Cheryl Ann Casper

Cheryl A. Casper (née, Brown) passed away on July 21st of complications related to metastatic breast cancer.  She was married to Eugene P. Wenninger for 35 years and was an Emeritus Professor of Economics, academic adminstrator, and faculty leader at Kent Uiversity for 35 years.

As a child, Cheryl was adopted by a unmarried woman in her early forties, an independent professional woman liberated by the challenges of World War II.  Unfortunately, her adopted mother died when she was twelve and she then lived with distant cousins of her mother.  Cheryl graduated from Euclid Senior High School in 1965.  Awarded significant advanced placement, Cheryl entered College as a sophomore and earned full scholarships and fellowships so that she was able to complete her education at Case Western Reserve University: B.A. History and Economics with Honors in History, cum laude (1968); M.A. Economics (1970); Ph.D. in Economics (1975).

In 1968, Cheryl married to Karl J. Casper (now decreased), Assistant Professor of Physics, at Case Western Reserve.  The marriage was a period of personal growth for Cheryl and ended a few years after she accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Economics at Kent State University, Kent Campus, in 1973.

Cheryl had not anticipated becoming a University faculty member but Karl had convinced her of the merits of this career path.  She had usually been the only woman in her Economics classes at CWRU but had generally had the top grades in her courses.  Yet, she struggled to find a full time faculty position and, while looking for one, was told by at least one academic department head that they already had their token woman.  However, luck emerged when Kent State got a late faculty authorization to hire and her dissertation advisor was a class mate of the then Economics department chair.

Cheryl completed her dissertation in the Economics of Information in 1976.  It had been a challenging and nontraditional dissertation on the demand for information but it culminated a few years later in Cheryl being awarded one of the first National Science Foundation grants to the College of Business Administration at KSU in 1977.  She was subsequently promoted and tenured as an Associate Professor of Economics in 1979.

After tenure and promotion, Cheryl decided to try academic administration. She served as Assistant Dean of the College of Administration (1979-81); Acting Dean of the College of Business Administration and Graduate of Management (1981-1982). In 1982, she joined the office of the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, intially serviceg a Assistant Viece President but eventually becoming the senior Associate Provost with primary pesposibilities for academic panning, staffing and budgeting.  In her senior role, she was responsible for the design and implementation of several so-called “buyout” programs and she was especially proud of a “target opportunity” programshe designed that added to Kent State’s minority faculty during that period.  She served with five Provosts and cherished many friendships from those days.  She was promoted to Professor of Economics in 1988.

In 1996, she returned to the faculty but was soon recruited to run for chair of Faculty Senate.  She served two one-year terms as Senate Chair (1998-2000) and then was recruited to become Chief Negotiator for the Kent State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.  She subsequently became the KSU AAUP Chapter President (2002- 2006), served on the Ohio AAUP Board (2002-2008), and the National Council of AAUP in Washington (2002-2008). She negotiated two faculty contracts at Kent State University and  assisted in the establishment of AAUP chapters at Akron University and Bowling State University.

While she had continued to serve as an at-large faculty representative on the Faculty Senate while AAUP Chapter president, two years prior to her retirement from Kent State she returned to serve two more one-year terms as Faculty Senate Chair (2006-2008) and assist in the transition of University administrations from Carol Cartwright to Lester Lefton.  She retired from Kent State in 2008.

For over 30 years, Cheryl made her home in the so-called “binocular house” in Twin Lakes,  Ohio.  Cheryl and Gene moved to the Laurel Lake Retirement Community in Hudson in 2015, shortly before she learned of her breast cancer metastasis.

Cheryl leaves behind two stepsons: Jeffrey Scott Wenninger, father of Kristoffer Scott; Dorn Robert Wenninger, wife Dominique, and granddaughters Solara and Skye; many dear friends; and two cats, Gwyneth and Scotty.

Memorials, if any, may go to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent; the Portage Foundation for the Benefit of the Portage APL and other charitable animal welfare organizations in Portage and Summit Counties; and/or the Morris Animal Research Foundation.

A memorial service in celebration of her life will be held 10 AM Saturday August 3rd at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent, 228 Gougle Avenue, where a gathering will be held immediately following the service.  Services in care of Bissler & Sons Funeral Home and Crematory, 628 West Main Street, Kent, OH 44240.