Professor Emeritus Kenneth C. Crannell died on the night of Aug. 19 at the age of 82. President M. Lee Pelton shared this news with the Emerson community through an email on Aug. 20.

Crannell was an alumnus and a professor in the Communication Studies department, where he specialized in voice and articulation. He graduated from Emerson in 1955 and went on to teach at the school for 42 years before retiring in 1999. Crannell received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1982. In 2005, the college created an endowment fund called the Kenneth C. Crannell Sr. Scholarship in Speech Communication and Public Leaders in his honor, according to Pelton’s email.

Crannell was known for his lively readings and speeches in the classroom, including the Lewis Carroll work “Jabberwocky”, a “nonsense poem” famed for it’s confusing text that Crannell required his students to recite before completing some of his classes. Crannell was also the author of communications textbook, “Voice and Articulation,” which was used both in his classroom and in many others nationwide, according to an obituary published on Emerson’s website.

“He was a great professor, beloved by many students and faculty,” said Pelton, who began at Emerson after Crannell had already retired but got to know him at alumni events. “He had kind of a heroic stature among faculty.”