Lay faculty set service records Since retiring from the English Department in 2005, Barry McAndrew has continued to do the things he loves – like announcing Laker football and basketball games, performing in musical theater and teaching Shakespeare courses at Erie’s Jefferson Educational Society. This year he appeared in his 29th consecutive edition of A Canterbury Feast, the medieval dinner theater he joined in 1983. Sons Marc and Brian, ‘Hurst ’88 and ‘89, took him to Ireland as a retirement present. When McAndrew retired, he set a record for service by a lay faculty member at Mercyhurst – 41 years. Remarkably, a pair of his colleagues have broken that record. Dan Burke, chair of the art department, and Rob Hoff, chair of the psychology department, joined the faculty in September 1969 and are now in their 43rd year teaching on the Hill. Burke had made history earlier as Mercyhurst’s first male graduate. When college trustees approved coeducation in February 1969, he was nearing completion of his degree at Gannon, though he had taken all his art courses at Mercyhurst. After the board vote, he was able to graduate with Mercyhurst’s Class of 1969. An Erie native, he studied with noted artist Joseph Plavcan at Tech Memorial and then enrolled at Columbus College of Art for two years. Following three years of Army service, he used his G.I. Bill benefits to finish his education. Sr. Angelica Cummings, his teacher and mentor, quickly hired him and became his friend and confidante. Burke’s a prolific artist, most recently showing works in “SculptureX,” an exhibit by regional artists/professors at both the Sculpture Center in Cleveland and the Erie Art Museum. He’s now preparing for a one-person show in spring 2012 at the Southern Alleghenies 6
Museum of Art in Altoona, Pa. He was named to the inaugural class of Mercyhurst Research Fellows in 2010. Hoff arrived at Mercyhurst in 1969 with the mud of Woodstock still on his shoes. He had finished his master’s degree at the University of Minnesota and was close to a doctorate in experimental psychology. There was no psychology major here at the time, but student interest was so high that one was created the following year. Hoff, the Hurst’s first full-time psychology professor, became the department’s chair – and has held the job ever since, probably another record. The department now has close to 100 majors, plus additional concentrations in applied behavior analysis, the psychology of crime and justice, and neuroscience. Hoff has received many awards for his teaching, including the college’s Teaching Excellence Award in 1992. He has no plans to quit the teaching he loves or the research he enjoys equally. Areas of focus include the mirror neuron system of the brain and the perception of emotion in music. And his greatest enthusiasm is following the careers of ‘Hurst psych grads (such as Dr. David Dausey – see Page 4). At an institution so inextricably woven with the Sisters of Mercy, it’s not surprising that several Sisters were connected to the college even longer than McAndrew, Burke and Hoff. Sister Edith Langiotti, archivist for the Erie community, says Sister Helen Jean Sullivan worked at the college from 1953 to 2007 – 54 years. Just a few of the other Sister faculty with exceptionally long tenure: • Sister M. Eustace Taylor • Sister M. Angelica Cummings • Sister M. Eymard Poydock