The University of Toledo

Scholarship Honors Long-Time Professor and Administrator

For generations of individuals who have studied, taught, or worked at The University of Toledo, the name “Alice Skeens” is as familiar as the stone clock tower.

Throughout her 50-year career at UT, Dr. Skeens, who died in November, became something of a University icon herself.

She came to Toledo in 1960 through a National Defense Scholarship Program and was a teaching assistant for three summers before becoming a full-time instructor in UT’s former Community and Technical College.

Over five decades, she held a number of positions, including professor of psychology, undergraduate advisor, assistant to the president, and founding dean of the newly formed College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences.

She also lent her interests and skills to a wide variety of University organizations and boards, and once noted that she may have served on every standing committee at UT.

Dr. Skeens, who received her doctorate in guidance and counseling from UT in 1972, was also a strong financial supporter of her University. Following her lifelong commitment to UT, friends and family have established a scholarship in her memory. The Alice Skeens Scholarship Fund will tentatively assist athletes, hard-working students, and those who are less privileged and less able to afford school on their own.

“Alice loved the hard workers who fought to get where they were in school. She did not want kids failing out, and encouraged all to make it through,” said her son, Charlie Skeens. “She enjoyed all the young people she mentored along the way, and treasured being able to help keep kids in school as they reached their higher education goals.”

With all the many positions she held, noted Mr. Skeens, “her fondest and most beloved” was teaching.

“For 20 years Alice Skeens served in the dean’s office in the College of Arts and Sciences representing student affairs,” said UT President Lloyd Jacobs. “But her advocacy for students spanned the whole of her career at The University of Toledo and the lives of countless UT students and graduates who are better off for having known her.”

 

     Memorial contributions may be made to The University of Toledo Foundation, designated for the Alice Skeens Scholarship Fund. Make your gift online at our secure website: https://give2ut.utoledo.edu/. Checks may be mailed to: The University of Toledo Foundation, 2801 W. Bancroft St, Toledo, OH 43606.