Dr. Glen Earthman
Research Legend and Quintessential Leader
“Quality is Never an Accident…It is Always the Result of Intelligent Efforts and the Will to Make a Superior Outcome!”
This statement by John Ruskin, 19th Century English Philosopher and Statesman, is a very appropriate reference for our individual and collective reflections about the life and contributions of our dearly departed colleague and cherished educational leader.
Dr. Glen Earthman, Associate Professor Emeritus in Educational Leadership at Virginia Tech, passed away peacefully at his home in Blacksburg, Virginia on March 26th, 2023. Glen was born on August 13, 1927, in Denver, Colorado and lived a robust life of research, teaching, and service. Dr. Earthman was a cherished friend and guiding personality to all International Society for Educational Planning (ISEP) members as well as his colleagues, associates, and students. He was truly an ISEP legend and organizational leadership icon who was instrumental in the development and continuous sustainment of our educational society during the past five decades. He was an exemplary educator whose life adroitly and meticulously reflected the above Ruskin statement in multiple dimensions and via lifelong actions. Glen was consumed by his desire to improve the quality of educational programs, processes, and facilities in order to increase the achievement and personal success of all students by his ubiquitous focused intelligent research and planning efforts as well as his unbridled will to make superior outcomes and encourage others to replicate his emphasis on quality.
Dr. Glen Earthman possessed over fifty years’ experience in the field of education at all levels including: public school teacher, principal, districtwide supervisor and planner, and lastly as professor of Educational Leadership. He taught for over forty-six years at Virginia Tech and chaired over 80 doctoral dissertations in addition to serving on over 75 other doctoral committees. He was a prolific researcher and scholar who served as an outstanding, demanding, yet, very endearing role model to his colleagues and students. He possessed boundless energy and the incredible will to serve others and help them achieve their respective goals via his unique personal approach to facilitating their own re-constructions and reflections of their knowledge, skills, and dispositions. He was the persistent and assiduous servant leader whose life work reflected his love for humanity and his belief in the value of quality education for all.
Glen’s personal background in education and his experiences as an international educational leader are truly legendary. After his service in the Merchant Marine, he attended the University of Denver receiving his B.A. in history and English and his M.A. degree in English and Education. He started teaching elementary grades in 1950 and served as an elementary school principal in Denver prior to his appointment as Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. He earned his EdD degree in Educational Administration from The University of Northern Colorado in 1964 and, subsequently, relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he served as Executive Director for School Planning in the Philadelphia Public Schools for almost a decade. In that position he was directly responsible for planning and constructing four large high schools, eight middle schools, and fifteen elementary schools. He then spent the next 46 years of his illustrious career at Virginia Tech teaching Educational Leadership and Planning courses and advising doctoral students. He also compiled an impressive record of research in the area of the relationships between school building conditions and student and teacher attitudes and performance. He was recognized both nationally and internationally for his expertise in this area, being cited in national and international journals and professional outlets. He made many presentations of his work both nationally and internationally. He was a keynote presentor to the European Development Bank about the influence that school building conditions have upon student achievement in developing countries. Dr. Earthman’s motivation to improve the quality of education for all via focused research was paramount throughout his career.
Dr. Earthman was awarded the Researcher of the Year in 2015 by the Virginia Educational Research Association (VERA) for his outstanding research career. Glen’s research is listed in several Internet sources and is accessed by a large number of students and professors worldwide each month. He provided expert testimony in numerous legal cases in several states concerning fiscal equity of state funding for school facilities such as in the famous Williams v. California landmark case and in education legal cases in Texas, South Carolina, and Alaska testifying about the correlations between improving school facilities to improve student comfort and achievement. In addition, Dr. Earthman provided consultation to over fifty educational organizations during his lifetime of educational leadership service. He authored eight books about educational facilities and published extensively in a variety of professional journals. He served as the first Director of the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities in 1997.
Dr. Glen Earthman joined the ISEP family in 1985 and attended all but three ISEP conferences since that time. He was elected ISEP President 1994-1995, served as ISEP Treasurer 2006-2017, and, also, served as Publisher of the ISEP Journal from 2009 until 2023. In addition, Glen served as ISEP Conference Host and Program Chair for the following ISEP annual conferences: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2007; Washington, D.C., 2004; Nashville, Tennessee, 1994; and Virginia Beach, Virginia, 1992. He joined the Merchant Marine after his graduation from high school and was a member of the US Naval Reserves for numerous years which explained his affinity to be sure that all ISEP conferences he hosted included exciting boating adventures for conference participants. Glen loved being on the water and loved observing others enjoying it!
