Retiring faculty honored

Five Longwood University faculty members who are retiring at the end of the spring 2013 semester were honored recently in a campus reception.

(The year each retiree joined Longwood is indicated in parentheses.)

• Baseball coach Charles Buddy Bolding, who holds academic rank as instructor in health and physical education (1978)
• Dr. Ruth Budd, associate professor of modern languages (1996), who as gymnastics coach from 1977-90 was instructor in health and physical education
• Dr. Gayle Daly, senior clinical instructor in communication sciences and disorders (1998)
• Dr. Ronald McPherson, associate professor of computer information management systems (2000)
• Dr. John Reynolds, professor of modern languages (1987)

In 35 seasons as Longwood’s head baseball coach, Bolding has won more than 935 games. Prior to the university’s reclassification to Division I, he had 26 consecutive winning seasons. His career includes six appearances in the NCAA Division II tournament and two trips to the Division II College World Series. Nine of his former players have been chosen in the Major League Baseball draft since 1988, and an estimated 30-plus former players are currently involved in coaching on the high-school or college level. He was the South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year twice, the Virginia College Division Coach of the Year four times and the Longwood Male Coach of the Year a record seven times. The baseball facility was dedicated as Charles Buddy Bolding Stadium in 2009. Bolding is a native of Bedford County.

Budd, a Latin America specialist, first became interested in Spanish when, as Longwood’s gymnastics coach, she taught gymnastics in 1983 at a summer camp in Cali, Colombia—an experience she called a "life-changer." She later studied Spanish in Costa Rica and at the University of North Carolina, returning to Longwood after earning her Ph.D. As Longwood’s gymnastics coach, Budd produced the university’s first All-American athlete (Kathy Idelson in 1979) in any sport and sent several gymnasts to national championships competition. She is a native of Accomack County on the Eastern Shore.

Daly is the clinical director of the communication sciences and disorders program. She has practiced as a speech-language pathologist for more than 30 years and spent many years in public school divisions, including those of Botetourt County and Lynchburg. She is a native of Valley Stream, N.Y.

McPherson taught previously at the University of the Virgin Islands (1996-2000) and James Madison University (1988-95). Before that, he was an engineer for Chrysler and Ford motor companies and for Sperry Marine in Charlottesville. He is a Detroit native.

Reynolds, who teaches primarily German and also French, directed the International Studies program for 10 years and, with Dr. Geoff Orth, helped launch Longwood’s chapter of Delta Phi Alpha, the German national honor society. He remains the chapter’s faculty adviser, and he has been the national secretary-treasurer for Delta Phi Alpha for about 30 years. In 2008 he was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the American Association of Teachers of German, given to those who have done exceptional work in promoting the study of German language and culture. He is the author of the five-volume critical edition C. F. Gellerts Briefwechsel—"C. F. Gellert’s Correspondence"—about an 18th century German writer and university professor who was Goethe’s teacher. Reynolds is a native of Melrose, Mass.