SANDYE JEAN MCINTYRE, II

The Northeast Conference was saddened to learn of the death on October 8, 2006 of Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II, at 83 years of age. We wish to express our deep sympathy to the family, friends, and colleagues of this remarkable individual. Dr. McIntyre taught French full-time at Morgan State College (now Morgan State University) from 1948-1988, serving as Director of the Fulbright Scholarship Program there from 1951 until his death. His life beyond academe is the stuff of legends: as his son, Sandye J. McIntyre III, wrote in a piece celebrating him at his funeral, “He was a renaissance man in the truest sense … a passionate advocate for international peace through intellectual and academic exchange (…) He could converse with anyone on a myriad of subjects, thoughtfully, intelligently and memorably.” His son’s tribute notes that Dr. McIntyre knew Dizzy Gillespie, Mahatma Gandhi, Pablo Picasso, Albert Camus, Anwar al-Sadat, Golda Meir, François Mitterrand, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, yet he states that Dr. McIntyre “was just as likely to have a conversation with a janitor at Morgan as he was a foreign dignitary or head of state, and infuse each dialogue with the same level of interest.”

Honored with awards and recognition from his earliest years (he was Ohio’s Boys’ Tennis Champion at 9, he won academic medals in high school, he earned a Bronze Star Medal following his military service during World War II, he was the first African-American to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to France and had Fulbrights to Israel, Senegal, Mali, Gambia and Liberia, as well), Dr. McIntyre was selected as the Nelson H. Brooks Award winner by the Northeast Conference in 1992. The Brooks Award recognizes an outstanding teacher with a long record of distinguished service in the profession. We are pleased to reproduce here the moving tribute written in 1992 by Board member Nancy Anderson.

This year, the Nelson H. Brooks award for distinguished leadership in the profession is being presented to Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II, Professor Emeritus of Foreign Languages at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. McIntyre is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Senegal, having formerly been Honorary Consul of the Republic of Haiti. A native of Cleveland, he obtained his B.A. degree from Johnson C. Smith University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Romance Languages and French from Case Western Reserve University. He was decorated by the French government as Chevalier and later Officier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques for his outstanding contributions to the field of foreign language study.

Dr. McIntyre has been director of the Fulbright program at Morgan State since 1951. In the period from 1953 to 1990, Morgan State students received 72 Fulbright or Fulbright-related grants, one of the highest, if not the highest, number of these awards given to any college or university in the United States [Morgan State emphatically leads the more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in this category; by the end of his career, Dr. McIntyre had helped well over 100 individuals obtain these scholarships]. Dr. McIntyre has also served as president of the American Association of Teachers of French Maryland chapter and is a member of numerous other professional organizations. Named the Outstanding Professor of Foreign Languages in the state of Maryland in 1989, he is the author of approximately 50 one-act plays in French… All of this just barely does justice to the very impressive list of the contributions of Dr. McIntyre. In the past year alone, he has traveled and lectured in eleven countries and received numerous other awards. Dr. McIntyre, you fully represent the true meaning of distinguished service and leadership in the profession. We are very honored to present to you the Nelson Brooks Award.

EDWARD D. ALLEN

The Northeast Conference has learned the sad news of the death of Dr. Edward D. Allen on July 2, 2006, at the age of 83 years.

Dr. Allen, Professor Emeritus of Foreign Languages at Ohio State University and Visiting Professor of Modern Languages at Ohio Wesleyan University, received the Northeast Conference Nelson H. Brooks Award for outstanding service and leadership in the profession in 1996. The tribute composed in his honor on that occasion is presented here with our sincere condolences to Dr. Allen’s many colleagues and to his family members.

The Northeast Conference takes great pleasure in awarding its Nelson H. Brooks prize to Edward D. Allen, currently Visiting Professor of Modern Foreign Languages at Ohio Wesleyan University. Dr. Allen is most frequently recognized by his colleagues – among them many former students – for his qualities as a mentor. At the Ohio State University, whose faculty he joined in 1945, no fewer than seventy doctoral candidates have completed degrees under Allen’s tutelage. His contribution to our profession is thus a markedly personal and human one, and the example he sets is all the more valuable. “Service” and “leadership,” the two criteria of the Brooks Award, assume their true and fullest meaning as Edward D. Allen’s name is associated with it.

Edward Allen received the B.A. from Montclair State University, the M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and the Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education from Ohio State. His research encompasses the areas of second language acquisition, cross-cultural analysis, and language proficiency. Dr. Allen has been awarded grants in support of his investigations by the U.S. Office of Education. He has also been honored by ACTFL, NYSAFLT, and the Central States Conference for his leadership and his work as a teacher educator. Allen received the Palmes Académiques and was elected to the Education Hall of Fame at the Ohio State University.

Allen’s publications include Classroom Techniques: Foreign Languages and English as a Second Language, co-authored with Rebecca Valette and long a mainstay of methodology courses. In addition to gracing the shelves of all foreign language educators worth their salt with his text, Allen has conducted eight N.D.E.A. institutes in the United States and France, as well as teacher training institutes all over the country and the world.

The integrity and coherence of Edward D. Allen’s career set a unique standard for his colleagues. He honors the Brooks Award with his acceptance and us with his presence at the 1996 Conference.