Henry A. Lea, 92, of Amherst, professor emeritus of German, died April 4 after a long illness.
Born in Berlin, Germany, he and his brother, Rudolph, immigrated to Philadelphia in 1934 after the Nazis took power. In 1938 he graduated as first honor man from Philadelphia’s Central High School and won the Mayor’s Scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania.
Shortly after completing his bachelor’s degree in 1942, he joined the U.S. Army and became one of the Ritchie Boys, a special military intelligence unit made up mainly of German-speaking immigrants trained at Camp Ritchie, Maryland.
The University Chorale is a finalist in the WGBY Together in Song Choral Competition and will be one of the featured choirs in the competition’s showcase concert on April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre in Springfield. 
Research professor of Chinese E. Bruce Brooks presented an informal talk on Lau Dan, the supposed author of the still wildly popular classical Chinese text, the Dau/Dv Jing, for a student and faculty audience at the University of Oregon, followed by a formal version at the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society, on March 15 in Portland, Ore. 
Environmental and health activist filmmaker Annie Leonard is the keynote speaker for Earth Day on Monday, April 22 at 7 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium. She is the creator of the animated short documentary film, “The Story of Stuff,” which has been viewed more than 10 million times worldwide. Leonard will also sign copies of her book, “The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health, and a Vision for Change.”
The campus will conduct a routine test of its Emergency Notification System on Wednesday, April 24 after 10:30 a.m., according to Tom O’Regan, emergency preparedness and business continuity planning manager with Environmental Health & Safety.
Undergraduates Tess Brickley ’15, Kelly Malone ’13, Alexander Borges ’14, and Ankur Sheel ’13 have been designated the first UMass Amherst Rising Researchers. The Rising Researcher award is a new program co-funded by University Relations and Research and Engagement to recognize campus undergraduates who excel in research, scholarship and creative activity.
Linda Gregerson, the Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, will give the Dan S. Collins Lecture, “Milton and the Tragedy of Nations,” on Tuesday, April 23 at 4 p.m. at the Renaissance Center, 650 East Pleasant St.
Chemist Jeanne Hardy has won the seventh annual Armstrong Fund for Science Awards, which this year is granting $30,000 over two years to encourage transformative research that introduces new ways of thinking about pressing scientific or technical challenges. Hardy will be recognized at the Honors Dinner for invited faculty on April 29.