Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, Dies at 73

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A public memorial service for Dennis P. Malone, 73, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor emeritus in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo, will be held at noon Thursday (Aug. 10, 2006) in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus. Malone died Saturday (Aug. 5, 2006) following a brief illness.

Malone was a UB faculty member for 41 years. His service to the university included academic department chair, chair of the Faculty Senate and chair of the Intercollegiate Athletics Board.

In a 1991 letter proposing his appointment as a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, then UB president Steven B. Sample described Malone's "seemingly inexhaustible dedication to serving both the State University of New York and the University at Buffalo" and called him a "definitive" candidate for the highest faculty rank within the SUNY system.

Among Malone's accomplishments, Sample noted, were primary responsibility for restructuring UB's Department of Electrical Engineering, establishment of the department's Laboratory for Applied Physics and Environmental Sciences, recruitment of scholars who were prolific researchers and creation of a baccalaureate curriculum in engineering physics.

Malone was a 1950 graduate of Kenmore Senior High School, where he played football and participated in intramural judo. The quote that accompanied his yearbook photo read: "He doesn't talk, he orates."

A Buffalo native, Malone served in the U.S. Navy from 1950-52 during the Korean Conflict.

He worked in the missile guidance department at Bell Aircraft Corp. and then Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory before entering UB, from which he received a bachelor's degree in physics magna cum laude in 1954. At UB, Malone was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Phi and an intercollegiate wrestler.

In 1955, he received a master's degree in physics from Yale University, which awarded him a doctorate in physics in 1960.

Malone then returned to Buffalo, heading the Modern Physics Branch at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory from 1959-65.

He joined the UB faculty in 1965 as an associate professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Research and promoted to professor in 1969. He served as chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 1968 until 1983. He directed the Engineering Physics Program from 1988 until 2006.

At the university level, his distinguished service included chair of the Intercollegiate Athletics Board; Faculty Senate and its Academic Freedom and Responsibility and Academic planning committees; Middle State Accreditation Review Committee; and the New York State Education Department Review of Undergraduate Programs. He also served as NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative. He also was a member of the presidential search committee that recommended William R. Greiner as UB's 13th president.

Within SUNY, Malone served as a senator and then vice president from 1985-87 with the SUNY Faculty Senate. He was co-chair of a wind energy conference sponsored by the New York State Legislative Committee on Science and Technology.

Malone also served as a consultant to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on the National Research Council's Panel on Minority Graduate Fellowships and the board of directors of the Northeast Radio Observatory Consortium affiliated with the MIT Haystack Observatory.

Malone was fluent in German, French and Russian. An amateur actor who had been a member of the East Aurora Players, his hobbies included astronomy, mineral collecting, poker and classical music.

A resident of Clarence, Malone is survived by his wife, Jane Liebner; a daughter, Elisabeth (Tibby) Winter, son-in-law, Jack Winter, of East Aurora and three grandchildren.