University Times

University Professor and former School of Education Dean Paul H. Masoner, who was credited with helping to "internationalize" the education school and the University as a whole, died Oct. 15. He was 88.

With Masoner as dean from 1955 to 1972, the education school grew from 42 to 225 faculty members. He was instrumental in building the school's graduate programs and in recruiting professors and students from around the world.

James Kelly, who succeeded Masoner as dean, said: "I used to tell people that the Pitt School of Education was, in effect, the lengthened shadow of Paul Masoner. No single person was more responsible for that school's growth and development than Paul. Anything that's been accomplished there since he was dean has been built upon what he did." Kelly, who served as associate dean under Masoner and now is retired, added, "When Paul became dean in the 50s, the education school was regional, somewhat parochial and very homogeneous. He deliberately recruited women and minority faculty, as well as a number of international students and faculty, and the School of Education became far more integrated than any school in the University. He was ahead of his time." Masoner received his undergraduate and master's degrees from Ohio State University. He joined the Pitt education school faculty as an assistant professor in 1946, after teaching in high schools in Ohio and at Bellevue High School during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1949, he was awarded a Ph.D. in counseling from Pitt. By 1955, Masoner had been named dean. After he stepped down as dean, he became director of special programs at Pitt's University Center for International Studies (UCIS). While at UCIS, Masoner led the successful effort to bring to Pitt the Semester at Sea shipboard education program. "I don't know how we would have made the move to Pitt from the University of Colorado without Paul's help," said John Tymitz, executive director of the Institute for Shipboard Education that administers Semester at Sea.

According to Tymitz, it was Masoner who broached the idea of the move to the Institute for Shipboard Education's chairperson and benefactor, Hong Kong shipping billionaire C.Y. Tung. And it was Masoner who smoothed the way for Semester at Sea among skeptical Pitt administrators, Tymitz said.

UCIS Director Burkart Holzner said, "Paul Masoner felt very strongly that the international dimension should have a high priority within the University. In that sense, he was a visionary." Masoner served on dozens of professional and civic boards and committees, including a number of national and international education councils. He was president of the Robert Morris College trustees from 1970 to 1989.

In 1985, Pitt's board awarded Masoner the University's highest honor: the rank of University Professor. That same year, Masoner suffered serious head injuries in a car accident. Soon after, he moved to the Marriner Nursing Center in Wexford for intensive care. But colleagues continued to visit him at the center, seeking his advice.

A Heinz Chapel memorial service for Masoner is being planned for late November, but details were not final as the University Times went to press.

Masoner is survived by his wife, Lorraine Carr Masoner; two sons, Paul of Lexington, Mass., and David, of Dayton, Tenn.; a daughter, Linda Smith of North Andover, Mass.; a stepson, Phillip Carr Jr., of Vermont; a stepdaughter, Elisabeth Carr-Jones of Massachusetts; two brothers, John of Franklin, Ohio, and Robert of Columbus, Ohio; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Paul H. Masoner Scholarship Fund. Checks should be made payable to the University of Pittsburgh and mailed to Lisa Dickter, School of Education development officer, 500 Craig Hall, Pittsburgh 15260.