Charles W.J. Scaife, professor emeritus of chemistry, died
of cancer Sunday at his Schenectady home. He was 65.
Scaife, who joined the faculty in 1972 and retired in 2001,
spent much of the last decade with his wife, Priscilla, doing hands-on science
programs for elementary- and middle-school students and their teachers.
In 1994, Scaife used a sabbatical to become what one
newspaper called “a latter-day Merlin” with “Johnny Appleseed wanderings.” With
his wife, a social worker, he hit the road in the family car, doing
demonstrations in youngsters' science classes by day, holding evening science
workshops for parents and children, and sleeping wherever they could get a free
bed.
Starting in the Northeast in 1994, they later expanded their travels to include
the entire country, using additional sabbaticals as well as vacation time.
Prof. Scaife said that his campaign was spurred by the conviction that children
take to science when they are able to work with their hands and experience a
sense of surprise. “The kids realize they are
going to have fun,” he once said. “But they don't always know they
will accidentally learn something along the way.”
In one favorite experiment, someone would hold up a Ziploc
bag filled with water, and Prof. Scaife would push a pencil into it from the
youngster's side. But no one would get wet, the polymer providing an instant
seal.
The Scaifes' school visits had a dual purpose — to permit children and their
parents to experience close up the sense of surprise that is science's
essential excitement and to encourage teachers, some of whom have little
knowledge of science, to be more adventurous in the classroom.
In the schools they visited, the Scaifes trained a team of volunteers to take
over where they left off. Through school visits, teacher workshops, and a web
site (http://www.kids.union.edu), they built a corps of volunteers across the country
dedicated to improved science teaching.
When they tallied their visits in 1999, the Scaifes estimated they had reached
more than 25,000 students.
The couple's exploits also caught the eye of the national
media, inspiring a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal, as well
as subsequent stories in USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor,
and Education Week.
In 1999, Scaife received the
Community Service Award from the Hudson Mohawk Consortium of Colleges and
Universities. He accepted the award by acknowledging all the students “who
wear their enthusiasm right out in front.”
Scaife, who specialized in inorganic chemistry, taught a
range of courses in inorganic chemistry and designed laboratory experiments for
chemistry majors at Union. He published a number of
papers in chemistry journals. He was a member of the American Chemical Society,
a Danforth Associate, and a member of Sigma Xi, an honorary dedicated to
scientific research.
Scaife, with student Rich
Cavoli '87, designed a crystal-growing experiment that was aboard the space shuttle Challenger, and he got to know astronauts Ron McNair and Greg Jarvis, who lost
their lives on the 1986 mission. A guest at the ill-fated launch, Scaife saw the experiment fly on the Discovery two years later.
Charles Scaife received a
BA degree in chemistry from Cornell University
in 1959 and a Ph.D. there in inorganic chemistry in 1965. He was a commissioned
officer in the Navy from 1959 to 1961 and a National Science Foundation
Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York, England, in 1967. He taught at Middlebury
College before joining Union
in 1972.
Surviving, in addition to Priscilla, are two daughters, Rebecca
Sanders of Lyndon, Vt., (and her husband, James), and Jennifer Craig of
Lakeville, Conn., (and her husband, Ken); a sister, Betty Scorese of
Pennsylvania; and seven grandchildren. He was predeceased by his sister, Laura.
The funeral service is Saturday, Aug. 30, at 10 a.m. at Our Savior's Lutheran
Church, 63
Mountain View Ave., Colonie. The family will be
greeting friends from 9 to 10 a.m. at the church and at a reception after
the service.
Memorial contributions may be made to family and youth
ministry programs at Our Savior's Lutheran
Church, 63
Mountain View Ave., Colonie, N.Y.,
12205; to Community Hospice
of Schenectady, 1411 Union St., Schenectady,
N.Y. 12308; or to City Mission of Schenectady, 425 Hamilton St., Schenectady, N.Y. 12305.