Glen not only joined the ISEP family as an individual but also included his loving spouse, Julie Earthman, as a key ISEP partner. Julie was one of those remarkable ISEP family members whose “behind the scenes” commitment to ISEP is legendary. Julie served as the key conference registration person at most of the conferences of the past 30 years. She has been a very reliable family member whose unbridled selfless dedication truly exemplifies our ISEP family! Glen and Julie were a charming and very welcoming team at numerous ISEP meetings. They reflected class and commitment at every event and were always available to provide assistance to others.
Glen and Julie loved to travel and visited many places such as Tibet, China, Taj Mahal, Petra, Jordon, South Africa, Timbuktu, The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, Machu Picchu, sailed The Amazon River and the Yangtze River, rode camels on the Sahara Desert, visited the Soke in Marrakech, the Salt Mines in Poland, Hungarian castles, and almost every country in Europe and Scandinavia. They spent many Easter Sundays attending services in the Dome in Berlin, Germany. They also spent considerable time in northern England every year for at least 30 years where they rented a cottage in Kirkby Lonsdale for weeks just to spend time together. Glen and Julie possessed not only a devoted love for each other and our global village but especially for ISEP.
The International Society for Educational Planning (ISEP) is very proud to annually recognize a Dissertation of the Year Award Winner at our annual conference who reflects the high standards of dissertation research established by Glen Earthman. Glen’s life as an unrelenting researcher, acute servant leader, and a perpetual teacher will be remembered every year at ISEP conferences as the award, named in his honor, is presented to emerging scholars who recognize, as Dr. Earthman did, that, “Quality is Never an Accident…It is Always the Result of Intelligent Efforts and the Will to Make a Superior Outcome!”
Rest in Peace Dear Friend and Trailblazer, Dr. Glen Earthman.
You May Be Gone From Us Now, But Will Never Be Forgotten!
Mr. Jerry Wolfgang
Enduring Educator, Focused Organizational Leader, and
Global Researcher
Deceased on January 25, 2023
“A Resolute Global Thinker and Incessant Local Doer”
Jerald I. Wolfgang, age 84, passed away Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2022, at home in Lewiston, New York. He was a prominent leader in politics, community affairs, and economic development in Western New York. He was recognized as a global education leader who focusing his research contributions on planning for balancing both “high-tech” applications in the classroom with “hightouch” student-centered approaches to learning.
Jerry was a graduate of Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York and started his teaching career teaching primary grades in the Niagara Falls City School District. He later served as a director of career training and business opportunity development programs for the New York State Education Department. He also was as an instructor at Erie Community College and most recently was an adjunct professor with the Niagara University College of Hospitality, Sports and Tourism Management. Throughout his life, Jerry was very active in numerous community and civic organizations, such as the International Kiwanis Club of Lewiston focusing on providing educationally enriching and enjoyable experiences for all, but especially students from Pre-K to graduate school.
In addition, Jerry previously served as a special assistant to former New York Governor. Nelson Rockefeller; and as a special assistant to the New York State Assembly. He produced and hosted a Western New York Cable Television Program: Target Success for several years. That program featured local individuals with diverse backgrounds and interests as well as organizations and institutions that were truly making a difference in the lives of others. At the time of his death, he was a member of the Niagara County Community College Board of Trustees and Treasurer of the Buffalo-Niagara Phi Delta Kappa Educational Research and Leadership Organization.
Jerry actively participated in and presented his research contributions at several educational conferences throughout the USA and globally including: Association of Teacher Educator (ATE) Conferences and International Society for Educational Planning (ISEP) Conferences such as:
• 2019 ISEP Annual Conference (Lisbon, Portugal).
• 2019 ATE Annual Conference (Atlanta, Georgia).
• 2018 ISEP Annual Conference (Charleston, S.C.).
• 2017 ISEP Annual Conference (Toronto, Canada). Jerry was the conference co-chair.
