Janet Scott, a middle school mathematics teacher in Lewisville, has set up a "mathematics education" foundation through the Texas A&M University-Commerce mathematics department in the name of her father William C. McAfee, a mathematics major and 1936 alumn of Texas A&M University-Commerce. She credits her father with encouraging and supporting her in her mathematical interests. The foundation will support mathematics education by funding such things as faculty and student travel to pertinent conferences and the purchase of teaching resources for the department. Ms. Scott and her father particularly wish to support activities which give elementary teachers a strong preparation in mathematics. In addition to donations, funds will be raised through fees collected at an annual middle school and high school TMSCA (Texas Math & Science Coaches Association) mathematics competition. Ms. Scott is actively involved in organizing these competitions on a state level and the A&M-Commerce mathematics department is very grateful for her initiative to organize such competitions on this campus! The department looks forward to its first meet in either January or February 2000. In addition the department wishes to extend its hearty thanks to Janet Scott and William C. McAfee for donating seed money to start this new foundation!

    For the third year in a row Heidi Staebler of the A&M–Commerce mathematics department and Maribeth McAnally of the A&M-Commerce computer science department have received an Eisenhower grant in conjunction with the professional development of local elementary teachers. This year’s grant is entitled "Integrating Geometry & Technology." Twenty-one teachers participated in a three-week summer workshop. They also attended the Texas CAMT conference and are meeting for monthly follow-up sessions during the 1999-2000 school year. Ms. Staebler and Ms. McAnally plan to apply for a continuation of this grant for 2000-2001 and Ms. Staebler also plans to apply for a second grant aimed at secondary teachers focusing on the new "Mathematical Models with Applications" high school course. Dr. Bill Aslan also taught a workshop course for secondary mathematics teachers during summer 1999.
    In addition, the A&M-Commerce mathematics faculty continues to take advantage of their own professional development opportunities in regard to teacher preparation. For the past year Heidi Staebler has been involved in the Texas Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation, a collaborative of primarily A&M system schools funded by the National Science Foundation. The collaborative has as its long term goal the recruitment and retention of K-12 teachers in mathematics and science. Through the NSF grant Ms. Staebler attended several working meetings and training sessions. Among them were the 1998 October Preservice Conference focusing on elementary teacher preparation in mathematics sponsored by the Charles A. Dana Center of the University of Texas – Austin, a TEXTEAMS institute on using performance tasks in mathematics and the TEXTEAMS "Mathematical Modeling Institute for Secondary Teachers" at the University Forum. Charlie Jones also attended the TEXTEAMS institute "Rethinking Middle School Mathematics: Proportionality Across the TEKS for Grades 6-8" at the University Forum through the collaborative. As a result of these activities, both Ms. Staebler and Mr. Jones are available and certified to facilitate TEXTEAMS workshops for teachers.

    Last spring, the mathematics clubs donated $200 each to the two scholarship funds named in honor of Bub Taylor and Dennis Grantham. The money was raised through the sale of reviews for College Algebra and Intermediate Algebra courses and other projects.
    The officers for the 1999-2000 year are Hunter Muse of Mabank, Pi Mu Epsilon President; Laura Patton of Commerce, Vice President; Mike Coutts of Toronto, Canada, MAA President; Mark Stellpflug of Paris, Vice President; and Barbara Shaw of Longview, Treasurer.
    We hope to have Elizabeth Razniak, a former member of Pi Mu Epsilon, come back and speak to us on October 29. She is now working in the medical research field in Houston. We are also planning a picnic this month, a Christmas Party for December, and a Spring Banquet, as well as other meetings. We encourage our members to go to the meeting of the Texas Section of the MAA too, this year to be held at UT in Austin. We were very pleased to have Mike Coutts give a talk at the section meeting at Southwest Texas State last spring.
 
 

    Rick Herrington is from Waurika, Oklahoma. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a minor in Chemistry from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. He earned a Master of Science in Mathematics from Texas Tech University. He did his thesis on abstract algebra. Rick’s wife, Valerie, is currently the senior loan processor for FirstBank in Farmersville. While working on his undergraduate degree, Rick worked as a cook, truck driver and fork-lift / front-end loader operator. While at Texas Tech he was a part-time Graduate Instructor in the Mathematics and Statistics Department. His outside interests include hunting, hotrods and motorcycles.

