Six faculty members were given the emeritus title by the Regents at their February meeting.
Those retiring are Mary A. Cooper, associate professor of education at U-M-Flint; Gerhard Dunnhaupt, professor of Germanic languages and literatures;
David N. Freedman, the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Biblical Studies and professor of Near Eastern studies; Werner H. Grilk, assistant professor of Germanic languages and literatures; Paul L. Olson, research scientist in the Transportation Research Institute; and George C. Summerfield, professor of nuclear engineering and macromolecular science and engineering.
Cooper joined the U-M-Flint in 1970 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1974. She holds a B.A. from Marygrove College and M.A. and Ph.D. from the U-M.
“She has been the faculty adviser for the honorary education society, Kappa Delta Pi, working with students to sponsor on-campus educational seminars and programs,” the Regents noted. “As a member of three North Central evaluation teams in Detroit, Flint and Pontiac, she has worked closely with other professional educators in that capacity.” Cooper served as chair of the Science Foundation Council for the Flint Community Schools in 1984–87.
Dunnhaupt, who joined the U-M in 1976, is “one of the leaders in Renaissance and baroque literature,” the Regents said. “His many accomplishments include his three-volume Bibliographisches Handbuch der Barockliteratur, his five-volume, 4,000-page Personalbibliographien zu den Drucken des Barock, as well as many editions, articles, and conference presentations.
“Among his many honors and awards are the International Prize in Bibliography (1985) and his election as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1990).”
Freedman, who joined the faculty in 1971, is “one of the world’s most distinguished specialists on the Old Testament. His interests range from history to poetics, and to textual criticism. He has pioneered the quantitative study of ancient Hebrew verse, and has written extensively on the redaction of the various books of the Pentateuch,” the Regents noted.
“In addition to his original writings, Prof. Freedman has had an enormous influence on the worlds of scholarship and the general reading public through his vigorous editorial work. As the main editor of the Anchor Bible series and the Anchor Bible Dictionary, he has provided the English-speaking world with some of the most important tools for the study of the Old Testament.”
Grilk, a U-M faculty member since 1962, has been “a member of the Bibliography Committee, Germanic Section, of the Modern Language Association since 1965. He became co-chair in 1973 and was its chair from 1977 to 1980, thus contributing to one of the most important and widely used guides to international scholarship in literature, linguistics, and folklore,” the Regents said.
“Although Prof. Grilk’s area of major scholarly interest is Austrian comedy, with special focus on the plays of Grillparzer and Nestroy, his teaching and conference presentations have drawn on a widely-used knowledge of 19th- and 20th-century German literature, art, and political history.”
Olson, who came to the U-M as a research psychologist at the Highway Safety Research Institute in 1971, “studied assessments of lighting and signaling systems, rear view mirror curvature and reflectivity, driver response to traffic signals, nighttime legibility and conspicuity of traffic signs, and drivers’ ability to judge spacing between vehicles in traffic,” the Regents said.
“Dr. Olson’s unique contributions to the field of traffic safety involved the application of psychology, human performance, and behavior to problems of driving. Knowledge derived from his research has been applied to automobile design and to the design of materials and laws affecting our nation’s highways.”
Summerfield, a faculty member since 1962, has been “a member of the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Center, which is indicative of his interdisciplinary research abilities and interests, for over 25 years,” the Regents said.
“During his early years at Michigan, Prof. Summerfield contributed substantively to the theory of neutron transport, including a well-known paper that proved the completeness of the half-range solutions to the linear Boltzmann equation. During this period, the U-M was acknowledged to be the leading center of research in neutron transport theory, and Prof. Summerfield was a principal participant in this effort.”
