Commencement Weekend took place May 17-19. Congratulations to our graduate and undergraduate degree recipients!

Bernard Allen Weisberger PhD, Distinguished Professor, author of 20 books and over 100 articles on American History. Beloved husband of Rita Mendelsohn, devoted father of Jonathan (Deborah Mudd Weisberger) of Brevard, North Carolina: Dr. Lise Weisberger (Malcolm Rich) of Skokie, Illinois; and Beth Weisberger (Tim Fishbaugh) of Lakewood, Colorado; loving grandfather of Abigail, Miriam and Rebecca Rich, Leo Weisberger and Sidney Lucas, and Leah Fishbaugh.

Jeffrey Paul Burds PhD, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 9, 1958, and died in his home in Connecticut on March 4, 2024. He is preceded in death by his father, Albert John Burds, from Peosta, Iowa; his mother; Faith Fern Burds Somers, from Davenport Iowa; his brothers, Thomas Burds and Timothy Burds; and sister, Susan Burds. Jeff was born and raised in Detroit, where he attended Catholic Central High School. He received a BA from Northwestern University and then attended Yale University, where he received his doctorate Ph.D. in Russian History. After graduation, he went to Russia for two years to interpret the KGB Archives. He previously worked at the University of Rochester in New York as an assistant professor from January 1991 - December 1997, and was currently a Professor of Russian Literature at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. Jeff has published several books from his research in the international history of modern Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union. Most currently, his work has been devoted to studies of collaboration in the German-occupied Soviet zones during World War II, and the postwar Soviet counterinsurgency in western Ukraine. Jeff is survived by his wife, lzabella Burds; daughter, lvanna Masera Burds; sons, Mark Burds and Peter Burds; stepdaughter, Paulina; his sister Christine Burds, of Kendallville Indiana; and nieces and nephew, Heather, Megan, Holly and Kyle Butler.

Craig M Nakashian (PhD 2010), has been hired as the Dean of the Honors College at Texas A&M University-Texarkana; he will begin his new position July 1st.

James ("Jim") Oberly (MA '77/ Ph.D '82), was mentioned in the May issue of the AHA’s newsletter Perspectives on History for his part in helping the Dennysville (Maine) Historical Society on an NEH-funded project, “Mapping the Dennys River over 9,000 Years.” Jim and his wife Louise Merriam are seasonal residents of Downeast Maine, and Louise’s family has roots in Dennysville dating from the early nineteenth century. Jim also looks forward this fall to a Fulbright Specialist award at the University of Prešov in the Slovak Republic, where he has an invitation to be in residence at the University's British and US Studies Program. Two of Jim’s great-grandparents emigrated as teenagers from Prešov in the late 19th century, seeking new lives in New York, so his visiting appointment at Prešov is another homecoming of sorts.

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