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In Brief

Sugaring Time Again; Former President Writes Autobiography; Alum Signs with Baseball Team; News from the Nursing and Business Administration Departments and more.

Making Their Mark

Learn about how our community members engage in writing, presentations and exhibitions.

Past as Prologue

Explore Haystack, a portal to the history of Colby-Sawyer College.

Colby-Sawyer Courier

Keep up with campus news from students' perspectives through the Colby-Sawyer Courier.

Solidus

This new literary magazine features creative writing in many genres by current students and alumni, faculty and staff, and a few friends and partners.

Q&Alumni

Find out what Colby-Sawyer alumni have been up to since graduation.

Currents: in memoriam

Professor Emeritus Donald Coonley

Donald E. Coonley of New London died after a long illness on Wednesday, June 8, at age 68. A writer, filmmaker and college professor, first at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., and then at Colby-Sawyer College, Professor Coonley was a warm and inspiring teacher, mentor and friend.

A memorial service and celebration of his life will take place on Saturday, July 9, at 2 p.m. in Wheeler Hall at Ware Campus Center.

A Nebraska native, Professor Coonley was born in Grand Island on Sept. 6, 1942, grew up in Beatrice, and attended school in Genoa, where his father was school superintendent and his mother taught English. The family later moved to Deland, Fla. He earned a B.A. degree from Stetson University in 1964, a M.A. from the University of South Florida in 1969, and a Doctorate of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1973.

Over his five decades as an educator, Professor Coonley touched the lives of thousands of students. In a 2007 interview for the Colby-Sawyer Alumni Magazine, Professor Coonley explained his teaching philosophy in this way: “I'm one of many educators…who believes that the intellectual and social life of students can be invigorated based on two essential goals: to serve the needs of the students…and of society. Education must provide such personal benefits as self-reliance and specific training, as well as develop a wider sense of community responsibility.”

A professor in the Communication Studies Program at Colby-Sawyer from 1989 to 2008, Professor Coonley developed a video production program grounded in the liberal arts with a strong public service focus, and launched the community radio station, WSCS-FM. During his tenure, he guided students in producing more than 60 community service video projects. His commitment to students and to education was recognized in 1992 with the Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, and in 1994, when he received the college's highest award for faculty, the Jack Jensen Award for Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership.

Through “Colby-Sawyer Insights,” the college's first student-produced video program, Professor Coonley's students learned as much about storytelling and community service as they did about video production. He often reminded them that “this is not a video class...it's a communications class that uses video as its medium.”

Communication Studies graduate Chris Cousins '98 wrote a letter of thanks to Professor Coonley as he began his Nieman Fellowship in Journalism at Harvard University that included these lines: “Your impact on my journalism style was very pronounced despite the fact we were making videos, not newspaper copy. 'Show, don't tell' and 'know your audience' were very important lessons,” Cousins wrote. “Through the deliberate process of thinking about gathering and putting together the pieces of a video documentary, I learned storytelling. I approach print journalism the same way, gathering and putting together pieces in a compelling and dramatic way.”

Communication Studies graduate Katie Srednicki '06, who works in the film industry in Los Angeles, says Professor Coonley's influence changed the course of her career. “I don't know if I would have pursued production without him,” she says. “I always thought I was going to be a writer until I took his video classes and fell in love with telling stories through a lens.”

Similarly, Rob Peaslee '95, who teaches in the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University, says Professor Coonley continues to inspire him on personal and professional levels. “I feel lucky to have known and studied under Don. He remains the template for what I try to do on a daily basis.”

A writer and filmmaker, Professor Coonley's creative projects were most often collaborative, engaging students and community members in exploring local history or issues. As professor of Media Studies and founder of the Media Studies Program at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Conn., from 1973 to 1989, he was the co-producer of “Searching for Wordin Avenue,” a docudrama about the vanished Hungarian community of Bridgeport, Conn. The film won the national CINE Golden Eagle award.

He also wrote and produced a play, “Windcrossing,” inspired by a Connecticut aviation pioneer, and later co-produced a televised version that won an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and a Corporation for Public Broadcasting National Award for Best Local Drama. Both projects involved current and former students, including many who went on to careers in film and video.

While at Sacred Heart, he received the Exxon Faculty Award for Excellence and the Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. The College's Media Studies Department recently established an annual Don Coonley Award for students who exemplify Coonley's “commitment to excellence in the art, theory, and practice of communication”; the first two recipients were named in May.

In 1999, during his tenure at Colby-Sawyer, Professor Coonley produced “Celestial Reckoning,” a multi-media play he wrote about Colby Junior College during World War II. The production highlighted a fascinating time in college history, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited campus and President H. Leslie Sawyer offered encouraging daily talks to students at chapel services. “Celestial Reckoning” involved 75 students, faculty, staff and area residents in a stage play laced with video sequences that provided excellent learning experiences and a great opportunity for community outreach.

In his final project, “Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude,” Professor Coonley was associate producer as well as the on-screen and voice-over actor portraying the great American painter. The film, which premiered in 2007, was part of a 30-year collaboration with the film's director, Steve Ross, a professor at the University of Memphis.

Associate Professor in Communication Studies Donna Berghorn says her close friend and colleague has had an enduring influence on his students and faculty colleagues. “Don shared his passion for video and the visual image with so many generations of students, and they have said repeatedly that his influence on them will last throughout their lives,” she says. “Working with him was one of the greatest gifts of my life.”

Gibney Professor of Humanities Patrick Anderson also notes the legacy Professor Coonley leaves behind as teacher, filmmaker and friend: “In his own films, he often gave voice to individuals and stories on the margins of society, much as he inspired his students to find their own voices in the scripts they wrote and the videos they made. He was, in short, a remarkable human being, one who exhibited, in everything he did, an unfettered passion for living and learning and sharing with others. No one who was lucky enough to know him left his presence unchanged.”

President Tom Galligan recalls his impressions of Professor Coonley and gratitude to him. “From my first experiences at Colby-Sawyer I was impressed by Don's work and his dedication to students. I was impressed by how many students and former students looked up to him and viewed him as having shaped their careers and their lives. I was impressed by the esteem in which his colleagues held him. And I was impressed by and grateful for the way in which he welcomed me to the college as a colleague and friend, inviting me to his home and making me feel included in faculty activities and events. We will all miss Don very much and will be forever grateful that he shined his light on us and on Colby-Sawyer College.”

Professor Coonley's favorite Colby-Sawyer memories came from watching his students at work in the wider world. In the Alumni Magazine interview, he recalled a class trip to New York City to do a story after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “I've always been most proud of the way our students went out into the community and interacted with people. The students were always treated professionally, and they became professionals as a result of that respect,” he said. “My time here has been, from the beginning, an enterprise a lot of people shared with me in a very positive way. The memories…it's always the students. It always is.”

Professor Coonley is survived by his wife Nancy Serrell Coonley, director of Outreach at Dartmouth College; a daughter, Whitney Serrell Barbera and her husband Steve, of Katonah, N.Y.; a son, David Serrell and his wife Hope, of Draper, Utah; and five grandchildren. He was predeceased by his parents, J. Dale and Zelma Coonley of Deland, Fla., and a sister and brother-in-law, Mary Dale and Gary Moore also of Deland.

Donations may be made in his name to the Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust, the Nature Conservancy or Doctors without Borders.