Joe Malik, Jr.

[Jerry Ervin]

As a follow-up to my earlier message about Joe's passing:

Joe was born in Christopher, IL and moved to Texas as a child.  He received
his B.S. and M.Ed. degrees from the U of Texas, and studied at Berkely and
Penn, where he received his Ph.D.  He taught Russian and Czech at the U of
Texas for 14 years.  In 1960 he founded the U of Arizona Russian program
within the German Department.  It became independent in 1970, and Joe was
its chairman until 1985.  He retired from the U of Arizona in 1989.

Joe served as AATSEEL's Executive Secretary-Treasurer 1968-1985, longer
than any other individual before or since, and longer than the combined
terms of his four predecessors in the job.  During his term he worked with
five editors of SEEJ and five editors of the Newsletter.

Those years were a period of sharply declining Russian enrollments, which
in turn meant sharply declining numbers of faculty positions in Russian and
other Slavic languages, which in turn meant sharply declining membership in
AATSEEL.  Nevertheless, over those years Joe brought AATSEEL from a
precarious--often deficit--funding position to one of relative financial
security.  Under his leadership the annual AATSEEL meetings grew from nine
or ten sessions to over 60 each year, providing expanded opportunities for
younger scholars to give papers and to interact with senior scholars in our
field.

When Joe stepped down from his AATSEEL duties in 1985, AATSEEL gave him an
Outstanding Service Award, which read, "Presented with deep appreciation to
Joe Malik, Jr., 'Mr. AATSEEL,' national Executive Secretary-Treasurer,
1968-85."  Subsequently AATSEEL established the "Joe Malik Award for
Outstanding Service to AATSEEL."  It is the only named award that AATSEEL
presents.

Joe is survived by his wife, Pauline; daughters, Lisa Malik and Tamara Jo
Dillon; son Joe Malik III; grandchildren Michael Joe and Daniel James
Dillon and Julia Michele and Joe Paul Malik.  Also surviving are brothers,
Edward, Oscar and Noble Malik and sister Emily Gush.  Cards may be sent to
the Malik family at their home, 6933 E Calle Canis, 85710.  In lieu of
flowers, memorials may be made to The Heart Fund, The Alzheimers
Association Southern Arizona Chapter, and the Tucson Memorial Society.

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Gerard L. (Jerry) Ervin
Executive Director, American Ass'n of Teachers of 
Slavic & E European Languages (AATSEEL)
1933 N. Fountain Park Dr., Tucson, AZ 85715 USA
Phone/fax:  520/885-2663
Email:  76703.2063 at compuserve.com
AATSEEL Home Page: <http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~aatseel/>
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