University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Funeral services were held Aug. 20 for Melissa Wickser Banta, a prominent alumna and community arts supporter who served as a special assistant to former UB President Martin Meyerson in 1969-70 and was assistant curator of the UB Poetry Collection in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She died Aug. 18 in Hospice and Palliative Care, Cheektowaga, on her 86th birthday.

In the mid-1950s, Banta, a native of Buffalo, returned to the classroom while raising her family. She went on to academic distinction at UB, earning not only her bachelor’s degree in art history in 1958, but also an MA and a PhD, both from the Department of English, in 1963 and 1966, respectively. She taught in the UB English department and at the former Calasanctius School in Buffalo, which addressed the needs of academically gifted children. Her work with Meyerson was part of a foundation-supported national effort to bolster higher education.

Banta’s extensive scholarship and curatorial work included the editing, with the late Oscar A. Silverman, head of the UB English department and director of the University Libraries, “James Joyce’s Letters to Sylvia Beach, 1921-1940,” published in 1987 by Indiana University Press and subsequently reissued in several foreign language editions. She served the University Libraries for 25 years, focusing on the James Joyce materials and the Poetry Collection itself.

Banta was part of a family that had extensively supported the arts. A great-grandfather, Pascal Pratt, helped to incorporate what is now the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and her father, Philip J. Wickser, was a founder of the gallery’s Room for Contemporary Art fund. Moreover, the first installment of UB’s world renowned Joyce Collection came here through a gift that her mother, Margaretta F. Wickser, made in memory of her husband. According to the Joyce Collection website, the Wickser gift consisted of the Librarie La Hune’s Joyce exposition in Paris that included a substantial body of Joyce manuscripts, along with Joyce family portraits, Joyce’s private library and items of memorabilia.

Banta also helped to prepare the 1987 exhibition catalog “Masterworks on Paper from the Albright-Knox Gallery,” and that year co-curated an exhibition entitled “Essence and Persuasion: The Power of Black and White” at what is now the UB Anderson Gallery.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Banta operated Les Copains Gallery in Buffalo with the late James G. Dyett, who was an avid supporter of the UB School of Architecture and Planning and founding chair of the school’s Friends group.

Banta was a trustee of the University at Buffalo Foundation from 1971 to 1987 and was trustee emerita from 1988 forward. She served on the board of UB’s former Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, and was a member of the boards of the Burchfield Penney Art Center and the International Institute in Buffalo. In 1990, she received UB’s Distinguished Alumna Award.

Survivors include her husband, Charles Urban Banta; two sons, Charles Wickser Banta and Philip Livingston Banta; and a daughter, Melissa Winspear Banta.

William T. Ruyechan, professor and chair of microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, died of cancer Aug. 15 at his home in East Amherst. He was 60.

A native of suburban Pittsburgh, Ruyechan earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 1972, his master’s in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1974, and his doctorate from Illinois in 1976. He worked at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., before coming to UB in 1992.

In June, Ruyechan received the medical school’s Stockton Kimball Award, which honors a faculty member for academic accomplishments and worldwide recognition as a researcher. His research focused on molecular biology and pathogenesis in the varicella zoster virus and the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma brucei. He and his collaborators identified two novel RNA-binding proteins in T. brucei, which causes a form of African sleeping sickness in domestic cattle.

At UB, Ruyechan trained more than 25 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and lecturers in virology and microbial genetics courses. His research was consistently funded by the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Oishei Foundation.

At the time of his death, he was principal investigator on an NIH T32 training grant for the study of microbial pathogenesis. He published more than 115 papers and book chapters and served on the editorial boards of Journal of Virology and Immunological Investigations. Frequently invited to present his work at venues nationally and internationally, he held adjunct professorships at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India, and at Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Xi’an, China.

“Throughout his career, Bill has exemplified how an outstanding academic scientist balances research, teaching and service,” Suzanne Laychock, senior associate dean for faculty affairs and facilities, said at the time of the Kimball Award conferral. “The Stockton-Kimball Award not only recognizes that Dr. Ruyechan is one of UB’s most talented researchers, but also that he has generously contributed to the betterment of our school and university.”

In his busy and active life outside the university, Ruyechan was a member of the Croatian Fraternal Union Lodge 718 and founded the Buffalo Shotokan Karate Club in 1992. He was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Swormville, where funeral services were held Aug. 19.

He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Noreen Williams; two daughters, Alicia Guthro and Maura; and a brother, the Rev. Matthew.