Louise M. Alton, Professor Emeritus of music, died Dec. 29 in Denton. She joined the university in 1968 and taught music education and voice until retiring in 1980. She was a member of the International Society for Music Education and traveled to Australia and Europe to speak about the benefits of music education for exceptional children. She also was a member of the National Federation of Music Clubs, Music Educators National Conference, Sigma Alpha Iota honorary music fraternity and Delta Kappa Gamma honorary education fraternity. She previously taught elementary and secondary vocal music, piano and choral music in school systems in Louisiana, Alabama and New Mexico. Alton was the first female president of the Louisiana Music Educators Association from 1962 to 1966 and was inducted into the association’s Hall of Fame in 1986. She directed the undergraduate music education program at Louisiana Tech University before joining UNT. Alton earned an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University, a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a doctorate from Columbia University. During World War II, she served with the Red Cross as a music therapist in military hospitals.

Jim Albright, associate professor of advertising in the Mayborn School of Journalism, died June 30 in Denton. Albright joined the journalism faculty in 1989 and served as chair of the Department of Journalism from 2000 to 2003. He was previously a copywriter, broadcast producer and creative chief for several large advertising agencies and was the president of Jim Albright Advertising and Albright Council during the 1970s. His clients included the American Heart Association, Astroworld, Pepsi Cola, Maxwell House and Mrs. Baird’s Bread. As a creative group head at TracyLocke in Dallas during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he helped to create a Doritos ad campaign that ran for 12 years and made Doritos the best seller for Frito-Lay. He also is credited with creating the name “Funyuns” for the onion-flavored corn snack introduced by Frito-Lay in 1969. While teaching, Albright continued to work as an advertising consultant and producer. In 1998, he received two national awards for a Sally Beauty Co. commercial he created with JDK Communications in Dallas. The author of the textbook Creation of the Advertising Message, Albright wrote numerous articles for AdWeek and other publications. He also taught at the University of Missouri at Columbia and Southern Methodist University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from the University of Toledo.

Zhibing Hu, Regents Professor of physics who had worked at UNT since 1990, died July 16 in Houston. Hu was an expert on hydrogels, water-based polymers with applications in medicine and other areas, and he had numerous patents. Research he conducted with a team from Harvard and Columbia universities was published in the journal Nature and could lead to better design and manufacturing of glass. His papers also were published in Science, Physical Review Letters and the Journal of Chemical Physics, among many other publications.Hu mentored students in UNT’s Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science who earned Goldwater Scholarships and recognition in the Intel and Siemens science competitions based on their research in his lab. His son, Peter, also attended TAMS and placed sixth in the national Siemens competition.Hu's work was funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, the Army Research Office, Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Alcon Laboratories. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing and a master’s degree and doctorate in physics from McMaster University in Ontario. He completed postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a member of the American Physical Society and Sigma Xi.

James R. Lerch, Professor Emeritus of music, died Aug. 9. He served on the faculty at UNT from 1966 to 1992 as an instructor of violin and was coordinator of the strings area for 20 years. He previously was concertmaster and associate conductor of the Akron Symphony and founder and conductor of the Winston-Salem Symphony. He taught at Salem College, Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, the University of Maine, the University of Akron and Tunghai University in Taiwan. Lerch was a violinist with the Carnegie Trio and a member of the Eastman String Quartet, the American String Teachers Association, Music Teachers National Association, Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia of America. He was a recitalist and chamber music performer in Texas, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. Lerch earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a Juilliard Foundation Fellowship, and earned a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. He was a U.S. Army veteran.

John L. ‘Jack’ Baier, Denton, professor of higher education from 1992 to 2011, died May 7. He previously was a professor, program chair and vice president for student affairs at the University of Alabama. He also was assistant vice president for student affairs at Texas Tech University, associate dean of student development at the University of Nebraska and assistant dean of student life at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Baier received service awards from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the American College Personnel Association. He earned a bachelor’s degree from General Motors Institute (Kettering University), a master’s from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a doctorate from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He completed postdoctoral study at Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management.

Ralph Borden Culp, Denton, Professor Emeritus of dance and theatre who worked at UNT from 1971 to 1999, died March 3. As a professor and former chair in the Department of Dance and Drama (now the Department of Dance and Theatre), he directed more than 200 plays, musicals and operas and published two textbooks. In 1999, he was awarded the Texas Educational Theatre Association Founder’s Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to educational theatre in Texas. Culp also taught at Rutgers University and the University of Texas at El Paso. He attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C., before joining the U.S. Air Force and serving as a pilot of mid-air refueling planes in the Korean War. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern Methodist University and a doctorate from Cornell. Memorials may be made to the Ralph B. Culp Endowment and Scholarship in Directing at UNT.

Clyde E. Miller, Denton, Professor Emeritus of music, died March 30. He was a College of Music faculty member from 1955 to 1983, becoming the university’s first full-time horn instructor in 1964. He served as principal horn in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 1948 to 1964, and played with the Indianapolis Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic Orchestra among others, and for performances on Broadway, Dallas Summer Musicals and Fort Worth’s Casa Mañana. He also taught at Butler Conservatory.Miller earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master’s from Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and, as a member of the U.S. Army Band, played for ceremonies for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Memorials may be made to the Endowed Clyde Miller Horn Scholarship at UNT.

James R. Miller, Denton, Dean Emeritus of education and founding dean of the Emeritus College, died Dec. 5. Miller retired from full-time teaching in 1991 after spending 14 years as an administrator in the College of Education, including serving as dean from 1985 to 1991. He continued on modified service until 1996, serving in 1995 as interim dean of what is now the College of Information. While dean of education, he established the Quality Assurance Program and helped establish one of the first academic programs in computer education and cognitive systems in the country. He also developed the concept and wrote the proposal for the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at UNT. In 2009, he was named founding dean of the Emeritus College, which provides travel and classes for adults older than 50 and is part of UNT’s Center for Achievement and Lifelong Learning. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, a master’s from Bowling Green State University and his doctorate from Kent State. Memorials may be made to UNT’s E. LaMar Hoke Memorial Scholarship, Dean Emeritus James R. Miller Scholarship or James R. Miller Emeritus College Scholarship.

Jean Mainous, Denton, who served on the College of Music faculty from 1949 to 1952, 1955 to 1957 and 1975 to 1997, died Jan. 23. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University with majors in piano and violin, and then attended Yale University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in violin and a master's degree in piano, and received the Charles Ditson Fellowship for foreign study and travel. She received a diploma from the Juilliard Graduate School of Music, where she studied piano with Olga Samaroff Stokowski.She taught at the Manhattan School of Music and at Juilliard and was a faculty member at the Summer Music Institute in Taiwan. She appeared as featured soloist with orchestras, in chamber music ensembles and as a duo-pianist with her longtime friend and fellow piano faculty member Mary Nan Mailman (’50, ’56 M.M.). She was preceded in death by her husband, Frank Mainous, Professor Emeritus of music. Memorials may be made to the Dean’s Camerata — Jean Mainous Piano Scholarship in the College of Music.

Richard William Stream, Denton, who worked at UNT from 1980 through 2000, died March 2. He joined the university as professor and chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, later Speech and Hearing Sciences, and was the first director of admissions for the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. He served as a community advisor to the College of Music. He also taught at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, a master’s from Vanderbilt and a doctorate from Northwestern University. He received a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA.