(All are invited to please add their thoughts and remembrances of Deb.)


I offer my deepest condolences to Deb's family, friends, colleagues, and all who knew her. Like so many, I have felt extremely sad since learning the news of her passing on Tuesday. Deb was a wonderful, caring person. She was an excellent instructor who truly cared about and invested deeply in her students – both as individuals and as learners. I feel so blessed with the opportunity to have known Deb and to have learned from her as one of her students within OLIT 535 and 538. Through her positive energy, encouragement, knowledge, and skills, Deb instilled in me a love of and career interest in Distance Learning. With Deb’s loss, a light has truly gone out in this world. God bless you, Deb. You, your family, and all who love you remain in my thoughts and prayers.

Erin Connor Reilly
UNM OLIT Graduate Student

I took OLIT 535, 538 and 596 with Deb. Her direction and guidance helped to grow and have a love for eLearning and Instructional Technology. She was always encouraging yet challenging. It's hard to get those two dancing and she was someone who knew how to get the dance steps to sync with the beat. Some people leave footprints in other lives....her footprints are forever fossilized. Dolores Feck



My deepest sympathy to Deb’s sons, her father, her sister and extended family. What a
wonderful group of people that must be to have produced such a person.

I first met Deb in that introductory stat class we had to take and was in
several courses with her. I marveled at how positive she was and what a sense
of humor she had. She set an example for me at how innovative she was and how
resolutely she worked on things and got them done and there was always room for
more. She constantly created.

She was the first to send me a sympathy card when my wife passed away. My wife
was a magnet person—incredibly intelligent, beautiful, a total person. I never
thought I would meet another person with those qualities.

But I did. Deb and I went out a few time and I was like a teenager—actually
bashful and afraid to ruin a friendship by expressing something more. Eventually more got
expressed and I experienced what a truly humble and loving
person really is. She was never negative about people and unlike any other
person I have met, she could listen to my “raving” and in a very light but
pointed, often humorous (teasing actually), let me know there were other ways
to deal with people that involved respect, concern, and would lead to getting
the job done.

There was another side though that came out when she was wronged. She was tough
and amazingly steely-eyed about issues of justice. The intensity of that was
something to behold and I did not want to be on the receiving end of it and so
I watched my p’s and q’s (whatever p’s and q’s are).

I would say that here was a person who was sure of what she was but never
grasped how much she was. Why should she have ever been humble and
self-deprecating; which she so often was? She was a giant and yet she accepted
everyone I ever saw her meet and everyone under her tutelage became a better
person.

I danced because of Deb and I know a lot of others have too. What a loss for us
all and what a miracle for all of us to have had her step into our lives.

With love,

Dr. Don Fischer, OLIT Grad, Provost, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language
Center, Monterey, California.

Dear OLIT Community, I am writing to express my heartfelt thanks to our community, and to each one of you for the wonderful way in which you supported our dear Deb throughout her battle with cancer. Some of you cooked food for her, others spent time with her during her chemo treatment, gave her rides, took her to movies, wrote cards, and made Deb feel that she is a precious part of OLIT. Deb really appreciated the support you gave her, and during my last visit to her said, “every little bit helped.” Thank you for your caring and your generosity. I am proud that I am a member of this wonderful and supportive community. I think it is what makes OLIT special. Deb was an inspiration to us all. Her intelligence, humbleness, kindness, patience, and caring for each and everyone who came into contact with her, are qualities I will remember forever. She was a wonderful human being. She was a great role model for students and colleagues, and we have a lot to learn from her. Her passion for OLIT and the wonderful way she supported our program is commendable. Even to her last day she was involved in organizing a visit from the Defense Language Institute from California to the OLIT program. We will all miss her. I have heard from many of you who are saddened by this tragic loss; even from our recent international visiting scholars Bingshan, Gihan, and Javier who did not even know she was sick, because Deb did not let her illness pull her down. As many of you know, I was close to Deb, her mentor during her doctoral program, and her colleague and friend. Deb and I have conducted many research projects and published together, and it is difficult for me to think of not having her around to collaborate with. Deb had a passion for research and an eager mind to seek answers to the many questions we have in distance education. I have certainly lost one of my best research collaborators. We must, however, continue the work she began and was involved in, and mentor each other in research. She would want us to make OLIT known for its research. One of the ways in which we can honor Deb is to continue the legacies she left behind. Of note is the tremendous effort Deb made to establish international connections and collaborations for the OLIT program. The collaboration between OLIT and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), in Barcelona, Spain, to share the eLearning Certificate program is one such effort. Deb saw to it that the Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions was signed by President Schmidly and by the President of UOC. This was a project that began in one of Deb’s classes and she worked with and mentored Doug Gadomski Mark Pugsley, and David Nicol, after the class was over to make this project a reality. She was in the process of arranging a visit from UOC to UNM. So, I would like to encourage you to think of enrolling in one of the e-Learning courses from UOC this Fall, which OLIT will recognize and give credit for as part of your academic program. I know this will make Deb happy. We have details on the OLIT website. Mark Puglsey has graciously volunteered to be a mentor for those of you who would like to venture out. You can contact him at pugsley@aps.edu. I am sure Doug and David would be happy to help as well, and Elena from UOC will help us from that end. Let’s make this project of Deb’s a success, and show UOC that we are eager to continue Deb’s legacy. Lani Charlotte Nirmalani (Lani) Gunawardena, Ph.D. Regents' Professor Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology Program College of Education, MSC05-3040 1 University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA Phone:505-277-5046 Fax: 505-277-5553

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Dear Deb's family and OLIT community,

I would like to extend my sympathies to all of you. We have lost a wonderful person but her legacy will remain with us forever. Deb was my first contact in OLIT and she became my inspiration to always be curious about learning new things and fearless about trying them out in real life. I am a better person for having known her.

Celebrating Deb's life! ~Marlie
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I am coming to this wiki late. I only found out that Deb is no longer with us a few hours ago.

I have been in frequent email and telephone contact with Deb from the time her cancer condition was diagnosed onward. The period coincided with her writing a chapter for the book on Learners in a Changing Learning Landscape of which I am the principal editor. Deb was courageously producing draft after draft while undergoing her chemo therapy. She would never herself mention her condition, always staying focused on the task at hand. Having a meaningful piece of work ahead of her seemed to help her cope with the treatment, its side effects, and the uncertainty about its results. Six weeks before her death we still exchanged emails. As always, she sounded perfectly at ease and optimistic about the future.

Deb was an extraordinary human being with a very strong character. She has left a mark in my memory of someone with a high degree of professionalism, personal integrity, and great care and attention for others.

She will be greatly missed by her friends and colleagues. I extend my sympathies to her family and to the OLIT community.

Jan Visser
President, Learning Development Institute
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