Nancy Ellen Warnell (’15), 66, who was a medical laboratory technologist in the Student Health and Wellness Center from 2006 to 2021, died Aug. 30 in Fort Worth.

Nancy helped set up the laboratory when the Health Center moved to Chestnut Hall and served as lead technologist for three years. Nancy played a critical role in the center’s ability to treat COVID-19 patients and acquire the necessary equipment and materials to test for the virus on-campus. Although she retired in 2021, she returned as a part-time employee this summer to assist with drive-through COVID-19 testing for new student orientations.

She previously worked at various hospitals around the Fort Worth area.

Visitation is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the funeral service is at 1 p.m., both on Sept. 3, at Hawkins Funeral Home Chapel in Decatur. Burial is at Justin Cemetery.

Mark Luenser (’91), 58, of Coppell, senior food service manager for UNT Dining Services since 2015, died July 13 in Dallas.

Luenser, who earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing at UNT, oversaw The Corner Store, WhichWich and Jamba Juice on campus. He previously worked in management and supervisory positions at Quad Seal Holdings LLC, Staybright Electric, Tuesday Morning and The Storage Works. He also had been a loan officer for the Small Business Administration and director of visitor services for the Dallas Zoological Society. He was active in his church and loved spending time with his family.

Visitation is from 5 to 8 p.m., with a rosary at 7 p.m., July 20 at Rolling Oaks Funeral Home, 400 Freeport Parkway in Coppell. The funeral is at 2 p.m. July 21 at St. Ann Catholic Parish, 180 Samuel Blvd. in Coppell.

Johnny Dillon, 55, of Denton, assistant groundskeeper in Facilities, died June 12. He worked at UNT since 2016 with landscaping and mowing.

He enjoyed attending church, walking and playing with his three children, and listening to the music of Hank Williams Jr.

Services are 2 p.m. June 18 at DeBerry Funeral Home, 2025 W. University Dr. in Denton.

R. Sheldon Newman, 87, Denton, a supervisor in the facilities department for 20 years and a local counterculture icon in the 1960s and 1970s, died May 18. He spent eight years in the U.S. Air Force and then hitchhiked around the country. While enrolled in the mid-’60s at UNT as a library sciences student, he was elected president of the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and led protests against the Vietnam War. He worked as a day laborer in the automobile yards and founded “The Family,” a group of like-minded individuals around Fry Street, and his idea of The Church of Changes, a church of no rules or walls but a desire to help others. He established the Family Feed Store, an organic grains and vegetables co-op that allowed patrons to pay what they could afford, and Earthware, a secondhand clothing store. He returned to work at UNT in the 1980s and ’90s as a custodial supervisor. As a Fry Street regular, he was one of the subjects painted into the iconic mural at Jim’s Diner.

Patricia ‘Pat’ Anne Carroll Roberts, 89, who had served as a program specialist manager in the Center for Continuing Education and Conference Management at UNT, died April 13 in Houston. She was married to James Andrew Roberts, a longtime UNT physics professor, for 64 years before his death in 2019. In her time at UNT, she worked with the Elderhostel program — planning, organizing and implementing weekly activities — and managed many conferences and workshops on campus through the years, in areas ranging from history, music, creative writing and counseling to municipal clerk certification.

Gene Qualls, 84, a longtime clerk in the Registrar’s office who worked at UNT from 1979 to 2003, died April 29 in Denton. He was active in his church and a friend of Pat Boone, whom he met while attending North Texas in the 1950s. Gene was known for sporting his 1967 Impala around town and wearing bright suits and ties. He made friends everywhere he went.

Bryan Roy Galloway, 82, of Denton, who worked with UNT System IT Shared Services in the telecommunications department from 1996 to 2013, died May 1. He served in the U.S. Army in the 1960s. Before joining UNT, he worked as a central office equipment installer for Verizon (formerly GTE) for 30 years and traveled to Mexico City for a two-year project to convert the city’s telecommunications equipment from analog to digital. He was active in his church.

Roxana Bejarano Hughes (’97 M.S.), 57, an instructional lab supervisor in UNT's biology department, died April 25 in Denton. A native of Bolivia, she earned her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil. She then trained as a medical microbiologist in Argentina and worked in Bolivia. She earned her master’s under the late G. Roland Vela at UNT, where she researched the distribution of the bacterium Vela discovered. She remembered fondly how he and other professors came to her house so she could defend her thesis while pregnant and on bed rest. She was certified as a medical laboratory scientist in microbiology at Tarleton State University and maintained her certification over the years. She also worked for the Centers for Disease Control. She had worked in UNT’s biology department since 2002, where she loved working with her students and teaching assistants. She co-wrote the book Microorganisms: A Laboratory Manual with her husband, Lee Hughes (’87, ’93 M.S., ’98 Ph.D.), associate professor of biological sciences, and attended or presented at the American Society for Microbiology conference each year. She loved good food, good company and traveling. Her greatest joys were her two sons, Drake (’20) and Diego, a student at UNT.

Burlyce Logan (’11), Denton. She was one of the first Black students who attended North Texas when it desegregated in 1956, and then dropped out – but returned and earned her bachelor’s degree in applied arts and sciences at age 73. When she first attended North Texas, Logan enjoyed her music classes but left after two years because of the harsh prejudice from other students. She moved to California and Oregon, where she worked as a banker and secretary, before returning to Denton in 1996. She worked in various places, including as an administrative assistant in the internal audit department at UNT from 2001 to 2002. Read more about her life in these 2011 articles from The New York Times and the North Texan. A funeral service will take place at Peoples Funeral Home at 2:30 p.m. April 30 in Denton.

Nelson Haggerty, 47, the director of basketball strategy and operations who helped steer the Mean Green men’s basketball team to two Conference USA championships and its first victory in the NCAA Tournament, died April 16.

“Our hearts hurt for Nelson's family, our men's basketball family, the UNT community and everyone Nelson positively impacted during his life and career,” Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker said. “Nelson had many special gifts and talents. He was full of positive energy and encouragement, and he will be missed dearly.”

Nelson joined the Mean Green in 2019 after serving as head coach for Midwestern State for eight seasons, becoming the Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year twice after leading the team to five NCAA Tournaments and a No. 1 national ranking.

He previously served as associate head coach at MSU and coached at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas; North Shore Senior High School in Houston; Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas; and the University of Central Missouri.

He graduated from Baylor University, where he was an all-conference point guard and had a program-record 699 career assists.

UNT Athletics is organizing support for his wife and children. A public memorial service is scheduled at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 24, at First Denton, 1100 Malone St.