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By Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
August 26, 1996
Scholarship created in memory of professor
The UA's Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences has established a scholarship in memory of Darrell Simko, a former associate professor who died of a heart attack May 13.
The scholarship will be made available to physical education majors and will probably be awarded to a junior or senior, although the family has yet to determine how much the student will receive, said Boyd Baker, an associate professor of exercise and sport sciences and longtime friend of Simko, who was 62.
Simko, who taught at the University of Arizona for 29 years, will also be remembered at a memorial barbecue and square dance Sept. 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the west end of the Ina E. Gittings Building. The dance was organized by Simko's former colleagues after many returning and former students were unaware of his death, because of the end of last semester, and were interested in a memorial, Baker said.
The UA's Dance Department will also honor Simko at their annual Winter Recital in December with a special folk dance, Baker said.
Simko was born in Follansbee, W. Va., on Jan. 11, 1934, and moved to Tucson in 1967 after being hired as an assistant basketball coach and physical education professor.
He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education from Western Reserve University in Cleveland and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. While at Western Reserve, Simko played basketball, and he later coached there in 1966-67.
At the UA, Simko taught a variety of folk, square and country dance classes and a sports history course. He was also a past president and active member of the Arizona Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Baker said.
Baker described Simko as a "gentle giant" because of his 6-foot-5-inch frame and his deep devotion as a husband, father, and family man.
"He was an eternal optimist who made everyone around him feel positive and upbeat," Baker said.
Former UA head basketball coach Bruce Larson, who hired Simko in 1967, remembered him as person who had a great capacity for helping and touching the lives of his students.
Larson said Simko was a valuable member of the Exercise and Sport Sciences Department because he was very versatile, and he fulfilled a variety of needs for them.
Simko is survived by his wife of 36 years, Patricia; son, Jeffrey of Tucson; three daughters, Dr. Christina Pace, of Bellingham, Wash., Kathleen of Tucson, and Kimberly Hicks of Glendale, son-in-law Mark Hicks also of Glendale; father-in-law Raymond Reinel of Tucson; two sisters, Clare Botson of Killbuck, Ohio, and Marylou Gallagher of Cleveland, and sister-in-law Kathleen Dowe of Lakewood, Ohio.
Donations may be made to: The Darrell G. Simko Memorial Scholarship Fund, Department of Physical Education, Ina E. Gittings Building Room 106, University of Arizona, 85721.
-Jason A. Vrtis
New director aims at informing students
The person now responsible for t admissions said she is trying to see her experience through a new student's eyes.
Margie Stevenson was recently appointed the new University of Arizona director of admissions and started the position Aug. 19.
"I'm learning what people do and who does what," Stevenson said.
The next step is to find out what students feel about their university experience, she said. "You need to see if perception and reality match."
Stevenson attended Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., where she received her master's degree in English teaching of writing.
Stevenson has worked for Humboldt State as an administrator since 1978. Humboldt is a smaller school of about 7,400 students, but Stevenson said she feels prepared for a larger system like UA.
Stevenson also worked as registration assistant and schedule coordinator at San Jose State University previous to her employment at Humboldt.
"There are a lot of institutions that don't have the spirit and soul that I feel the UA has," Stevenson said.
"The whole idea of helping a student find the right campus for them doesn't vary that much."
Stevenson said she feels that technology and the worldwide shift toward a global community are affecting the university system.
"The most demanding thing at a university is how we will incorporate technology and how to change along with rapidly changing technology," she said.
The only way to "stay abreast of such rapid change," Stevenson said, is through partnerships with technology companies, like the recent UA/Lucent Technologies partnership.
Stevenson said one of the biggest challenges for her right now is to adapt to new systems and a new way of doing things.
"It is a new world," Stevenson said. "It has its own language, it has its own rules. We don't always acknowledge that.
"A lot of what informs me as director of admissions is how uninformed I was as a student," she said.
Stevenson said that students need to know two things: what services are available to them and that it is their responsibility to seek out those services.
"You don't want to go on a four-year blind date."
The admissions director position pays $42,500 a year.
-Shayne Christie
Grant focused toward Spanish colonial art
The UA Museum of Art has received a $2,300 travel grant from the Museum Loan Network to pursue a loan of Spanish colonial paintings.
Peter Briggs, the museum's curator of collections, will use the grant to visit the Mint Museum of Art in North Carolina. During that time, he is going to investigate the possibility of long-term loans of the Mint's Spanish colonial paintings.
The museum is pursuing these paintings because they will provide a visual bridge between the Old and New World, Briggs said.
He said the museum is "regularly collecting" art but these paintings would be especially well received in the Southwest among Tucson's large Hispanic population.
"(The paintings will provide) a strong component to the audience," he said.
-Amy C. Schweigert
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