IN REMEMBRANCE | SPRING 2024 | 79 an administrator and coach. Richard A. Beggs M.Ed. ’77, Maxatawny Township, Pa., Sept. 13, 2023. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, Beggs taught elementary music in the Kutztown School District. Russell P. Kopy MBA ’77, Bethlehem, Pa., Sept. 25, 2023. Barbara Fleming Luehning Ed.D. ’78, Onancock, Va., Sept. 13, 2023. James A. Agnew MBA ’79, State College, Pa., Dec. 12, 2023. Agnew worked for both PPL and FirstEnergy. Dennis S. Kanemori MBA ’79, Mount Dora, Fla., Nov. 25, 2023. A veteran of the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Kanemori worked as a packaging engineer in pharmaceuticals. Lucille A. Arnold M.Ed. ’83, Easton, Pa., Dec. 8, 2023. Arnold taught elementary and middle school for St. Philip and James in Phillipsburg, N.J. She later taught in the High Bridge School District. Richard E. Storat MBA ’83, Coopersburg, Pa., Sept. 7, 2023. Storat retired from the U.S. Army as a major general with 38 years combined experience between active and reserve duty. He served in Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm. Jefferson B. Vitelli M.Ed. ’85, Bethlehem, Pa., Aug. 21, 2023. Vitelli worked as a mental health counselor for Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems. Karen (Boyer) Smith M.Ed. ’89, Reston, Va., Dec. 9, 2023. Smith taught special education classes in the Allentown School District. Eric V. Mayer MBA ’92, Apex, N.C., Oct. 1, 2023. Mayer was a retired U.S. Army captain. He worked at Industrial Automation for 25 years. Matthew A. Porett M.A. ’92, Cottage Grove, Minn., Nov. 6, 2023. Genevieve (Martucci) Hanchick M.Ed. ’98, Bethlehem Township, Pa., Sept. 20, 2023. Hanchick taught honors classes at Northeast Middle School for nearly 20 years. She was also integral to her parents’ restaurant, The Grotto, for over 40 years. Michael J. Bricker M.S. ’04, Allentown, Pa., May 30, 2023. Peter Beidler ’65G ’68 Ph.D., a storied Lehigh professor who earned national accolades for his teaching, passed away on April 6, 2023. He was 83. A Chaucer scholar, Beidler taught English at Lehigh for 40 years before retiring and moving to Seattle, Washington, with his wife, Anne, in 2006. Former colleagues described him as a dynamic and engaging teacher. “He was charismatic,” says Barbara Traister, professor emerita of English. “He attracted students of all kinds from across the curriculum and was wonderfully suited as an undergraduate instructor. Students were mesmerized.” Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett ’76 ’78G ’03P ’05P ’07P ’09P says, “He made learning fun and enduring, finding ways of combining traditional learning experiences with pragmatic applications.” Over his career, Beidler authored or co-authored 32 books, edited 11 book-length projects, and wrote 207 articles. He lived for a time on a Hopi reservation in Arizona with his family while he worked on a novel, and he taught in China as a Fulbright scholar. Known for his novel approach to teaching, he formed a corporation with students one semester and fixed up a run-down house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, all while moving through a robust list of books on self-reliance. In 1983, he was named national Professor of the Year, the second recipient of the award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). “My father never described himself as a natural when it came to teaching,” says Kurt Beidler ’92. “He did have to work at it and plan it out. He was devoted to it and always prepared.” Peter Beidler himself had described teaching as a “red-eye, sweaty-palm, sinking-stomach profession. Red eye because I never feel ready to teach, no matter how late I stay up the night before preparing for class. Sweaty palm because I’m always nervous before I walk into that classroom, sure that I will be found out this time. Sinking stomach because I walk out of the classroom an hour later convinced that I was even more stuttering and bumbling than usual.” Beidler was aware of his power as a teacher, however. In an essay, he once wrote: “As a teacher I had both a decent salary, and the only kind of power worth having, the power to change lives.” A Storied Professor English professor emeritus Peter Beidler mesmerized students with his teaching. REMEMBERING Peter Beidler
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