English Department Faculty Member Dies

Lynn Langer Meeks, a professor in USU’s Department of English, died Saturday, Oct. 14, as a result of pancreatic cancer. She is survived by her husband, Norm Jones, also a USU faculty member and History Department head.

A religious memorial service will be held Thursday, Oct. 19, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 85 E. 100 North, Logan. Services begin at 2 p.m. Details for a campus memorial service are forthcoming.

 

“Lynn Meeks left an indelible mark on the Department of English and, through its Writing Program, the university and the state,” said department head Jeffrey Smitten. “She was, as a colleague once put it, the ideal scholar-teacher-researcher-leader that modern universities need if they are to continue to grow, change and meet the challenges which the future will surely bring.  Always dynamic and energetic, she shaped the university’s writing curriculum. She mentored graduate instructors. She organized in-service training as director of the Utah Writing Project, and she actively influenced state assessment models. She will be, quite simply, irreplaceable.”

 

Meeks’ death is the second pancreatic cancer death in the English Department in recent months. Utah Poet Laureate Ken Brewer passed away earlier.

 

“Ken taught us how to die, and Lynn taught us how to live,” said English Department faculty member Jeanne Thomas.

 

Fellow colleague Joyce Kinkead said Meeks was known for an annual fall party she hosted along with her husband for new graduate instructors.

 

“She knew how to throw a party that let us let our hair down and enjoy each other’s company,” said English instructor Star Coulbrooke. “Her affirming smile and determination and energy made her much-admired on campus.”