Jack R. Haynes (’57, ’58 M.A.), 87, of Denton, Professor Emeritus of psychology who worked at UNT from 1963 to 2001, died Feb. 2. In 1995, he was part of the committee that founded The Merl Bonney Endowed Fund in Psychology. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, and earned his degrees from Texas Chris- tian University. Survivors include his daughter, Kyla Welch (’90).

Virginia Dick (’57, ’64 M.A.), 83, of Bridgeport, an adjunct professor of hospitality management from 2000 to 2007, died Feb. 23 in Denton. She received her doctorate in home economics from Oklahoma State University, then taught at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Texas Woman’s University and UNT. She was a published author of educational materials and a consultant to nursing homes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Barbara Ann Mathis Tarbutton (’61, ’90 Ph.D.), Brookhaven, Mississippi. She taught voice at high schools, colleges and universities in Texas, Alaska, Florida and Mississippi, then for 22 years at Lamar University in Beaumont before she retired. She spoke at many colleges in the U.S. and Europe about vocal cord pathology, a subject in which she was considered an expert. The soprano sang The Star- Spangled Banner for President Lyndon B. Johnson and performed in renowned places such as Carnegie Hall and The Vienna Opera House.

Emmett Reese Baker (’61, ’63 M.Ed.), Denton. He had a 35-year career in Ponder ISD, going from teacher to superintendent before becoming an adjunct professor at UNT in 1996. He recruited and trained teachers for I-Teach Texas. As a basketball player at North Texas, his favorite memory was playing against future NBA legend Oscar Robertson.

Robert Fred Kern, 75, of Dallas, Professor Emeritus of music and specialist in piano education at UNT from 1980 to 2011, died Aug. 14. Previously, he was a professor at William Rainey Harper College and Northwestern University. Kern earned a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University, master’s degrees from Illinois Wesleyan and Northwestern University, and a doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado. He was an author and co-author of seven piano methods and contributed more than 500 original compositions and arrangements to several pedagogical publications. He taught clinics all around the country, as well as in Canada and Taiwan. He was inducted into the Illinois State University Woonsok Kim College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame in 2014, and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.

Yvonne Chandler, 63, the associate professor of information science who headed UNT’s law library program and was a 2020 inductee into the American Association of Law Libraries Hall of Fame, died Aug. 8 in Denton. Throughout her career, she showed a strong passion for library education and diversity in the workforce.

She served as a librarian for several law firms and companies before working at Clark Atlanta University. She came to UNT in 1993 as assistant professor and director of the Law Librarianship and Legal Informatics Program in what is now the Department of Information Science. She served as president of the Texas Library Association and the Southwestern Association of Law Libraries. She also was active in the AALL, serving as chair of its Conference of Law Library Educators since 2017, serving as its representative on the American Library Association Task Force on Library Science Education, and editing its newsletter on diversity. In addition to her Hall of Fame honor, she received the association’s Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award this year.

At UNT, she received the President’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award in 2008 and was a lifetime member of the UNT Alumni Association. She earned her bachelor’s and master's degrees from Clark Atlanta University and her doctorate from the University of Michigan. She was known as an enthusiastic and dedicated educator and scholar who guided many students to the profession of law librarianship.

Elizabeth Figa, 65, who taught at UNT from 2000 until her retirement in 2018 as an associate professor in the Department of Information Science, died July 31 in Bloomington, Illinois. Her academic contributions as an ethnographer and information scientist included her study of storytelling as an oral tradition and innovative methods for teaching it online. She was one of the founding editors of the interdisciplinary journal Storytelling, Self, Society. She also taught a popular graphic novels and comics course. She served on the board of Beta Phi Mu, the international library and information studies honor society, and was its longtime faculty advisor at UNT. In 2009, she received the Provost’s Award for Extraordinary Professional Service to the university.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Illinois State University before earning a master’s and doctorate in library and information sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was known as an upbeat and inspirational teacher, who also loved running marathons and half-marathons, ballroom dancing and being a grandmother.

Allen Jackson, 69, Regents Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation for more than 40 years, died Aug. 5 in Maine. He helped create the applied physiology laboratory, authored more than 100 research publications and played an important role in establishing the interdisciplinary doctoral programs in the College of Education. Allen, who worked at UNT from 1978 to 2019, also served as department chair and was working on modified service in the department. He gave generously to the Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation Excellence Fund.

He received his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of Houston and his master's degree from Lamar University.

Keith Johnson (’63), 77, Professor Emeritus of trumpet and renowned trumpeter, died July 31 in Denton. He taught at UNT from 1986 to 2014 and received the Distinguished Teaching Professor Award in 2011. He performed with the Dallas Opera, the Fort Worth Symphony and more orchestras across the U.S. Keith also wrote two books, The Art of Trumpet Playing and Brass Performance and Pedagogy, and published several method books. In 2012, he won the Award of Merit from the International Trumpet Guild for his service to the trumpet profession, and in 2013, was given a Distinguished Service Award by the New Hampshire Music Festival for his 50 years as co-principal trumpet. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and before joining UNT, taught at the University of Northern Iowa. He and his wife Cecile contributed to UNT’s College of Music and were members of the President’s Council. Donations can be made to The Keith Johnson Trumpet Graduate Scholarship Endowment. A tribute concert will take place at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 19, 2021, in the UNT Music Building's Recital Hall.

Daniel Johnson, 80, former dean of what is now the College of Health and Public Service who went on to become president of the University of Toledo, died July 1 in Washington Township, Michigan. His higher education career spanned more than 40 years and brought him international recognition. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas Christian University and his doctorate from the University of Missouri. He worked in various leadership roles at Virginia Commonwealth University, then served at UNT as a professor of sociology and dean of the then-called School of Community Service from 1991 to 1997. His research specialties included urban poverty and diverse student retention, and he received the university’s Equal Opportunity Award for his support of increased campus diversity. He wrote about and advocated for metropolitan universities, with a focus on applied research and serving the needs of their regions. In 1994, he was appointed by Gov. Ann Richards to the newly formed Texas State Commission for National and Community Service, to support volunteer participation in government and community-based programs. He also assisted with the merger of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine with UNT. He created the Daniel M. Johnson Award for Community Service, first presented in 1998 to Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk. Dan left UNT to become provost at the University of Alaska. He then led the University of Toledo from 2001 to 2006 and served in various other positions before retiring as distinguished university professor of public policy and economic development. He also was provost and chief operating officer of Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates from 2008 to 2011.