In Memoriam

Lapointe, a professor who specialized in the study of words, particularly in the study of phrases and sentences, had been on campus since 1991, after having served as a tenured professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

When he arrived on campus, Lapointe immediately set to work on efforts to emphasize the role of linguistics within the curriculum and the research contributions made through the scientific study of language, said Lenora Timm, also a linguistics professor.

Lenora “Nora” Timm, a professor emerita of linguistics and former associate dean of Graduate Studies, died Nov. 22, 2016, at age 73 after a recurring battle with cancer. She was an internationally known expert on Breton, an endangered Celtic language of Brittany in northwest France.

Professor Schwabe was responsible for bringing English as a second language (ESL) instruction to UC Davis and overseeing it throughout the 70s and 80s. She also taught graduate courses in Linguistics on ESL pedagogy and has funded a grant that provides memberships in CATESOL (California Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) for graduate students in Linguistics.

Maximo Torreblanca was a professor in Linguistics and the Department of Spanish. He passed away in February of 2018.

Kathleen Ward was born in Boston, July 15, 1952. She was sent to a catholic boarding school where the nuns taught her French and cooking. She received her Ph.D, from the University of Wisconsin in 1974 in Linguistics and English Literature. She worked on the dictionary of American Speech. 

She came to Davis in 1980 and worked in both the departments of Linguistics and Engineering. She taught several courses in the Linguistics department including LIN 1, LIN 180, and some ESL.  She passed away in May 2022.