Dr. Robert Baldwin dies

BALDWIN

Dr. Robert Baldwin, a retired administrator and professor of education and 1993 recipient of the Clarion University Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award, died on Sept. 8. He taught at Clarion for 22 years.

Baldwin joined Clarion as the dean of the school of professional studies in 1971 and was one of the overseers in the development of the McKeever Environmental Center at Sandy Lake and the Flexible All-Year School at Clarion.

The all-year school, housed in the then newly constructed Becker Hall, provided a highly individualized instruction program for children during the entire year. Students were able to leave at any time for vacation and return without falling behind. Money for the program ran out in the late 1970s and the program was terminated.

The Penn-Soil Conservation Center at Sandy Lake, now called McKeever Center, was developed with political backing from Governor Raymond Schaeffer and Milton Shapp as a consortium operated outdoor education facility focusing on new teaching strategies concerned with environmental issues. New concepts were developed including week long programs and school visitations. Slippery Rock University recently assumed administrative responsibility for the center from Clarion.

Also during Baldwin's term as dean, the habilitative science program in special education (now rehabilitative science), speech pathology and audiology, and psychology departments developed and grew in enrollment. Baldwin was one of the leaders of the effort to separate psychology from the College of Education and place it in the College of Arts and Sciences. Baldwin also helped initiate an Honors Colloquium for exceptional students in 1975-76. This program was the predecessor of Clarion University's present Honors Program.

Following a retirement in 1981, Baldwin was named director of field services and a half-time teacher. He transferred to full-time faculty status in 1983. Serving on the Faculty Senate from 1972-75 and 1978-88, Baldwin chaired many committees and was a member of the committee on committees and rules which redrafted the constitution and by-laws in 1983-84. He also served as a director of the Clarion University Foundation from 1979-84 including three years as president, 1981-84. Among many other committees he served on the bargaining unit, tenure, and curriculum committees; ad hoc committee on presidential leadership; and the Cross Creek Committee on Undergraduate Education. He remains the only dean ever elected to Clarion University's Faculty Senate.

Baldwin was born in 1931 and grew up in Bridgeville. He received his B.A. in philosophy and M.A.T. in secondary education from Wesleyan University, certificate as an NSF Fellow at Allegheny College, and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Following two years in the U.S. Army, he taught at Latimer and Oliver High Schools in Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh, and Bowling Green University before joining Clarion.

Baldwin is survived by his wife, Margaret, three children, Ann Hightchew of Gilbert, AZ; Robert Baldwin of Columbia, MD, a Clarion graduate with a degree in actuary science; and Beth Applegate Baldwin of Cortland, N.Y.