As a high school English teacher in the 1990s, Ernest Morrell started using rap songs to draw his students into the work of long-ago writers. The goal, he said years later, was to use hip-hop culture “as a bridge linking the seemingly vast span between the streets and the world of academics.” The approach worked.
Morrell, the Coyle Professor of Literacy Education, died February 4 at age 54. A member of the English and Africana studies faculties and director of the Center for Literacy Education in the Institute for Educational Initiatives, he had also served five years as a College of Arts & Letters associate dean.
As a literacy scholar who urged teachers to reimagine the relationship between students and texts, Morrell saw literacy as a means of social justice, empowering young people to access information and participate in civic and cultural life. His experience as a teacher and coach in Oakland, California, focused his interest in classroom practices and shaped his commitment to supporting teachers and students, particularly those underserved by the educational system.
A California native, Morrell attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and earned master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2017 after teaching at Michigan State University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Columbia University.
Morrell “cultivated a true ‘family tree’ of scholars whose work began with his guidance,” said Maria McKenna ’97, a professor of the practice in Africana studies and in education, schooling and society. He served his doctoral students as a mentor then welcomed them as peers when they got jobs at other institutions. “They learned his lessons well about the importance of building and strengthening communities that support equity and justice,” she said.
His 17 books include Critical Literacy and Urban Youth: Pedagogies of Access, Dissent, and Liberation. Morrell and his wife, Jodene Morrell, a teaching professor and associate director of the literacy center, found inspiration in the late Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, and recounted their experiences as classroom teachers and educational researchers in a 2023 book, Freire and Children’s Literature.
Morrell was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education and the American Educational Research Association. He received the James R. Squire Award from the National Council of Teachers of English for his lasting impact on English language arts education. He will posthumously receive the President’s Award, which recognizes leading achievements that advance the University’s goals.
He is survived by Jodene, his wife of 31 years, and their three sons.
Reginald Bain ’57 didn’t believe actors should remain behind an artificial fourth wall. In the plays and musicals he directed, scene entrances and exits might happen through the back of the playhouse. A soliloquy could be delivered from the Washington Hall balcony. In his view, a gymnasium could be a theater, as could a school corridor.
Bain, a professor emeritus of theater, died January 30. He was 91.
When Bain retired in 2001 after 35 years on the film, television, and theatre faculty, he had directed more departmental productions than anyone in the history of Notre Dame’s theater program. “He was the soul of the theater program at Notre Dame for decades,” said Mark Pilkinton, a professor emeritus who worked alongside Bain for more than 15 years. “It was always about the students with Reg.”
Born in Los Angeles, a first-generation college student, Bain studied theater and literature at Notre Dame, and immersed himself in campus productions, participating as an actor, director and stage crew member. He and his future wife, a Saint Mary’s College student, first appeared together on stage in a spring 1956 production of Antigone at Saint Mary’s.
After college, Bain served in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps, then earned a master’s degree at the University of Arizona and taught theater at Regis College in Denver. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1966 while pursuing a doctorate at the University of Minnesota, which he completed in 1972.
In those early years, Bain served as department chair and ran the Notre Dame Summer Theatre program, providing immersive experiences for students while bringing plays and musicals to the South Bend community.
His original works included the liturgical dramas The Way of the Cross and The Story of Jonah, as well as Clowns’ Play and Balloon! Balloon! for young audiences. The dramatist and director earned many honors for outstanding teaching and the Alumni Association’s Rev. Arthur S. Harvey Award, which recognizes graduates for achievements in the performing arts.
An enthusiastic Chicago Cubs fan, Bain enjoyed discussing sports, politics, theology, music, art and science. He traveled extensively and loved spending time with family.
His wife of 42 years, Georgia Bain ’78M.A., died in 2005. He is survived by two daughters, a son and 10 grandchildren.
A respected scholar in the male-dominated field of theoretical physics, Kathie Newman is remembered as an academic pioneer and a fierce advocate for students.
Newman, a professor emerita of physics and astronomy, died December 31. She was 73.
Born and raised in Maryland, Newman earned a bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University and advanced degrees at the University of Washington, where she met her future husband, Bruce Bunker. The couple held postdoctoral research and faculty positions at the University of Illinois before coming to Notre Dame in 1983.
Newman was the first female professor in Notre Dame’s physics department and the first to achieve tenure. She taught, published more than 40 articles in scientific journals and served in several administrative positions, including 15 years as an associate dean in the College of Science and another 11 directing graduate studies and admissions in the physics department, before retiring in 2020.
“Kathie did so much behind the scenes work. She had an impact on thousands of students, both undergraduate and graduate,” said Mitchell Wayne, a professor of physics and astronomy.
That service included the direction of eight doctoral dissertations and leadership toward the establishment of a maternity policy for Notre Dame faculty and staff.
Newman’s research interests included the mathematics of semiconductors and exotic phases of ice crystals. She twice won the President’s Award, which recognizes visionary achievements in research, public impact or creative endeavors.
Newman enjoyed gardening, cooking, hiking, travel and fiber arts, interests that sometimes took a whimsical, scientific turn such as the sewing of Penrose tiles and the knitting of a Klein bottle. A ravenous reader, she was a member of several book clubs.
She is survived by her husband, two sons and three grandsons.
Fighting Irish softball players are wearing “LM” stickers on their gold helmets this season in honor of former varsity coach Liz Miller, whose teams never won fewer than 30 games in a season.
Miller, who coached the team from 1993 to 2001, died December 5 at age 78.
The softball program’s second head coach — and first female coach — Miller won conference coach-of-the-year honors after five of her nine seasons. Her teams, meanwhile, won nine conference regular-season titles en route to a collective 376-156 win-loss record; she coached 10 All-Americans and 14 Academic All-Americans; her 2001 team set the bar for Irish softball, winning a school-record 54 games while losing just seven, reaching No. 8 in the national rankings and earning the program’s first No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Born in Kendallville, Indiana, Miller grew up in the era before Title IX made competitive sports widely available to girls and women. She participated in intramural sports at her Michigan high school and played field hockey and volleyball at Western Michigan University.
After college, Miller taught all physical education classes for the Galien, Michigan, school district, where she founded and coached the first girls’ programs in basketball, softball, track and volleyball. In 1973, she created the women’s athletic program at Lake Michigan College, coached softball, basketball and volleyball, and was later named athletic director.
“She had high expectations. You wanted to play well to please her. She was a total mentor for all of us. She’s the reason I got into coaching,” said Kris (McCleary) Ganeff ’99, a standout catcher for Miller’s teams. That mentorship yielded Miller’s successor as softball head coach, Deanna Gumpf — now Notre Dame’s winningest head coach in any sport. When Gumpf retired in 2024, she handed the reins to Ganeff, who had coached under her for 23 seasons.
With a sense of humor and a warm personality, Miller was also an extremely competitive person, Ganeff recalled. Even during friendly card games on road trips, Miller played to win. And when women’s varsity sports weren’t getting the funding or attention that men’s teams routinely received, she pushed for more. “For her, ‘no’ was not an answer,” Ganeff said.
In retirement, Miller frequented Irish softball games. She volunteered as a coach and hosted impromptu practices for anyone who showed up at a field or court, and her achievements were honored by inductions into several halls of fame. A gardening enthusiast, she served for many years as president of Buchanan, Michigan’s garden club.
Lloyd, her husband of 54 years, died in 2023. She is survived by a daughter, a son and four grandchildren.