Penn State Altoona to honor long-time employees with Meling Award

Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - 825 hits

A husband and wife team, both employees of Penn State Altoona, will receive the spring 2012 Kjell Meling Award for Distinction in the Arts and Humanities Thursday, April 12, 2012.

Marlene Liszka, instructor in theatre arts and technical director of the Wolf Kuhn Theatre, and Tom Liszka, associate professor of English, English coordinator, and Dossier Fairy, were both born in Chicago where they met performing in high school plays.

They have graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and Northern Illinois University. They were married in 1975, on October 25, the 575th anniversary of Chaucer’s death, and moved to Altoona in 1984. They have three daughters, Kate, Amy, and Joann; two sons-in-law, Bryan Kraemer and Michael Mazurak; and one grandson, Michael IV.

The Liszkas have been heavily involved in the Altoona theatre scene, especially with the Altoona Community Theatre and the Penn State Altoona campus theatre, where they have directed, acted, built sets, designed lights, run the pinrail, sang, and danced – the last poorly.

The Liszkas will be honored with a ceremony at 7 p.m., in the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts, then present the lecture “Curtain Talk.” The event is free and open to the public.

Penn State Altoona initiated the Meling Award in 2006 to honor the memory of its longtime associate dean for Academic Affairs, who passed away in 2005. The award is intended to memorialize Meling's love of literature and language and his unwavering support as an administrator for the development of Penn State Altoona's faculty as scholars and artists.