People

Obituary: William Pleppo, retired Physical Plant plumber/steamfitter

William Pleppo, 89, of Hadley, a retired plumber/steamfitter for Mechanical Maintenance at Physical Plant, died Dec. 19 at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Born in Amherst, he graduated from Smith Vocational High School. After school he entered into the U.S. Army and served in the Korean War.

He worked at Westinghouse in Springfield, and then at Physical Plant for 35 years until his retirement in 1986.
 
He leaves his wife Frances, daughter Karen Ann Pleppo and his sister.

The funeral will be Saturday, Dec. 22 at 9:30 a.m. at the Most Holy Redeemer Church in Hadley.

Rose chosen as Upward Bound program director

Alumnus Tyson Rose has been named program director for the campus’s revitalized Upward Bound initiative, according to Jean Kim, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life.
 
In a Dec. 13 e-mail to faculty and staff, Kim said Upward Bound is a federally funded TRIO program that serves high school students from low-income families, and high school students from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor's degree.

Gerstel recognized as Spotlight Scholar

Distinguished Professor Naomi Gerstel of the Sociology Department, whose research has examined gender inequality, work, marriage, and how race and class shape caregiving and the extended family, has been recognized as a Spotlight Scholar.

Gerstel, who joined the faculty in 1978, has been cited in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Charlie Rose and Good Morning America.

Read more about Gerstel’s career and research

Macchia's opera to premiere at New Music Festival in NC

Insectaphobia, an opera by Salvatore Macchia, professor of contrabass and composition in the Department of Music and Dance, will premiere in March at the New Music Festival of the East Carolina University School of Music in Greenville, N.C.

Performances will take place March 24-26 with a morning performance for schoolchildren on March 27. Edward Jacobs, director of the New Music Festival and professor of composition at the school of music, received a B.A. in Music Composition in 1984 at UMass Amherst, where he studied composition with Macchia and saxophone with professor Lynn Klock.

Ben-Ur awarded study grant by Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

Associate professor Aviva Ben-Ur of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies has been awarded a Senior Grant in History from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute for her book project “Eurafrican Identity in a Jewish Society: Suriname, 1660-1863.”
 
Ben-Ur’s book project focuses on slave society in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in South America, where Jews of Iberian origin were among the earliest colonists.

Pages