History of the Toledo Society – The Late Period (1995 to Present)

The Toledo Society was reactivated in 1995 with the first lecture season in fall 1995 to spring 1996. The principal force behind this effort was E. Marianne Stern, PhD (formerly a Curator of Roman Glass at the Toledo Museum of Art and now an independent scholar in the Netherlands). At the time she was a national lecturer for the AIA, which approached her about restarting the Toledo Society. Dr. Stern was assisted in this by Celinda Niggemyer and Judy Finkel with additional help provided by Richard M. Krill, PhD, Charles Terbille, PhD and Charles Williams, PhD, all future officers or trustees-at-large of the Society. Additional help on fund-raising was provided by Doreen Canaday Spitzer and Dorothy M. Price. Of these individuals, Dr. Krill was a former officer during the Toledo Society’s ‘middle period,’ and Ms. Spitzer, an archaeologist, was the daughter of Mariam C. Canaday, the Toledo Society’s former secretary and president. Ms. Spitzer was the wife of Lyman Strong Spitzer, a relative Sydney Spitzer and Carl B. Spitzer, both past presidents of the Society.

Kurt T. Luckner, the Toledo Society’s president during 1971-75 and Curator of Ancient Art at the Toledo Museum of Art died in 1995. Dr. Stern led the effort to establish an endowment for the Society in his name (“The Kurt T. Luckner Lecture Fund”), which now largely supports the chapter’s annual lecture program. Beginning in 2000, the Toledo Society began a close association with the TMA, which now co-sponsors and hosts nearly all the lectures.

Toledo Society Officers, 1995 to present
Year	President	Vice President	Treasurer	Membership Secretary	Corresponding (Recording) Secretary
1995-1996	Marianne Stern	Jack E. Romig	Celinda Niggemyer	Vickie Lynn Hauff
				Judy Finkel
1996-1997		Charles Terbille		Judy Finkel	Alice Weaver
1997-1998
1998-1999		Richard M. Krill
1999-2000	James A. Harrell			Steven Frushour
2000-2001		Mohamed El-Shafie	Judith Finkel		Celinda Niggemyer
2001-2002
2002-2003		Charles Terbille	Judith Ayoub
2003-2004
2004-2005
2005-2006	John Shearman
2006-2007
2007-2008	James A. Harrell		Lionel J. D. Sully
2008-2009		Louis Benedict
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012		Robert I. Finkel
2012-2013
2013-2014	Robert I. Finkel	Robert E. Mittlestaedt
2014-2015				Andrea (Mall) Gardner
2015-2016
2016-2017
2017-2018
2018-2019
2019-2020
2020-2021
2021-2022				Beverly Karp
2022-2023			James F. Leslie
2023-2024
2024-2025	Robert E. Mittlestaedt	Melissa Baltus			Debra Hoffmaster
2025-2026

Toledo Society Trustees-at-Large, 1995 to present
Trustees (listed alphabetically)	Years
Judith Ayoub, PhD	2001-2002
Melissa Baltus, PhD	2015-present
Barbara Baker	2009-2021
Louis Benedict, JD, PhD	2004-2008
Thomas Bentley	2008-2012
Mounir El-Khatib, MD	1996-1998
Mohamed El-Shafie, MD	1998-2001, 2002-2013
Judith Finkel	1999-2000, 2002-present
Robert I. Finkel, MD	2007-2010, 2024-present
Steven Frushour	1998-1999
Andrea (Mall) Gardner	2011-2014, 2021-present
Sandi Glauser	2004-2013
James A. Harrell, PhD	1997-1998, 2005-2007, 2013-present
Karen Havens	1997-2002
Bonita Hay	2022-present
Richard Hebein	2017-2023
Lewis Heldt	2000-2003
Debra Hoffmaster, PhD	2022-present
Beverly Karp	2000-2022
Richard M. Krill, PhD	1996-1998
Sandra Knudsen, PhD	2000-2012
Robert J. Lauer	1999-2002
Stephanie Langin-Hooper, PhD	2012-2014
Sean Leatherbury, PhD	2016-2019
Adam Levine, PhD	2014-2018
Lea McChesney, PhD	2009-2014
Marie Minniear	2001-2007
Willard Misfeldt, PhD	2012-2017
David Mittelstaedt, JD, Maj. US Army	2017-present
Robert E. Mittelstaedt, MA, Lt. Col. US Army	2006-2013
Celinda Niggemyer	2024-present
Richard Putney, PhD	2001-2004
Andrew Schneider, PhD	2002-2005
John Shearman	2004-2005, 2007-2010
Marianne Stern, PhD	1998-2001
Donald Stierman, PhD	2003-2012
Kristina Sully	2014-present
Lionel J. D. Sully, PhD	2022-present
Charles Terbille, PhD	1998-2004, 2008-present
Charles Williams, PhD	1996-1999
Thomas Zych, MA	2018-present

