Jeffrey L. Spielman, age 69, passed away peacefully at home March 10, 2019 surrounded by his family, in Salem, VA. He was born April 8, 1949 in Johnstown, PA to James Keifer and Florence Irene (Maser) Spielman.
Jeff moved to Ohio when he was 7 years old. He was an excellent student and was Valedictorian of his 1967 class at Maumee High School. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in mathematics at Bowling Green State University.
Jeff taught at Chicago State University and Ohio Northern University, where he served as department chair. In 1986, he moved to Salem, VA to continue his career as a mathematics professor at Roanoke College. He retired from Roanoke College in 2015. He taught approximately 200 mathematics courses to over 5000 students. He published a UMAP Module “Exploring Power and Speed in Baseball”, one of the earliest examples of teaching statistics through baseball. He was sponsor of Pi Mu Epsilon, mathematics honor society, co-principal investigator on two State Council of Higher Education in Virginia, and played a major role in the design and concentration of statistics at Roanoke College. Jeff introduced hundreds of students to the strange and interesting world of fuzzy logic. He was known for his sense of humor, starting and ending each day with a smile, and his ability to help students with a mix of patience and encouragement.
Jeff was an avid sports fan, faithfully rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates. His love for his family was strong and he was very proud of his son, Matt, and his many accomplishments in and out of school which included graduating magna cum laude from University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Jeff is survived by his wife, Maryanne (Rutter), son Matthew, sister Janet Womack, and many nieces and nephews.
He was proceeded in death by his infant son, Chad Michael, and his parents.
Memorial Services will be planned at a later time.
