UMaine’s Pelletier Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Contact: Ray Pelletier, 581-4227; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — Ray Pelletier, associate professor of French and chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics at UMaine, has received the first annual Richard Williamson Award for Leadership in Modern and Classical Languages, a prestigious statewide award bestowed annually to an individual who has advanced modern and classical languages.
Pelletier received the award from the Foreign Language Association of Maine (FLAME), at its recent annual meeting. He was honored for innovation and excellence in teacher education and promotion of French throughout New England and also for “years of outstanding service to the language teachers of Maine,” according to colleague Gisela Hoecherl-Alden, associate professor of German at UMaine and a member of the FLAME Advisory Board.
Richard Williamson was a French professor at Bates College, who worked closely with Pelletier over the years. Williamson died several years ago and FLAME created the award last year in his name. Pelletier is the first recipient.
He was nominated by Priscille Michaud, a French teacher at Cony High School in Augusta, with support from the UMaine Canadian-American Center and several of Pelletier’s UMaine colleagues.
Pelletier has taught at UMaine since 1979. He earned an AB degree at Providence College, a master’s from Michigan State University, East Lansing, and a Ph.D from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
At UMaine, Pelletier also is a cooperating associate professor of education and the associate director of the UMaine Canadian-American Center.
Criteria for the Williamson award includes having achieved outstanding results in promoting the study of modern and classical languages in the community or region. Teachers, administrators, students and community members are eligible for the award, and special consideration is given for individuals who employ innovative approaches that actively involve constituencies not routinely supportive of second language learning.
He is a resident of Hampden.