After decades of teaching at Lafayette College, four professors — civil engineering professors Mary Roth ’83 and Arthur Kney, religious studies professor Eric Ziolkowski and chemistry professor David Husic — will retire at the end of the academic year.
Civil engineering professor Arthur Kney: 26 years
Kney found Lafayette from across the Lehigh Valley as a doctoral student at Lehigh University. But his time studying engineering was preceded by a biology and economics degree, and a decade of running his restaurant, The Academy.
He brought composting to the campus for the first time in 2008 and directed the Landis Center from 2017 to 2021.
“It enhanced the classroom work,” Kney said of his time as director. “I got to meet a lot of different faculty and certainly a lot of community members through the schools and through some of the different organizations.”
Mary Foulk, the office coordinator of the Landis Center, praised Kney as a “workaholic” and “hard-worker,” but also mentioned his humor and laughs.
Kney’s study abroad experiences took him to Uganda, Kenya, New Zealand, Spain and Germany, among other countries. But many remember him for an on-campus special: Biological Oxygen Demand Day, or BOD Day, a day of chaotic fun and celebration relating to his engineering research.
“He is the type of person, the type of professor that I aspire to be,” said engineering professor Christa Kelleher ’08, who studied with Kney as a student and traveled abroad with him. “He’s who I want to be when I grow up.”
Civil engineering professor Mary Roth: 34 years
Roth, who began as an instructor at Lafayette in 1991, described how teaching at the college has shifted from lectures to more discussions and problem-solving.
“It’s been wonderful for both sides to experience working with the other people who have a very different way of approaching their knowledge and the types of problems they solve,” she said. “We all solve problems. We all take different kinds of routes to do that.”
Roth specializes in geotechnical research and became a full professor in 2006. She received a Fulbright scholarship in 2000, taking a year-long sabbatical in Norway to research slope failures, sinkholes and permafrost in seed banks.
“Every time I had a big career moment or had to make a big career decision, she was the first person I turned to,” said Karen Marosi ’94, one of Roth’s first students, who highlighted decades of conversations about books, mentorship and engineering topics.
Alex Foster ’24 studied abroad with Roth during his Bonn, Germany engineering trip, saying that Roth always made her “students work harder.”
“We all looked up to her and just listened to her life advice,” he said.
Religious studies professor Eric Ziolkowski: 36 years
Ziolkowski has contributed to over 50 publications during his tenure at Lafayette. Still, when he retires, he wants to “work full steam ahead on an ever-growing list of scholarly projects,” he wrote in an email.
“Always devote yourselves with passion to your teaching and your scholarship as though there is no tomorrow,” he wrote as advice to younger faculty members. “And when irritations or disruptions occur, speak your mind and keep the chins up.”
Religious studies professor Robert Blunt described Ziolkowski as a “stalwart” of the college.
“His scholarly work can mix high and low effortlessly in demonstrating and interpreting religiously significant phenomena,” Blunt said.
Ziolkowski heavily involved himself in faculty governance, attending faculty meetings, penning letters to The Lafayette and contributing to the January no-confidence motion in college President Nicole Hurd.
“I very much hope that whatever academic directions the College takes will be primarily shaped by the judgment and will of its faculty, as expressed through the faculty’s normal deliberative and electoral processes,” Ziolkowski wrote.
Chemistry professor David Husic: 39 years
“You have to keep up with the times, keep up with your discipline, keep up with new technologies and, more importantly, learn to work well with other people, even those who you don’t just always agree with,” said Husic, who became a Lafayette instructor in 1986.
“You need to find ways to bridge gaps and differences between the people that you work with, not just students, but also colleagues,” he continued.
Husic studied the physiology of carbon dioxide utilization, taught introductory chemistry classes, started the college’s biochemistry program and watched his son grow into a now-Lafayette visiting chemistry professor.
“He’s the person who hired me,” said Chip Nataro, the chemistry department head. “Certainly, there’s lots of fond memories of him, a tremendous biochemistry educator, and just done a lot of really great things on campus outside of the department.”
Husic hopes to play the Appalachian fiddle and take nature photos in retirement.
“I have no problems keeping myself busy,” he said.
Clara Witmer ’27 contributed reporting.