    We are pleased to have Dr. Sam Obeid as a member of the Mathematics Department faculty. He was born in Lebanon, and his outside interests include computers, hunting, fishing, volleyball and table tennis. He speaks two languages in addition to English: Arabic and French.  He earned his Maîtrise in mathematics at the Lebanese University of Beirut in 1983. The following two years, he taught high school in Sidon. In 1986 he was offered a scholarship by the Hariri Foundation to attend the University of North Texas in Denton, where he received an MS in mathematics in 1988. He was a teaching fellow at UNT and began working on his dissertation, "Property (H*) and Differentiability in Banach Spaces," and completed his Ph.D. in 1993. From 1993-96, he worked in the Dallas Independent School District as well as North Lake College in Irving. In 1996, he and his wife, Lisa, moved to Kilgore, where he taught at Kilgore College for three years.

    Pamela Webster returns to the department this year as an ad-interim instructor. She has served as a part-time adjunct instructor in the department for the better part of the last four years. She received her Master’s degree in Mathematics from this institution in 1998, and is currently beginning doctoral work in Mathematics Education.  Pamela has held several jobs while attending college, including eight years as a dispatcher with the University Police Department, two years as a high school teacher in Greenville, and adjunct instructor for PJC and Grayson CC. Her outside interests include volleyball and horseback riding/jumping.

    We are grateful to the many alumni who have improved our department by the support of scholarship endowments. At present, we have the following endowments in the Mathematics Department.  Rachel Lafferty, Cecil B. Wright, Dennis Grantham, W. W. "Bub" Taylor, John and Elaine Yznaga, Dale and Betty Bedgood, and Northeast Texas Transfer.
You can make contributions to any of these by contacting the Mathematics Department, or the TAMU-Commerce Development Office (903-886-5712).

Brian Allen is working at Raytheon in Greenville, Texas, and he still enjoys playing racquetball.

Lynda Berryhill Byrd (BS ‘58) has just retired after teaching mathematics for 36 years in Texas City, Texas. Her address is now:
                        250 Governors Point
                        Point Blank, Texas 77364

Cynthia Steward: (BS, MS, EdD ‘97)
    "My most important job is that of bringing home and preparing enough 'bacon' for my three 250-lb. sons to consume. (Praise God my daughter recently got married!) Between meals I can be found teaching freshman and sophomore mathematics classes for Paris Junior College on the Greenville and Sulphur Springs campuses. I am currently assigned to a couple of committees in preparation for a SACS visit and I am taking a sex-education class. I just hope I don't get the two mixed up. I am a product of the TAMU-C mathematics department and readily admit that I stole most of the qualities that make me the excellent teacher I am from those teachers I had between 1980-1997."

Home address PO Box 55, Cooper, Texas 75432
Home phone (903) 395-4904, work(903) 885-1232,
e-mail csteard@neto.com or csteward@paris.cc.tx.us.

Stephanie Tyler (BS '87) has been appointed Mathematics Department Chair at the University of Tennessee-Martin. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994.

    Dr. Rick Kreminski has been appointed Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, effective Fall, 1999. His assignment, which is half-time, will include working with the Dean on special projects, while still teaching two courses in the mathematics department. So far, his work has resulted in the scheduling of a series of Arts and Sciences Colloquium Luncheons. You can visit the web site he maintains for the College, to see what other problems he's causing, at http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/coas.

Dr. Bartley Goddard has taken a position at Concordia College in Austin, Texas. His e-mail address is goddardb@concordia.edu.

Dr. Warren Koepp has moved to Alpine, Texas and both Dr. and Mrs. Koepp have positions with Sul Ross University. wkoepp@sulross.edu

The thirteenth annual Mathematics Homecoming Student/Alumni Breakfast will be held at 9:00 a.m., Saturday, October 30, 1999 in the Bluebonnet room of the Sam Rayburn Memorial Student Center. Please send in your reservations by October 26, 1999. The cost is $6.50 per person.

Name:

Phone:

Address:

City, State & Zip:

Please reserve ___ places at the Homecoming Breakfast on October 30, 1999 @ $6.50 each.

Enclosed $