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Recent Retirements

This year, Dr. María Auxiliadora Álvarez, author of fourteen books of poetry and two books of essays, won , sponsored by The National Poetry Series. The manuscript that won, Un sol detrás/ A Sun Behind, will be published in 2025 as a bilingual edition by Akashic Books in New York. This iteration of the prize had 261 participating poets and 25 finalists.

We are glad that María’s poetic life continues to thrive in retirement, even as we miss her in the department. María developed core upper-level courses for our department in areas other than poetry, utilizing her broad academic background.

List of Retirements

• María Auxiliadora Álvarez, professor emerita of Spanish — 2023
• Shelly Jarrett Bromberg (former chair), professor emerita of Spanish — 2022
• Raúl Ianes, professor emeritus of Spanish — 2022
• Margaret (Gretchen) Ziolkowski (former chair), professor emerita of Russian — 2021
• Dorothy (Darcy) R. Donahue, professor emerita of Spanish — 2018
• Patricia Klingenberg, professor emerita of Spanish — 2017
• Charles Ganelin (former chair) professor emeritus of Spanish — 2017

Obituaries

Robert DiDonato, professor emeritus of German (former chair of SPO) — 2024

Bob became an associate professor in 1987 at Miami and built a longstanding and consequential career. In 1989, he became a full professor and the Chair of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages (GREAL). He continued as chair as that department evolved into German, Russian, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (GRAMELAC). He developed a German-language course called Fokus Deutsch, his first published series of books. It was produced by WGHB Boston, Inter Nations, and the Goethe-Institute in 1999. He won the Goethe Award in 2009. Then developed another series of German textbooks and video recordings, Deutsch: Na Klar!! with co-author Monica Clyde, that are still in use today.

Bob won numerous awards including the Outstanding German Educator Award from the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG, 2012) and the Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education (1991) from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). He also was the chair of the Miami U. SPO department (2009–2012). He is remembered fondly by the faculty of Spanish and Portuguese, in addition to the GREAL and GRAMELAC departments.

Washington Rampa Vásquez — 2023

Professor emeritus Dr. Washington Vásquez, who graciously provided Miami with a scholarship in his name for our ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs who study abroad, . Retired GRAMELAC faculty member David Siebenhar remembers “Walshie” as a valued member of the Miami and Oxford communities.