BACKGROUNDS OF PAST AND PRESENT OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES-AT-LARGE (1995 to 2019)

Judith Ayoub, PhD (deceased)

late Nursing Program Coordinator at Mercy College of Northwest Ohio

Melissa Baltus, PhD

Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toledo; does archaeological surveys and excavations in the American Midwest

Barbara Baker

avid ‘Arts’ supporter in Toledo and former Docent at the Toledo Museum of Art

Louis Benedict, JD, PhD

Attorney at Law in Bowling Green, Ohio, and Adjunct Professor at Bowling Green State University

Thomas Bentley (deceased)

late Colonel in the US Army, and CEO of A. Bentley and Sons General Contractor and Engineers in Toledo

Mounir El-Khatib, MD

retired physician of Internal Medicine at the Toledo Clinic in Toledo

Mohamed El-Shafie, MD  (deceased)

retired Pediatric Surgeon with the Children’s Medical Center of Northwest Ohio

Judith Finkel (wife of Robert I. Finkel)

archaeology and ancient art enthusiast in Toledo

Robert I. Finkel, MD (husband of Judith Finkel)

retired Rheumatologist at the Toledo Clinic in Toledo

Steven Frushour

retired Associate Coordinator of Exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art

Andrea (Mall) Gardner, MA

Keeper of the Collections at the Toledo Museum of Art; has worked on archaeological excavations at Poggio Colla in Tuscany.

Sandi Glauser

archaeology enthusiast in Toledo

James A. Harrell, PhD

retired Professor of Archaeological Geology at the University of Toledo; does geo-archaeological surveys in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries

Vickie L. Hauff

no information available

Karen Havens

retired Latin and Classics teacher at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo

       Richard Hebein, PhD

            retired Professor of Classics at Bowling Green State University

Lewis R. Heldt (deceased)

late Child Psychologist for the Toledo Public Schools

Beverly Karp

glass artist in Toledo and former editor for a national medical publication; has worked on archaeological excavations in England and on Mallorca and Easter Islands, and on archaeological documentation projects in Greece and Turkey.

Richard Krill, PhD (deceased)

late Professor of Foreign Languages (Classics) and History at the University of Toledo

Sandra Knudsen, PhD

former Director of Publications and Curator of Ancient Art at the Toledo Museum of Art

Robert J. Lauer (deceased)

late electrical engineer with the Haughton Elevator Division of the Toledo Scale Corp. and later Schindler Elevator Corp.

Stephanie Langin-Hooper, PhD

former Assistant Professor of Ancient Art at Bowling Green State University

Sean Leatherbury, PhD

former Assistant Professor of Art History at Bowling Green State University

Adam Levine, PhD

Director of the Toledo Museum of Art; has worked on an archaeological excavation in New York and on archaeological documentation projects at the American Museum of Natural History and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lea McChesney, PhD

former Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toledo

Marie Minniear

archaeology enthusiast in Toledo and former president of the Black Swamp Archaeological Society

Willard Misfeldt, PhD (deceased)

retired Professor of Art History at Bowling Green State University

       David Mittelstaedt, Maj, JD

            retired Major in the US Army and currently an Attorney at Law in Toledo

Robert Mittelstaedt, MA, LtC

retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army; has worked on archaeological excavations in Jordan and Egypt

Celinda Niggemyer

avid ‘Arts’ supporter in Toledo

Richard Putney, PhD

retired Professor of Art History at the University of Toledo

Jack E. Romig

former Toledo police officer and now writer of mystery-suspense novels

Andrew Schneider, PhD

vice president of Archaeological Consultants of the Midwest

John Shearman

Toledo businessman and former Associate Director of Luxor (Egypt) for the American Research Center in Egypt

E. Marianne Stern, PhD

former Curator for Roman Glass at the Toledo Museum of Art and now independent scholar in the Netherlands

Donald Stierman, PhD

retired Associate Professor of Geophysics at the University of Toledo

Kristina Sully (wife of Lionel Sully)

retired Nurse Practitioner for the Women’s Health Clinic at the University of Toledo’s Student Medical Center

Lionel J. D. Sully, PhD (husband of Kristina Sully)

retired research metallurgist, engineer and technical grant writer

Charles Terbille, PhD

retired librarian and Dean of University Libraries at the University of Toledo

Constantine E. Theodosiou, PhD

former Professor of Physics and Dean for the Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Toledo

Alice Weaver (deceased)

late librarian at the University of Toledo

Charles Williams, PhD (deceased)

late retired Professor of Theatre at the University of Toledo
       Thomas Zyck, MA
Anthropology Lecturer at the University of Toledo; does archaeological surveys and excavations in the American Midwest