Willi A. Uschald, director of International Programs emeritus and professor emeritus of foreign languages, died on Sunday, May 22.
Uschald was born in Germany in 1926, arrived in the U.S. in 1951 and was naturalized in 1961. He attended Michigan State University where he received his master of arts in 1952 and a doctor of philosophy in 1957. He joined SUNY Cortland in 1963 where he was a professor until 1967. In 1964 he founded the Study Abroad Program and was director of the International Programs Office from 1967 until his retirement in 1990.
SUNY Cortland offered some of SUNY’s first Study Abroad Programs through the direction and leadership of Uschald. The success of programs at Neuchatel, Switzerland and Salamanca, Spain in 1965 led to additional programs in cities such as London, England, Dublin and Cork, Ireland, Cologne and Munich Germany and Beijing, China.
Uschald was a member of SUNY Cortland’s Lofty Elm Society. The Willi Uschald Scholarship was created in 1991. Uschald Scholarships are open to students accepted to a study abroad program who are U.S. citizens.