• 2017 ATE Summer Conference (Pittsburgh, PA).
• 2016 ISEP Annual Conference (New Orleans, LA).
• 2016 ATE Annual Conference (Chicago, Illinois).
• 2015 ISEP Annual Conference (Baltimore, MD).
• 2015 ATE Annual Conference (Phoenix, Arizona).
• 2014 ISEP Annual Conference (Kyrenia, Cyprus). Jerry was elected to the ISEP Board of Directors at this conference and provided acute pragmatic advice to the organization.
• 2014 ATE Summer Conference and 2013 ISEP Annual Conference (Niagara Falls, NY). Jerry coordinated local arrangements for the membership and facilitated visits to local historical and geological sites during both conferences in his hometown of Niagara Falls.
• 2012 Conference (Kansas City, Mo).
In addition, his global influence was highlighted as he also presented at the following international conferences expressing his unrelenting concern to balance technology use in education with key human concerns of teachers and learners:
• 2013 Athens Institute for Education and Research Conference (Athens, Greece).
• 2012 World Federation of Associations of Teacher Educators (Nairobi, Kenya).
• 2012 International U.S./China Symposium on Classroom Management and Motivation for Learning (Hubei University of Education, Wuhan, China);
• U.S.-China 2012 Symposium of Educational, Technology and Teacher Leadership (Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China).
Jerry also traveled to Poland, Turkey, South Africa, and the Caribbean studying the current and future impacts of technology on people, things, and ideas.
Jerry Wolfgang was a multi-faceted educator and a formidable community leader in politics, economics, and organizational development who could always be counted upon to provide his “big picture” global perspectives, long-term strategies, and inimitable local tactical advice for “getting things done”. He was a resolute global thinker and incessant local doer who made significant differences in the lives of so many others in our global village.
May He Rest in Peace.
Dr. Dan Inbar
1935-2022
Dr. Dan Inbar, a very active and highly revered member of the International Society for Educational Planning including President in 1994-95, passed away at his home in Israel on April 4, 2022. Dan was born in Israel (Palestine at that time) in 1935. His parents were German-Jewish immigrants who settled in the city of Haifa. At the age of fourteen Danny worked to support his family as an office-boy making home deliveries of official documents. He spent much of his teenage free time reading philosophy, psychology, geography, and history books from the municipal library. His voracious reading and his tendency to look critically at questions and issues from multiple angles expanded his acute analytical dispositions. Subsequently, he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was awarded a scholarship to study for his PhD at the University of California in Berkley (1968-1971). He returned home after completing his PhD and became a faculty member at the School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dean of the School of Education.
Dan Inbar was one of the founding members of ISEP and attended most of the ISEP Conferences during the past 50 years welcoming all he met with his convivial personal approach as well as his ubiquitous professional passion to improve educational experiences via focused educational planning research. He was recognized as the quintessential professor who loved teaching and thoroughly enjoyed interacting with his colleagues about his latest research related to his incessant questioning about the relationships between leadership theory and current planning practices. He was globally recognized as a pre-eminent educational planner whose critical insights presented at individual interactions, conference settings, or group round tables would be pondered long after Dan had articulated them. Those who had the personal and professional honor of interacting with him always reflected about his intellectual acumen, insatiable quest for knowledge, caring professional commitment, unbridled personal sense of challenge, enthusiastic creativity, and assiduous concentration on making our world better for all via excellence in educational planning.
Dan Inbar was truly an outstanding educational thinker and leader of our time who left an indelible legacy to all who knew him especially the members of ISEP who looked forward to learning from and interacting with him at the ISEP Annual Conference. He considered ISEP as his academic international family and the annual ISEP Conference as his “Annual Family Reunion” as he truly cherished every opportunity to converse with his ISEP colleagues who anxiously anticipated his well prepared and thought-provoking presentations and discussions. His astute reflections and summary synthesis of conference presentations added immeasurably to every ISEP conference that he attended and inspired so many members to continue researching and evaluating topics of interest to them and of significant benefit to improving education throughout our world such as: Providing Second Chances in Education; Integration vs. Segregation; The Role and Responsibility of Educational Planners; Paradoxes and Tensions Between Regularity and Trust in Educational Systems; Planning for Innovation in Education; Schools’ Autonomy in Centralized Education Systems; Chances vs. Risks in the Use of New Technologies in Schools, and many more. His journal publications and book chapters reflected both the incredible scope and research depth of his insightful perceptions based on his comprehensive analysis of diverse topics.
