Obituary of John B. Dalbor

John Bronislaw Dalbor, 92, died February 28, 2022 at Foxdale Village in State College, PA, following a brief illness.

John's wife Dorothy predeceased him in 2013. John is survived by two sons, Steven and his wife Joanne Leatherman of Lancaster, PA, and Michael, of Henderson, NV. John also had two step-grandchildren, Nicholas Heimer of San Luis Obispo, CA and Stephanie Heimer Vasquez of State College.

John was born August 26, 1929, in Erie, PA, the only son of Bronislaw Dalbor and Bessie Johnson Dalbor. On Sept. 1, 1951, John married Dorothy Green, a fellow Penn State student.

John graduated from Erie Academy High School in 1947, and went on to receive a BA in Journalism from Penn State in 1951, an MA in Spanish from Penn State in 1953, and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Michigan in 1961.

John served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955, and was a Morse Code intercept operator stationed in Baumholder, Germany for the last year of his service. After his discharge he became a doctoral student and graduate teaching assistant at the University of Michigan. In 1958 he joined Penn State's faculty as an instructor of Romance Languages and retired in 1993 as professor emeritus from the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, where he taught Spanish language, linguistics and literature and general linguistics. He was also the linguist in French and Spanish at the Bucknell Summer NDEA Institute in 1962. He published many articles and was the author, co-author, and editor or co-editor of several textbooks on Spanish language, linguistics, and pedagogy.

John was a member of the academic honor society Phi Kappa Phi and the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. He was a member of St. Paul's United Methodist Church of State College where he was a sound operator for many years. He served as a volunteer for Meals on Wheels and Center Volunteer Medicine.

John enjoyed photography, computers, bridge, playing the piano and guitar, and participating in a variety of fitness and sports activities. He was a long-time amateur athlete and competed in running races, racquetball, and squash. He was also an avid sports fan, particularly of amateur wrestling, and was a long-standing member of the Penn State Wrestling Club. For many years he wrote a column on the history of Penn State wrestling in the Club's publication, Update, and was also the lead writer on the Penn State Wrestling Club's publication A Century of Penn State Wrestling (2008).

There will be no public visitation, and the burial will be at the convenience of the family in Centre County Memorial Park. A memorial service will be conducted by Pastor Becky McGee of St. Paul's Methodist Church at the Koch Funeral Home, 2401 South Atherton Street, State College, PA, on Saturday, March 5, 2022 at 2:00 pm.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Paul's Methodist Church, 250 E. College Avenue, State College PA 16801, or to the Schlow Memorial Library, 100 East Beaver Avenue, State College, PA 16801.