Senior College Faculty

SENIOR COLLEGE FACULTY

Bob Blatz taught Industrial Arts, Drivers Ed and Special Ed in NY. When he retired to Maine, he found more time to explore fly tying. He has taught tying at Girl Scout Camp, Searsport and Bangor Adult Ed and at the Maine Sportsmen's Show. As a member of the Penobscot Flyfishers, he has participated in their Fly-Fishing Symposium and their Cabin Fever Reliever Day.

Nancy Blatz taught high school math for 33 years in New York. During that time she attended Adult Education painting courses and took four watercolor classes from the Huntington Township Art League. When she retired to Maine, Nancy became a member of the Midcoast Art Guild. She is an accomplished artist, an inspiring teacher who works easily with the beginner as well as the accomplished. This is Nancy’s third year of teaching for Senior College.  

Jim Cunningham is a resident of Searsport and a registered Maine Guide.  He is an avid sportsman, active in civic and educational endeavors, and shares Bob’s interest in mastering the art of fly tying. Jim is coordinator of Searsport’s fly tying course, teaching all ages. He also has taught boy scouts for many years.

John Doncaster is a veteran faculty member with Senior College, and it’s good to have him back! He holds an undergraduate degree from University College in Oxford, England, and a master’s degree from Oxford University. He has taught English, French, and History at several institutions, including Eckes School in Palm Beach and at Southern Methodist University. He was headmaster at The Selwyn School in Texas before becoming executive director of the Maine Photographic Workshop in Rockport.

Cheryl Fuller, Ph.D. is a Jungian psychotherapist who lives in Belfast. She began her interest in Jung in college at Duke in the late ‘60s, an interest which continues unabated. She has her doctorate in Jungian Studies and many years of study and training at various Jung institutes and in Jungian analysis. She has many years of experience using various typological tests.

Wanda Garland grew up on her parents’ dairy farm in northern Maine. She watched and tracked wildlife, becoming totally familiar with trees and wildflowers.  Earning B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology, she taught high school biology for many years. An experienced wilderness hiker, Wanda hikes daily with a camera to discover and photograph wildflowers. A member of the Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine, she has participated in several field research courses at Humboldt Field Research Institute in Steuben, Maine.

Bobbie Goodell earned her B.A. from the University of Massachusetts; Master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and her doctoral studies in medical sociology were taken at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a U.S. and International certification in cytology (diagnostic cell biology). She has organized and managed two cytology laboratories; developed and directed three educational programs in cytology; retired from SUNY Stony Brook as the Asst. Prof./Chair Cytology Program (BS).

Charlotte Herbold retired after teaching for 25 years at the University of Maine. She has worked as an actor, stage manager, and producer with the Belfast Maskers Theater since 1993. She has also acted with the Marsh Island Stage in Orono, Maine, the Winterport Open Stage, and the Penobscot Theater in Bangor. She is a member of the Belfast Maskers Theater Board of Directors. Charlotte holds degrees in English and Theater from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maine. 

Harry Kaiserian has been cooking since he was eleven and has been reading and going to the movies longer than that. This series combines three of his favorite activities. He has been writing a weekly food column for over twenty years and has taught cooking classes to a wide variety of audiences.  Though not a professional cook, he has visited kitchens round the world and sampled and prepared much of the world’s cuisine.  Harry likes to talk about the wonderful world of cuisine and has presented an abbreviated form of this series to the Castine Arts Association and The Friends of Witherle Library.

Charles H. King introduced the American Short Story Series several years ago at Senior College. In 1990, after nearly forty years, he retired from teaching and returned to his hometown here in Belfast.

Rev. Arlin T. Larson is the senior minister at the First Congregational Church in Searsport. He has B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Redlands and Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His career has involved a mix of parish ministry, campus ministry, and college teaching (including World Religions). He approaches these religions not as an academic specialist, but as a working pastor and teacher who has believed for some time that we must come to terms with our troubled religious 'family.'"

Hal Owen retired to Camden after a career of teaching English and Theatre at Phillips Academy, Andover. Hal continued both love affair with poetry and his involvement with theatre, by joining the Belfast Maskers and the Camden Civic Theatre. He has read occasionally in the area and has been published in The Graham House Review and Off the Coast, among others. He welcomes the chance to discuss his affections.

Mike Shannon is a naturalist, educator, and a Registered Maine Guide.  Whether in the forest prowling for owls or aboard ship scanning for pelagic birds, he continues to lead outings for local groups.  He is recently retired from Unity College where he taught ornithology and ecological education for ten years. A former director of the National Audubon Society’s camps in Connecticut and in Maine (Hog Island), he has also served as Master Naturalist for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Mike has a long history of sharing his passion and enthusiasm for things natural.  As many of you know, his former classes for Senior College were wildly popular.

Julie B. Stackpole holds a B.A. degree from Kirkland College, NY and studied hand bookbinding, creative fine bookbinding and book restoration over the next three years in Vermont, Switzerland, and England.  She established a bindery on Nantucket Island in 1975, and in 1985 moved home and bindery to Thomaston, Maine.  After extensive training in both the techniques and history of hand bookbinding, she has been practicing the craft for over 30 years. She has often given lectures on its history, but never had the leisure to teach it in depth, having to cram into an hour or two the multitudinous facets of the topic. “The history of books is the history of civilized mankind, and there is much to explore.”