Victims From Academe

By SCOTT SMALLWOOD and THOMAS BARTLETT

Mari-Rae SopperWomen’s gymnastics coach, University of California at Santa Barbara

Mari-Rae Sopper, a 35-year-old passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, was heading to California to start her new job. Just two weeks before, she had agreed to

walk into an admittedly strange situation at Santa Barbara. It was a job that she knew couldn’t last more than a year.

In mid-August, university officials announced they were dropping gymnastics. But three days later, they reinstated the sport for one more season, swayed by athletes who complained they did not have enough time to transfer to other universities. Ms. Sopper was hired on August 31.

The team members, who had only communicated with her via telephone and e-mail messages, were looking forward to a meet-the-team barbecue once the new coach arrived in town. “What is so amazing about Mari-Rae is that she knew the program would only be in existence for one more year, but she accepted the job with so much enthusiasm,” Cara Simkins, a junior, told the Santa Barbara News-Press.

Ms. Sopper had previously been an assistant coach for the U.S. Naval Academy’s women’s gymnastics team. She had also served as a graduate assistant at the University of Denver. A graduate of Iowa State University, Ms. Sopper earned a master’s degree in athletic administration from University of North Texas in 1993 and a J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law three years later.

Ms. Sopper was leaving a career as a Washington lawyer to return to the gym. “She decided she wasn’t happy being a lawyer and decided to do something she was happy with, and we supported her,” said Tom Esslinger, the managing director of the firm of Schmeltzer, Aptaker, & Sheppard.

Christoffer M. Carstanjen
Computer research specialist, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Christoffer M. Carstanjen, 33, had plans for a relaxing vacation after the hectic beginning of the academic year. Since November 2000, he had provided computer support for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at UMass, helping students and faculty members sign up for new accounts, assisting with computer connections, and offering instructional workshops.

On September 11, he left Boston for a vacation in San Diego. His United Airlines flight was the second to crash into the World Trade Center.

Mr. Carstanjen’s colleagues in the Office of Information Technologies described him as outgoing, friendly, and popular.

“Christoffer’s sense of the human dimension of technology is one of the many enduring gifts he has given us,” said Marcellette G. Williams, the university’s chancellor. “To him and to his family, we say: Thank you. His life has made ours the richer.”

Robert G. LeBlanc
Professor emeritus of geography, University of New Hampshire

A travel fanatic, Robert G. LeBlanc died making yet another trip. The terrorist attack means the 70-year-old retired professor won’t get to see Argentina this fall and he won’t make that planned trek to India in January.

After more than 35 years, Mr. LeBlanc retired from the University of New Hampshire two years ago, but he remained active in the department, stopping by his office regularly and still traveling to academic conferences. He was on his way from Boston to a meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Santa Barbara, Calif., when his plane was hijacked by terrorists.

Alasdair Drysdale, the chairman of New Hampshire’s geography department, remembers Mr. LeBlanc fondly. Colleagues in a four-person department for 25 years, the two became close friends. “In Bob’s case,” said Mr. Drysdale, “you just won’t hear a bad word about him. He was an extraordinarily friendly and popular man. He just had no rough edges.”

After graduating from the University of New Hampshire, Mr. LeBlanc earned his doctorate at the University of Minnesota and then returned to New Hampshire, joining the faculty as a cultural geographer. He specialized in Canadian studies and examined the Franco-American communities in New England’s mill towns. He served as chairman and acting chairman of the geography department for almost 10 years.

In an interview a few years ago, Mr. LeBlanc talked of the importance of geography. “While history is the study of events through time, geography focuses on the where and why. Studying geography is studying maps, but also human interaction with the environment, the importance of location and conditions to an event.”

Leslie A. Whittington
Associate professor of public policy, Georgetown University

Leslie A. Whittington and her family left their suburban Maryland home early the morning of September 11 to fly halfway around the world. The 45-year-old Georgetown professor was to spend a two-month stint as a visiting fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Instead, her hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, killing her, her husband of 17 years, Charles S. Falkenberg, and their daughters, 8-year-old Zoe, and 3-year-old Dana.