Dr. Dan Inbar will be dearly missed by those people who knew him and worked with him. His wisdom, humaneness, and sense of humor will be cherished by the members of the ISEP family and his wife, Edna, his three daughters and five grandchildren. We embrace his memory.
Dr. Ron A. Lindahl
Ronald Arthur Lindahl, who was a member of the International Society for Educational Planning for over 30 years, passed away at his home in Montgomery, Alabama on September 12, 2017. He was a Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy & Law at Alabama State University at the time of his death. His wife of 19 years, Normie, and daughter Karen survive him.
Ron received his bachelor’s degree in Music Education, and his Master’s and PhD in Educational Administration at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. He began his life’s work, teaching, in the public schools of Cheraw, Colorado. He then taught overseas for the Department of Defense (DOD) Schools in England. Following his graduate education he also spent a few years in Brazil serving as Coordinator of the Human Resource Planning and Development Program for the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. On his return to the US, he served as the Head of the Loretto School in Kansas City, Kansas.
He began his career as a professor at the University of Texas El Paso as an Assistant Professor. Later he served as a Chair and Dean. He also was
a member of the faculty of Educational Administration at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington and Chair of Educational Leadership at Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Ron’s final position was Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership in the Educational Leadership Program at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama.
Dr. Lindahl wrote extensively in the field of educational planning and authored over 40 manuscripts in various peer-reviewed journals, including Educational Planning. His research efforts were mainly in the field of educational planning and in the principalship. He co-authored many manuscripts and worked with his colleague and close friend Dr. Robert Beach, founder and coordinator of the doctoral program in Educational Leadership, Policy & Law at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama.
Dr. Lindahl was a recognized national and international expert in the field of educational planning and made many presentations in both the United States and overseas. His contributions to the state of educational planning were many and varied. Authors in the field who recognized his
expertise cited his writings frequently.
His work in the International Society for Educational Planning spanned many decades. He served in many capacities—member of the Board of Directors, Vice-President, and Chair for various committees. Ron had a wonderful sense of humor and regaled the ISEP membership at meetings. He had great insight into the process of planning and frequently shared those insights with ISEP members through his
presentations. Because of his winning ways and common sense he was liked by everyone.
Unfortunately, in the latter years of his life he suffered from an inability to physically get around due to a variant form of ALS; yet he continue with his work and contributions to ISEP. Much to the admiration of his friends and colleagues he persevered with his efforts in supporting The Society.
He will be greatly missed not only by his family, but also by all individuals who had the opportunity to meet and work with him. Ron was a giant in the field of educational planning.
Ron was an enthusiastic backpacker—he climbed many mountains.
Dr. Mary Chandler
1948-2016
Dr. Mary Chandler, President of the International Society for Educational Planning (ISEP), passed away on November 13, 2016, at her home. Mary was a long-time member of ISEP and was elected president at the ISEP Annual Meeting in October 2015 in Baltimore.
Mary and her family immigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1956 during the height of the communist revolution, settling in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
Mary was a graduate of Indiana University, Emory University, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Kennesaw State University Coles College of Business. She was a classroom teacher, middle school assistant principal, middle and high school principal, and consultant for the Georgia Teacher Evaluation Program at Georgia State University. She served as an academic professional at the University of Georgia before coming to Kennesaw State University. She was also a certified managerial coach.
Her research interests included coaching educational leaders, facility planning, school business administration, school finance, law, ethics, and international education.
During her time with ISEP, Mary was known for her warm personality, her passion for educational planning and for being a true professional. During her short reign as President of ISEP, her leadership style was authentic, collaborative, and inspirational. In addition, Mary was most willing to challenge herself and others in order for ISEP to carry out its mission.
In their book Leading with Soul, Bolman and Deal (2011) offer the following about effective leadership: the essence of leadership is not giving tangible things or even inspirational visions. It is offering oneself and one’s spirit (p. 122). Dr. Mary Chandler will be missed, especially by those of us in ISEP who had gotten to know her so well. But, her spirit will carry on and for that, ISEP will be much better off.