Biographical Text
Professor Emeritus of Biology William C. Dewel (December 9, 1935-) was born in Algona, Iowa to Dorothy G. and Duane E. Dewel. He has one sister Marjorie Jean (Dewel) Pickford living in Austin, Texas. Dr. Dewel graduated from Algona High School in 1954. After he earned his B.A. degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in 1958, he served two years in the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, 1958-1960. He received his M.A. degree in biology in 1962 from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He also studied at the University of Arizona, taught at the University of Southeastern Massachusetts and at Wharton County Community College in Wharton, Texas, before returning to graduate school at the University of Houston, Texas, where he received a Ph.D. degree in 1972. He married Ruth Ann Baggenstoss on June 6, 1967, in Tucson, Arizona. Ruth is one of three children of Dr. and Mrs. Archie Baggenstoss of Rochester, Minnesota. Ruth received the B.A. degree (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1967 and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Houston, Texas, in 1972. Ruth is currently director of the College of Arts and Sciences Electron Microscopy Facility. Dr. and Mrs. Dewel have two children, Alan (December 20, 1974), who earned his B.A. degree from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, in 1997, and Karen (October 20,1985), currently a senior at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina. Dr. Dewel began teaching at Appalachian State University in the fall of 1972 and retired at the end of June 2002. He taught multiple sections of freshman biology for his entire career. His main focus within biology was teaching developmental biology (embryology), as well as teaching electron microscopy, histology, and genetics. The Dewels as a team have published papers on the biology of a relatively unknown phylum of semi-terrestrial, microscopic invertebrates the Tardigrada, commonly known as water bears. Their articles have appeared in the following journals: Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Ultrastructure Research, Canadian Journal of Botany, Historical Biology, Journal of Morphology, American Zoologist, and Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society, to name a few. They have also authored two chapters on tardigrades, one in the sixteen volume treatise Morphology of Invertebrates (Frederick Harrison and Mary Rice, eds.) and one in the book Arthropod Relationships (R.A. Fortey and R. H. Thomas, eds.) The Dewels' have established a bio-reserve on a working cattle ranch along the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona, where they now live. Sources: Appalachian State University files and personal correspondence. -Dr. Richard D. Howe
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