IC News

Professor emeritus Glenn Vogel looks back on the department’s earlier era as both collegial and irreverent. “It was a fun group of chemistry professors—friends and fun and jokes,” he said. Bergmark was central to that mix: deeply knowledgeable, quietly witty, and devoted to his students.

“He’d pack a lot into a class,” Vogel said. “Students would sit there in the lectures and think it’s not like he did a whole lot, and then they went back and looked at their notes, and they said, ‘Wow, he just packed all that in one lecture.’”

Mike Haaf ’94, now a professor in that department, was one of those students. “After Glenn roped me into the chemistry major, it was really Bill Bergmark’s class that turned the corner for me,” Haaf said. “I just loved it. I loved his teaching style. He had a very dry sense of humor and would catch us off guard with some of his anecdotes.”

Bergmark’s approach blended clarity and storytelling. “He was a natural storyteller,” Haaf said. “Instead of just teaching us how carbon double bonds undergo reactions, he made a point of connecting them to biology and saying, ‘You know, vision is based on reactions of double bonds.’ He made it real.”

After taking his class, Haaf joined Bergmark’s research lab, which focused on photo-induced electron transfer chemistry—reactions activated by light. “Thanks to him, I got to go to my first national conference and presented at a regional conference,” Haaf said. “He’s a big reason why I’m back in Ithaca doing what he did.”

Vogel, laughing, put it more directly to Haaf: “You took his job.”

Those who knew Bill and his wife, Donna, recall a couple who carried the same curiosity and joy beyond the classroom. They skied, traveled widely, and were fixtures at concerts and plays. “Donna was a better skier,” Vogel said. “She was more daring.”

In their early days at the college, Bill, who held a pilot’s license, would fly with Glenn to visit high schools to recruit students for the chemistry department. The Bergmarks and Vogels traveled extensively together, enjoying food, wine, and scenery. On these trips Bill would hold forth on classical composers. “He knew everything about classical music, from the Baroque up until the 20th century,” Vogel said. “Unbelievable details.”

Haaf remembered learning more than chemistry from him. “He also taught me how to cross-country ski for the first time,” he said. “That was very much the department culture.”

Bergmark’s scholarship fund now mirrors that ethos, supporting students who combine intellectual rigor with curiosity about the wider world.

Mike Meador ’78 began working in Bergmark’s lab as a first-year student and stayed for four years. “Bill was a very patient guy,” Meador said. “The project I was working on—I had absolutely no prior background in doing organic synthesis, and it was a tricky molecule to make. He taught me a lot. I think that’s the biggest thing I got from Bill—learning how to do research.”

That foundation carried Meador through a 36-year career with NASA and the federal government, including a two-year detail (2014-16) at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy as director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office.

“When I went to Michigan State for grad school, the lab was not strange to me,” he said. “It was a welcoming place because I had worked for Bill Bergmark for four years. He was a great teacher.”

Bergmark’s influence extended well beyond academics. Meador recalled lunches where they discussed graduate school options and career paths. “He was a good teacher, a good mentor, and a good friend,” he said.

That sense of mentorship continues to shape the department’s culture.