Farrell Jude Webb

Dr. Farrell Jude Webb, age 67, died at his home on November 14, 2023 after having had double knee surgery earlier to repair damage from tragic falls at work and later at home. Dr. Webb was born in New Orleans on November 25, 1955, the son of Vera Mae Davis Webb and Earl Webb, Sr. (married April 28, 1951 in New Orleans). After moving early on to California, he graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles with B.A. degrees (c. 1977) in sociology and political science with an emphasis in public administration and in communication arts with an emphasis in film and television production. He went on to earn a master's degree in sociology, with an emphasis in social psychology, from California State University-Long Beach (1979, thesis entitled: Inappropriate institutionalization: Last alternative for aging) after which he lectured in sociology at New York University (1981-1987), Bloomfield College (1982-1985), and at the City University of New York (1981-1983) and obtained an M. Phil. In sociology (c. 1992) with an emphasis in statistics from New York University while serving as a statistician for the City of New York (Transportation/Sanitation departments), the US Census Bureau, and the National Opinion Research Center (New York office) before moving to Minnesota for a Ph.D. in family social science from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (1994), his dissertation entitled "Adolescents, alienation, and AIDS: Ecological influences on adolescent safer sex behavior," based on 1992 data from approximately 30,000 Minnesota high school students. While at the University of Minnesota he was awarded the Waller Fellowship and the Neubeck Award. He was also a lifetime member of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society. He also completed post-doctoral training in ethnography, geostatistics (GIS), spatial demography, and epidemiology from the Pennsylvania State University (2006) and academic certificates in hierarchical linear modeling and advanced structural equation modeling (SEM) from the University of Texas at Austin. He served as an official SPSS consultant to users of that statistical software when he lived in Chicago. He was hired in 1994 at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, where he earned numerous awards for teaching, service, and research, including the Presidential Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching (1999-2000), Presidential Award for Distinguished Services to Multicultural Students (2008), Outstanding Faculty Award for Distinguished Service to Students with Disabilities (2012), Outstanding Teacher and Mentor, Women in Science (2005), and Outstanding Teacher and Mentor, Mortar Board Society (2003). Dr. Webb was the Academic Director of the Developing Scholars (2000-2014) program whose students achieved a 99% graduation rate and of whom 80% were accepted in graduate programs after graduating from Kansas State. He also was the director of the Bridges to the Baccalaureate program, funded for 12 years, $4 million, by the National Institutes of Health, that succeeded with a 98% graduation rate over ten years; he also served three years (2000-2003) in the Office of the Provost as the university's ombudsman. Dr. Webb served on the university's Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects/Institutional Review Board (1998-2014) and was on the university's review panels for Truman (1996-2014) and Rhodes (2006-2014) Scholars. He also was a community board member and benefactor for the Manhattan Homeless Shelter (1998-2012) and an athletic mentor for Kansas State Sports athletes (1996-2013). After more than 19 years at Kansas State, in the spring of 2014 he was promoted to Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Health and Human Services, California State University-Los Angeles. There he served as acting Dean for eight months, as the College graduate dean, and served as the accreditation and review administrator for the College. He supervised the college curriculum processes, which included transitioning over 5,000 course changes in a change from a Quarter to Semester system. In July 2016, he became Professor and Dean of College of Health and Human Development, California State University-Northridge, where he led nine departments (Child and Adolescent Development, Communication Disorders and Sciences, Environmental and Occupational Health, Family and Consumer Sciences, Health Sciences, Kinesiology, Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Recreation and Tourism Management), 300 faculty, and over 7,000 students in 24 undergraduate and graduate programs, with an annual budget of $22.5 million. There he increased minority faculty by 800%, research grants by over 400%, and research publications by 35% while dealing with the effects of the COVID pandemic and developing a new strategic plan for the College. Dr. Webb also brought in over $15 million in alumni donations and pledges and fostered student exchanges with China and Japan. In November 2017, Dr. Webb was honored by the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development with its 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2019 Dr. Webb was honored with the Marie Peters Award from the National Council on Family Relations for outstanding service to NCFR and supporting the scholarship of minority students. In September 2021, Dr. Webb changed roles to serve as Provost Administrative Fellow and Professor, working on special projects for the Provost at California State University-Northridge. As a university administrator, Dr. Webb was successful at building academic programs, leading organizational change, supporting faculty and staff development and productivity, supporting student success in terms of retention and graduation rates, and hiring more diverse faculty as well as championing access, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. He was known for his warmth and engaging and approachable style that he modeled for other administrators and faculty, as well as continuing his research above and beyond his administrative duties. On June 1, 2023 he became the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas. In addition to publishing numerous refereed journal articles, in journals including Marriage & Family Review, The American Journal of Family Therapy, Food Protection Trends, American Journal of Distance Education, Teaching Sociology, Psychological Reports, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, The Journal of Health Behavior, Western Journal of Black Studies, Explorations in Ethnic Studies, and the journal of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (awarded outstanding journal article for 2008); Dr. Webb also published numerous book chapters. Dr. Webb was the Principal Investigator or Co-PI on over eight million dollars of grants and assisted on another forty million dollars of grant funding. He published over forty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and made more than 100 conference and academic presentations, both nationally and internationally. He chaired the Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Families section of NCFR, was an associate editor for the journal Marriage and Family Review and a reviewer for Family Relations and other journals, as well as having presented numerous papers at annual NCFR and other scientific conferences. He was a member of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) for nearly 30 years and was also a member of the National Association of Ethnic Studies, the American Sociological Association, and of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 8, 27, 38, 44, and 45). He taught courses in basic and advanced statistics, statistical programming (including SPSS), advanced research methods, GIS, and a number of family sociology courses. He served as major professor for over 30 dissertations and at least 75 master's theses, as well as serving on numerous graduate student committees. He was an avid sports fan, who often watched college games from front row seats with Professor Anthony Jurich, and enjoyed model railroading, a childhood hobby. In November 2008, one K-State professor gave Dr. Webb a 1903-O (New Orleans mint) Morgan silver dollar and Farrell almost cried because it was the place and year his grandfather, Arthur Davis, Sr. had been born. He was proficient in Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, and Catalan languages. Previous memorials have been published by Family Social Science, University of Minnesota (November 20, 2023), and NCFR (November 30, 2023); memorial services were conducted in honor of Dr. Webb at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio a few days after his passing. Dr. Webb was preceded in death by grandparents Arthur Davis, Sr. (1903-1979) and Mary W. Davis (1910-1994), who always believed in his academic future, calling him "Professor" from his youth onward and lived until after he had completed his doctorate at the University of Minnesota, brothers Gerald C. Webb (1954-2020), a civil engineer, and Earl L. Webb, Jr. (1952-1987) who was a public accountant working for Pacific Bell, and his father (1928-1999) who was a veteran and a retired high school teacher from New Orleans. His brother Earl died, tragically, as a passenger, when a disgruntled employee brought down PSA Flight 1771 en route to San Francisco from Los Angeles on December 7, 1987. He is survived by his mother Vera Webb Caldwell and a sister Sheeri L. Mitchell and her husband Mykel A. Mitchell, as well as numerous aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins.

[compiled from multiple sources by Dr. Walter Schumm, formerly of Manhattan, Kansas; any errors are his alone].