Samuel and Pamela Kirkpatrick
Samuel Kirkpatrick and Pamela Richter were born one day apart in the Harrisburg Hospital, the beginning of a lifetime relationship that subsequently developed at New Cumberland Junior High School and Cedar Cliff High School, where they were in its second graduation class (1961). At Cedar Cliff, both were active in student government, school performances, publications and Future Teachers of America, and Sam was president of the senior class. Pam made an early decision to attend Shippensburg State College, and after Sam was awarded a Pennsylvania Congress of Parents and Teachers Scholarship, he was personally recruited to Shippensburg by Gilmore Seavers, who was Director of Admissions before he went on to become president.
Both Sam and Pam lived on campus, where Pam was active in the Womens’ Residence Association and resided at both Horton and McCune halls, as well as Dean (of academic affairs) Smay’s on-campus house for enrolled students. Sam was elected freshman class president and resided in the same room in Old Main for three years in an area that eventually became the university president’s office. Pam majored in elementary education and Sam primarily studied social science and history, and both were active in the Pennsylvania State and National Education associations. To help pay for his education, Sam held a student assistant position in the library, solidifying his love for books. Both were actively involved in student government, where Pam was a member of the Student Senate Extracurricular Activities Committee while Sam served as chair of the Campus Improvement Committee, and as Senior Senator and a member of the President’s Council during the early development of the Student Senate, which had just begun its second year of operation. Both were active in extracurricular programs: Pam was a member of the Elementary Club and Sam was active in the Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Sigma Pi honor societies, as well as the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity, which honored Pam as White Rose Queen. Ship’s innovative four-term year-round schedule and opportunities for accelerated academic progress during a period of rapid enrollment growth enabled Sam to graduate in three years following student teaching in Camp Hill. A year later Pam completed student teaching in the West Shore School District. Upon departing Shippensburg, Sam received a Finnegan Foundation research fellowship in Harrisburg.
Upon departing Shippensburg, Sam received a Finnegan Foundation research fellowship in Harrisburg as assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Health, after which he enrolled in the political science graduate program at Penn State, where he received his MA and PhD degrees. He and Pam were married shortly after she graduated from Ship and she joined him in State College to teach at an elementary school in Bellefonte while she also pursued graduate studies. Following additional graduate work for both at the University of Michigan, they departed Pennsylvania for a lengthy joint involvement in higher education. This began at the University of Oklahoma, where Sam became a full professor and directed both a public policy research center and a statewide honors program for 21 public and private universities. These educational leadership roles, along with his experiences at Ship, helped to prepare him for a career in academic administration as department head of political science, and in later years as Executive Associate Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University, and as president of the University of Texas at San Antonio and Eastern Michigan University. During these years Pam developed a second career in interior design and served in volunteer positions and formal campus roles, including Associate to the President. These were also busy times as Sam was an active publishing researcher and served as president and board member for a variety of higher education associations in the social sciences and professional higher education, including the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, where he was also a senior fellow and a higher education management consultant.
The Kirkpatricks are especially grateful to Shippensburg University for a high quality undergraduate experience, and for the opportunities Ship has historically offered to students facing financial challenges as they pursue their educational goals. Having been instrumental in developing and nurturing honors programs in multiple academic settings, they are encouraged by Ship’s commitment to honors education and to the financial aid stewardship of the Shippensburg University Foundation. Dr. Kirkpatrick is also grateful for the opportunity to have addressed graduates at two commencements and to the University for naming him a Distinguished Alumnus and a recipient of an honorary doctoral degree. The Kirkpatricks are now retired in Arizona, where both of their sons reside and their grandchildren were raised.
Scholarships associated with Samuel and Pamela Kirkpatrick