In Memoriam: TheodoreAskounes-Ashford, Distinguished Educator Theodore Askaunes Ashford died cm April 21 after s brief illness. He waa 79. Ashfwd was an acknowledged authority on the deeelopment of tertr in chemical education and suthored thc popular tpnt in the physical sciences, F r m Alorns to Stars. In April 1986,Ashford, a 50-year ACS member, was named Founding Director of the Examinations Institute of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society. His appointment followed a recent reorganization of the Examinations Committee into its present status as an Institute. Ashford, a member of the original committee since 1939, succeeded to the chairmanship in 1946. Through his 32 years of leadership, he expanded the nature and scope of the Committee. During his tenure over 188 tests have been constructed and distributed for the testing of over 20 million chemistry students throughout theunited States and 65 foreign countries. Over the years, Ashford was active as an international speaker for the American Chemical Societv. ,..oresentine lectures and seminars on chemistrv testing- and educarim in the llnitcd Statedand in over 27 fureiyn nations. In 1985, he presented lectures at the E i ~ h t hInternational Conference on Chem~calEducatim held in Tokyo, Japan and thrn went on tu present seminars on test runstrurtlm in Heijing, People's Republic of China. He was born in a small mountain village, Ksstri, in Greece in 1908, and came to the United States in 1922. He did both his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Chicago. - . where he received his PhD in organic - chemistry in 1936. Before moving to Tampa, he served on the chemistry faculty of the University of Chicago from 1936-1950 and a t St. Louis University from 1950-1960, where he established the first Summer Chemistry Institute. In 1960, Ashford joined the newly created University of South Florida as a charter faculty member and served as the first Dean of the College of Natural Sciences until 1973. He was named Dean Emeritus in 1975 and retired from teaching in 1981. At retirement, he established the Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Doctoral Fellowship Fund and sponsored the Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award. In 1984he organized and was elected first president of the Greek Studies Council at the University. His contributions and efforts went beyond the educational community. Theodore Ashford was amemher of the Baard of Directors, Greek War Relief Association (1940-1946); the War Manpower Committee, U S . Government (1949); the Personnel Committee, U S . Department of Defense (1951-1955); Secretary, State of Florida Board of Examiners in the Basic Sciences (1963-1969); Board of Directors, Museum of Science and Natural History, Tampa (1912); and Board of Directors, St. John's Greek Orthodox Church, Tampa (1978-1982). Ashford's many honors and awards include: election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1964); American Chemical Society Award in Chemical Education (1965); National Assmiation of Science Teachers Citation far Distinguished Service to Science Education (1971); and Fulhright Hays Fellowship to teach in the Soviet Union (1979). He served on UNESCO missions to India, Syria, Yugoslavia, and Thailand, and was a consultant to the Government of Greece, as well as to many other countries. Ashford was also a consultant to the National Science Foundation and the Royal Institute of Chemistry, London. He is survived by Venette, his wife of 53 years; two sons, Nicholas Askounes, Assmiate Professor of Technology and Policy, M.I.T., and Robert Askounes, Professor of Law, Syracuse University; a daughter, Maria Zahakaof Chicago; a sister, Maria Asimakopoulas of Minneapolis; and four grandchildren, Theodore I11 of Tampa, Androniki of Boston, and Nicholas and Venetia of Des Moines. Memorial contributions to the Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Doctoral Fellowship Fund (#26602) may be mailed to: USF Foundation, University of South Florida, SVC 518, Tampa, FL 33620.
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Volume 64
Number 6
June 1967
487
