ATTW Bulletin

Victoria Marie Mikelonis, a long-standing and internationally recognized teacher and researcher in the field of technical communication, died Tuesday, August 14, 2007 after a two-year battle with cancer.

Professor Mikelonis received her Ph.D. in Language and Literature from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1975. After teaching at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan , she joined the University of Minnesota 's Department of Rhetoric as a faculty member in 1980. At the time of her death, she was a professor in the newly formed Department of Writing Studies, a department that combined faculty and programs from the Rhetoric Department with other writing programs on campus.

Most recently Professor Mikelonis was the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Bachelor of Science in Scientific and Technical Communication. She taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in international and intercultural communication, grant proposal writing, technical writing, and metaphor and schema theory. A popular and respected scholar and teacher, both in the department and across the University, Professor Mikelonis's classes were always filled to capacity. Her research focused on the challenges of intercultural communication in a digital age; she spearheaded national institutes on technical communication. Professor Mikelonis is the author of numerous publications, including the book Grant Seeking in an Electronic Age . She was a member of numerous professional societies including being a Fellow in the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. She was former editor of the journal the Technical Writing Teacher , which was published out of the Rhetoric Department. (This is the journal that preceded today's Technical Communication Quarterly .) Even during her illness, she was actively engaged in her profession, working on hosting the 2008 Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC) annual meeting, to be held in Minneapolis .

Involved in funded research, Professor Mikelonis wrote grant proposals funded by the United States Agency for International Development for the Environmental Training Program and for the Center for Nations in Transition at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs. These proposals led to her many trips to Central and Eastern Europe, where she developed training materials and taught in Poland , Romania , Bulgaria , Hungary , the Czech Republic , Slovakia , and Ukraine . Above all, Professor Mikelonis mentored countless numbers of colleagues and students across the profession, always working to meet and exceed the need at hand. Her “can do” spirit was contagious, and her friendship will be greatly missed.

She is survived by two sons, Anthony Jamil Mikelonis and Theodore Samar Mikelonis, both of St. Paul , Minnesota ; two brothers, Eugene C. Mikelonis of Liberty Township , Ohio , and Robert J. Mikelonis of Erie , Pennsylvania ; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Anthony J. and Victoria Baranowski Mikelonis, and a brother, Albert Mikelonis.

Memorial donations may be made to a charity of the donor's choice or to the Victoria Mikelonis Undergraduate Memorial Fund in Scientific and Technical Communication. Checks should be made out to the University of MN Foundation (V. Mikelonis Undergraduate Memorial Fund in the memo line) and mailed to the University of Minnesota, Dept. of Writing Studies, 180 Wesbrook Hall, 77 Pleasant St. SE , Minneapolis , MN 55455.

Submitted by Laura Gurak