Dr. Beverly Leetch, Associate Professor Emerita of Spanish and former Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, died peacefully at home on Friday, March 22 after a two-year struggle with ALS.
She earned her BA in Spanish from Mary Baldwin College, and her MA and PhD in Spanish from Johns Hopkins University. She joined the Towson University faculty in 1973 and retired in 2010. Between 1997 and 2000 she was Associate Dean of the CLA, and Interim Dean from 2000 to 2003. Her scholarly interests centered on Spanish literature of the Golden Age; her publications also included Que pasa?, a successful intermediate Spanish language textbook. She was a dedicated and beloved teacher at all levels of the curriculum, from Spanish 101 to advanced seminars on Cervantes and on pedagogical technologies for teachers of Spanish. Her very extensive service record focused on innovative teaching techniques and on issues of assessment and accreditation. Students remember her as a teacher of deep personal culture who cared deeply for them and showed great patience in helping them to meet her high academic standards. Colleagues will recall her generosity as a mentor, her selflessness, modesty, and complete honesty, and most of all her ready laughter.
She is survived by her sister Shirley Leetch Leeper and by Shirley’s son David and his family. It was Beverly’s wish that any memorial contributions be made to the TU Foundation in support of the Patricia Knapp McLucas Scholarship for students in the Foreign Languages Department.
A memorial will be held on April 10 at 5 p.m. at the University Club. For further information, please call the Department of Foreign Languages at 410-704-2883.
