University Times

Jacqueline Frances Whitney

Jacqueline Frances Whitney, a staff member and instructor of physics and chemistry at the University Challenge for Excellence Programs (UCEP), died April 26, 1999, of cancer. She was 49.

For 14 years, Whitney organized UCEP records, taught and advised students there.

"She was a spirited and dedicated educator, she handled our academic planning and she managed our information for us. She did a superior job at all of those things," said UCEP Director Chenits Pettigrew Jr.

"Jackie was a person of great tenacity, and very task-oriented," he said. "You could give her a report that you thought would take a week to write, and she would finish it in half that time."

Whitney's death "leaves us with a big void," Pettigrew said. "You never know how big someone's shoes are going to be to fill until they're gone."

Whitney came to Pitt from Winchester Thurston School, where she headed the science program. She received a B.S. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971 and a master's in physics from Carnegie Mellon in 1973.

She is survived by her husband, Eugene Walter Siren; sons Christopher Russell and Edward Patrick Siren of Wilkinsburg; sister Kathleen Whitney Bukofzer of Bronx, N.Y., and father William Whitney of Cranston, R.I.

Memorial contributions may be made to Food for the Poor, 550 S.W. 12th Ave., Deerfield Beach, Fla. 33442.