im Skean said his father, James Dan, instilled Western pride in him at an early age.
From four years old until he attended the university, Tim Skean doesn’t remember missing a home basketball game with his father.
“We saw all the great Western teams,” Tim Skean said, including the 1971 team that made it to the Final Four.
Former biology professor James Dan Skean, 72, died on Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at his home.
Skean retired from Western in 1991 after 25 years of teaching microbiology and immunology. He was also an adviser to nursing students.
“He was really a wonderful educator,” said John M. Clauson, an instructor in the biology department.
Clauson worked with Skean from 1984 until 1991, and remembers his sense of humor, incredible memory and his devotion to his students.
Every Sunday for the last couple of months, Clauson would visit Skean, and the two had a “Tuesdays with Morrie”-type relationship, Clauson said.
Tim Skean, the third of four brothers, said his father would be remembered for being a “tough but fair teacher.”
Nurses who had attended Western would visit James Dan Skean during his stay at various hospitals, Tim Skean said.
“They were all grateful,” Tim Skean said. “That was probably the most gratifying thing for our family.”
He said his father always thought Western offered as good of an education as anywhere in the state when it came to science..
Skean is survived by his wife, Barbara, of 17 years and four sons who graduated from Western: Danny, Mark, Tim and Tom.
Skean was preceded in death by his first wife, Nell, who worked as a chemical supply specialist at Western.
Expressions of sympathy can be made to the Skean Microbiology Scholarship at Western, Berea College or the American Cancer Society.
Reach Samantha Hupman and Bobby Harrell at news@ wkuherald.com.
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