually and outside of class.

Health and sport science, physical therapy and biology students will benefit from the tablets as well as new anatomical models. Physical therapy students will also have access to dynamometers to measure muscle strength and new hi-lo tables to practice treating patients.

“As we continuously recognize the importance of experiential learning, having state-of-the-art equipment for our students to utilize is essential for the preparation of the next generation of healers,” said Ali Carr-Chellman, dean of the School of Education and Health Sciences. “We are so grateful to the McCarthys for their generous gift in memory of Dr. Anne Crecelius — and this equipment will benefit all those students she loved.”

The McCarthy’s memorial gift is also providing an Iscan System, which analyzes motions, allowing faculty and students to research and study fine motor skills. This will help move forward a pilot study seeking to encourage better fine motor development in children.

“All of this is what Anne did. She was an incredible teacher. She was an incredible researcher. She advocated to be able to do the best we could do at the University of Dayton,” Castellanos said. “That was Anne’s heart, to make sure these students were fully engaged in learning, and they felt prepared as they moved forward. Her advocacy for students and education is showing right now in this donation.”

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