Daniel_Quilter

Daniel E. Quilter

   Daniel E. Quilter, Associate Professor Emeritus of Spanish at Indiana University, died at home on May 29, 2008 due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease. He was born as a fraternal twin on October 17, 1933 in Toledo, Ohio to Lillian Weber and Dr. Daniel E Quilter. He and his sister Nancy were joined by a brother, John Quentin Quilter 15 months later. He lived in Tiffin, Ohio as a child until his father, a chiropractor, was killed in a car accident, leaving his widow with three children under the age of six, forcing her to work until she remarried a widower, John P. Balduf of Toledo, Ohio when Dan was 12.

   Dan attended the University of Toledo where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. degree in Spanish in 1951. He did his graduate work at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, earning an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Spanish, with a dissertation on Cervantes, in 1962. Afterwards he married Donna Strachan, a fellow student, and his first college teaching position was at Northwestern University. He took a position at Indiana University in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese in 1964 where he remained an Associate Professor until his early retirement in 1995 due to complications from severely impaired vision and Parkinson’s Disease which was first diagnosed in 1987.

   During his career at Indiana University, Dan served in a series of administrative positions in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He was Director of Language Instruction for ten years, the position that brought him to IU, for which he supervised associate instructors, taught a methods course and demonstration classes. He was later Director of Undergraduate Studies, a position he held for 16 years. Although his dissertation was on Don Quijote, he also enjoyed teaching language courses, business Spanish, applied linguistics and Spanish culture and civilization. He created a number of new courses and was known for his use of multimedia before technology had become advanced.

   His course materials benefited from a number of years spent in Spain as director of IU’s Overseas Study Program at the University Complutense of Madrid, a position he held three different times, 1966-67, 1974-75 and 1980-81. He also directed summer programs in Salamanca, Mexico City and Segovia. He also spent a sabbatical in Spain in 1975-76, affording him the opportunity to witness historical events during the death of Franco and the transition to democracy. He enhanced his courses with materials developed out of such significant moments.

   He prided himself with devoting his entire career to teaching and administration and developed elaborate course materials to supplement more traditional texts. He was awarded IU’s President’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991, the Indiana Foreign Language Professor of the Year Award in 1992 and the Indiana American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese Faculty Teaching Award in 1992. However, his greatest pride was being one of the most named favorite professors by a survey of graduating IU seniors.

   Before his retirement, McGraw Hill published his book on advanced Spanish grammar. He also had a popular Don Quijote reader that was used for many years in high schools. He served as a table leader for evaluating Advanced Placement exams for the Educational Testing Services in Princeton, NJ from 1977-1985.

   Dan served on the board of directors of the IU Credit Union for one three-year term in the 1970’s. He was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington and served on the board of directors for six years and was president in 1995-96. He became involved in issues related to social action in the community and sang in the UU choir for many years. He also led three personalized travel tours to Spain in 1994, 1996 and 1998 for UU members and friends from the Bloomington community. In 1995, after he retired from Indiana University, he began teaching Spanish at the Bloomington Adult Community Center and continued with the same class of adult learners until his death.

   Despite becoming increasingly more disabled with each passing year, Dan kept involved with the church, the community and his friends. He maintained a sharp wit, found satisfaction in artistic expression and kept up on current events as well as history and politics through books on tape and readers who generously gave their time to him. And he was devoted to the exceptional team of caregivers who helped him maintain his quality of life until the end.

   He was preceded in death by his mother, father, stepfather and his sister, Nancy. He is survived by his second wife, Kathleen Sideli and their two children, Laura Sideli Quilter of Indianapolis and Matthew Sideli Quilter of Bloomington; his two daughters by his first marriage, Maire Quilter of Bloomington and her husband, Michael Melby, and Emily Quilter of Seattle and her husband, Karl Johnson; his first wife, Donna Quilter of Seattle; his brother, John Q. Quilter of New York and his wife, Georgette, and his stepbrother, Robert Balduf of Toledo, Ohio and his wife, Jane.

   Dan donated his body to the Indiana University School of Medicine to further the advancement of medical education and research.

   A memorial service was held at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 6:00 p.m.

   Donations to honor Dan’s memory may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, 2120 N. Fee Lane, Bloomington, IN 47408, particularly to the Social Action Committee, or to the Indiana University Overseas Study Scholarship Fund through the IU Foundation, St. Rd 46 Bypass, Bloomington, IN 47405.

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