Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Richard “Rick” H. Smith Jr. of Woodsboro, Maryland, passed away on March 30 at the age of 78.
Born and raised in Hagerstown, Maryland, Smith graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Washington College and obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Virginia. He came to the college in 1971 after a brief post-doctoral residency at The Ohio State. He taught at the college for 44 years and was made an honorary alum upon his retirement in 2015.
He loved teaching above all else and taught courses that ranged from Organic Chemistry to History of Science to Trees on the Hill. Generations of students benefitted from his guidance and mentorship. During his time at the college, he carried out student-faculty research with more than 70 students and published over 50 scientific papers. Much of his research focused on chemical compounds that had potential for cancer pharmaceuticals. He spent his summers performing research at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick’s Center for Cancer Research and Yale University.
An accomplished scientist, he received national recognition for his work. In 1992, he earned an award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Scholar-Fellow Program to provide mentorship to a young scientist from 1993-1995. He was a National Institute of Health’s Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Senior Fellow from 1984-1986. And in 1995, he won the Maryland Chemist of the Year award from the American Chemical Society.
The college awarded him the Zepp Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998, which honors inspired classroom work and dedication to students. He was also the recipient of Faculty Special Achievement Awards in 1987, 1990, and 2012, and Scholarly Publications Awards in 1984, 1986, 1989, 1991, and 1992.
He earned multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, one of which allowed him to establish a molecular modeling laboratory on campus in the 1990s making then-Western Maryland College the first institution on the East Coast to do so.
Besides laboratory research, he was also passionate about genealogical research, which he shared with students in a unique Jan Term course. Students not only traced their own family history but also visited an undocumented, African American cemetery in Frederick County, Maryland, to make a record of the people buried there. The course was inspired by a genealogy workshop he taught for Common Ground on the Hill called Roots: A Search for Your Past.
In his spare time, he loved woodworking, bass fishing, and conducting historical research. He is survived by his wife of 27 years, Marilyn Kroeger-Smith, associate professor emerita of Chemistry, five children, and 10 grandchildren.
Professor Emerita of Music Julia Taylor Hitchcock of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, died April 27 at age 97. Hitchcock first began teaching voice lessons at the college in 1960 and retired 25 years later.
She found teaching vocal music to be “a great joy.” The students she mentored on the Hill regularly sang in campus performances, and Hitchcock often sang beside them. During her tenure at the college, she gave numerous faculty recitals and was a member of the College Singers, Baroque Ensemble, Women’s Glee Club, College Choristers, and a soloist with the College Choir.
Highly involved in local and national music communities, Hitchcock was a member of the choir at Westminster Church of the Brethren, the Carroll County Chorale, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Delta Omicron Music Fraternity, and Delta Kappa Gamma.
She also served as president of the American Association of University Women and of the Carroll County Choral Arts Society.
She was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1925. Musically talented from a young age, she performed in recitals with her father and as an actor with the Brandywiners at Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania.
She graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1948 with a B.A. in Music and Music Education. She then moved to Westminster, Maryland, and taught music in Carroll County Public Schools for a decade. In 1949, she married Fern R. Hitchcock Jr. ’47, professor emeritus of Physical Education.
She is survived by four children — including Dorothy Hitchcock Keene ’74 and Sharon Hitchcock ’80 — as well as eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, Fern, and her eldest daughter.