Robert E. Shanklin

Bishop Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award (1981)

Obituary

Robert E. Shanklin, 76, professor emeritus of geology at Ohio Wesleyan University, died Friday (Dec 13, 1991) at Riverside Methodist Hospitals. He joined the OWU faculty as an instructor in 1946, after serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He retired as a full professor in 1985 after 39 years. He continued teaching summer sessions right through last summer.

Labeled a “sure draw to alumni” by Alumni Affairs Director Lolly Newman, Shanklin was a major performer at Ohio Wesleyan “learning experiences,” “suitcase seminars,” and Summer Week programs. He delivered the fifth annual Ezra and Edith Vogel Lecture in 1989.

Shanklin was appointed James Banks Foundation Professor in 1976. He served as department chairman from 1962-79. In 1985 he won Ohio Wesleyan’s highest faculty honor, the President Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award. A former varsity tennis player at Vanderbilt University, he coached tennis at OWU from 1947-52.

Shanklin also taught briefly at the University of Oregon and several summer sessions at Ohio State University. He earned a master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati and a Ph.D. at Ohio State. He is survived by his wife, Kadell; a son, Robert E. Shanklin Jr. of Frederick, Md.; three daughters, Kerry Sabine and Nancy Clark, both of Delaware, and Victoria Shanklin of Athens, Ohio; six grandchildren; and a brother, H.D. Shanklin of Indianapolis. Two sons preceded him in death, Henry Douglas in infancy in 1954 and Thomas in 1972.

Interment services will be private. A memorial service will be held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Saturday, Dec. 21, at 3 p.m.

The family suggests donations to the R.E. Shanklin Memorial Fund at Ohio Wesleyan University.