At Georgetown, colleagues remembered her passion, her warm personality, and her genuine interest in students. “She used to say that our students wanted to change the world, and she was going to be goddamn sure they had the skills to do it,” said Judith Feder, Georgetown’s dean of public policy.

Ms. Whittington’s research focused on labor markets, public finance, and family policy. After earning a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, she wrote extensively on the “marriage tax” and was working on a book about women, work, and family.

Ms. Feder said Georgetown lost more than a professor in the attack. “Leslie’s husband and little girls were all a part of us,” she told CNN. “We remember when she was pregnant with Dana and the girls were part of Leslie’s classroom patter. Everybody loved them all.”

Alan Berube, a former student, told CNN that Ms. Whittington was his favorite teacher. “There are some people whom, even if you don’t see them all the time, you know the world functions better because of them,” he said. “Leslie was one of them.”

Daniel C. Lewin
Graduate student and lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Daniel C. Lewin’s industry career was going so well he had taken a three-year leave of absence from his doctoral program at MIT. In 1998, Mr. Lewin, along with other researchers, had co-founded Akamai Technologies, a company that helps relieve congestion on the Internet. The firm is one of MIT’s most successful spinoffs, managing more than 11,000 servers and bringing in $90-million in revenue last year.

On September 11, he left the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., early in the morning for a business trip to Los Angeles. His flight was the first to crash into the World Trade Center, shortly before 9 a.m.

Described as a “young genius” by colleagues, the 31-year-old Mr. Lewin still worked closely with MIT professors, and he was scheduled to co-teach a class this fall. “Danny was a mover and shaker,” said Charles Leiserson, a professor at MIT’s Laboratory of Computer Science. “When Danny put his mind to something, boy, was he going to get it.”

A company press release said Mr. Lewin, who enjoyed motorcycles, fast cars, and skiing, had a “deep affinity for speed and freedom.” Born in Denver, Colo., and raised in Jerusalem, Mr. Lewin served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces. He received his bachelor’s degree from Technion, a technology university in Israel, and later earned a master’s degree at MIT. In July, Mr. Lewin was listed as seventh on the Enterprise Systems Journal Power 100, a list of information-technology leaders.

He is survived by his wife and two sons.

Candace Lee Williams
Undergraduate, Northeastern University

Candace L. Williams, a 20-year-old passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, from Boston, was majoring in business administration at Northeastern University and wanted to become a financial planner, according to Mary Kane, the university’s cooperative education coordinator.

“You just didn’t meet Candace without loving her,” Ms. Kane said.

Ms. Williams worked for Merrill Lynch last year as part of her degree program, and Ms. Kane said her performance with the company had been outstanding. When she was talking with the firm about placing more students there, an executive told Ms. Kane: “Give me five more Candaces.”

Deora Bodley
Undergraduate, Santa Clara University

Deora Bodley, a 20-year-old junior at Santa Clara, had been visiting friends in the New York area and was flying back to California to begin the school year when her hijacked United Airlines flight from Newark crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Allison Kalis, a friend and fellow junior at Santa Clara, said Ms. Bodley’s greatest joy was working as a teacher’s aide at St. Clare Catholic Elementary School. She said children there were devoted to Ms. Bodley and that she hung photos of her favorites on the wall in her bedroom.

She always went beyond her job, Ms. Kalis said. “I can’t think of a time I was with her when she didn’t make someone smile,” she said. Kathy Almazol, the principal of the elementary school, told the Los Angeles Times that Ms. Bodley had “boundless energy” and that she “just captured the heart of our students.”

Ms. Bodley, who was majoring in psychology and French, volunteered with several organizations, including the Special Olympics and an AIDS service group.

Other victims with ties to higher education:

• Nicole Miller, a 21-year-old student at West Valley College in Saratoga, Calif., was killed in the plane crash in Pennsylvania.
• Karen Kincaid, 40, a lawyer based in Washington who had just started as an adjunct professor at the Catholic University Law School, died in the crash at the Pentagon.
• William E. Caswell, 54, who had taught physics at the University of Maryland at College Park 20 years ago and was working for the Navy, died in the crash at the Pentagon.

http://chronicle.com Section: A Special Report Page: A17