In Memoriam: Professor Frank Creegan

Frank J. Creegan, 84, of Chestertown, MD, passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at The Barnett Hospice Center in Centreville, MD.   

Frank was born December 16, 1939, in Lowell, MA, the second child of the late Mary Cecilia McDonald Creegan and Thomas Alexander Creegan. He attended Keith Academy, in Lowell, and graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Merrimack College in North Andover, MA in 1961, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Fordham University in 1966.  He held an NSF-funded Post-Doctoral Fellowship with James A. Moore at the University of Delaware, where he went on to hold a one-year appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry.    

Frank joined the faculty of Washington College in 1967 as Assistant Professor of Chemistry.  He swiftly moved through the academic ranks and was promoted to Full Professor in 1974, and appointed W. Alton Jones Professor of Chemistry in 1982.  He retired from Washington College in 2007, after 40 years of service, which included many years as Chair of the Department of Chemistry. During his four decades of tenure at Washington College, Frank was awarded three sabbatical leaves, at what he jokingly called three foreign universities (1979 at the University of Konstanz, Germany; 1992 at the University of St. Andrews in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland; and 2003-2004 at the University of California, Berkeley) to advance his research, in bio-organic chemistry, and new student-centered classroom and laboratory approaches to learning.  

In 1992, he joined with chemistry colleagues from thirteen regional undergraduate colleges to found the Middle Atlantic Discovery Chemistry Project, MADCP, which sought to change the undergraduate chemistry laboratory experience from a set of verification activities to true experiments in which results were unknown to the student.  Initial funding of MADCP came from the U.S. Department of Education through its Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).

In 2002, with a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, MADCP expanded into POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning), a student-centered, learning cycle-based, team-learning approach to both classroom and laboratory instruction that is based on research on how students learn best. Frank was a Co-Project Investigator for the initial NSF grant. Today, POGIL is implemented in a wide range of subjects in more than 1,000 high school and college courses worldwide.   

Frank earned a number of teaching awards, including the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (1970) and the American Chemical Society, Northeastern Section, James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Teaching of Chemistry (2015).   

In 2011, with a $2 million gift from an anonymous donor, Washington College established the Frank J. Creegan Chair in Green Chemistry in recognition of Frank’s “40-year service to the college and his longstanding development and oversight of the chemistry program.”  

In retirement, Frank continued to be involved in POGIL and in the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society as chair of the Regional Meetings Committee.   

Throughout retirement, he and Barbara traveled extensively, first to Russia, then Egypt, then Turkey, Hungary, Austria, Ireland, France, England, Spain, and Portugal. He remained active throughout his life in Chestertown with Sacred Heart Church, where over the course of 57 years he served in a host of ministries.  For many years he was a member of All Seasons Garden Club, serving as Treasurer and as President. 

Along with his parents, Frank was preceded in death by his brother Paul G. Creegan and sister Patricia A. Creegan Kelley. Frank is survived by his wife of 57 years, Barbara Markert Creegan; his children, Frank Joseph Creegan of Easton, MD and Thomas Alexander Creegan II of Baltimore, MD and his spouse Felicia Shakman; nieces Leann Kelley Weibel (David), Coleen Kelly Thurber (Craig), and Stacey (Cristain) Martins all of Colorado; nephews Paul G. Creegan (Suzanne) and Joseph Creegan of Lowell, MA, as well as five grand nephews, and five cousins and their offspring..

The family will receive friends and relatives on Friday evening, May 10, 2024 from 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. at Fellows, Helfenbein & Newnam Funeral Home, 130 Speer Road, Chestertown, MD 21620.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 508 High Street, Chestertown, MD 21620 to be followed by a Reception in Emmanuel Episcopal Church Hall, 101 North Cross Street, Chestertown, MD.  

In lieu of flowers The Creegan Family ask anyone who is able to give, to please make a donation to The Compass Regional Hospice Barnett Center, 255 Comet Drive, Centreville, MD 21617 or to the Frank and Barbara Creegan Foundation, c/o Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620.    

Internment will be in St. Paul’s Cemetery at a later date.