CENTER FOR WOMEN'S PHYSICAL ACTIVITY NAMED FOR FORMER FACULTY

From: Media Relations

Drs. Lee Morrison and Pat Bruce at the surprise naming ceremony Tuesday.
April 5, 2006

The Center for the Promotion of Physical Activity for Girls and Women at James Madison University is taking on the names of two women instrumental in its creation and mission.

During a brief ceremony April 4, the two-year-old research center was dubbed the Morrison-Bruce Center in honor of Drs. Lee Morrison and Pat Bruce, both former JMU faculty.

Morrison was a teacher and administrator at Madison from 1954 to 1989, and coached everything from team sports to modern, folk and social dance. In the classroom, she specialized in history and principles of physical education, measurement and evaluation, and taught a graduate class on women in sport. Morrison was involved in the intercollegiate athletic program, and eventually served full time as associate athletic director.

Bruce taught and coached at Madison from 1961 until 1989. She taught swimming, sport psychology, motor learning and sport sociology in the undergraduate and graduate programs, supervised student teachers and advised Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She served on many faculty committees, was speaker of the faculty senate for two years and helped found the Faculty Women's Caucus and served as its president. Bruce also coached field hockey, basketball, volleyball and softball at the high-school level and basketball and tennis at the collegiate level. She coached the Madison swim team for one year and directed the Porpoise Club, a synchronized swimming club, for several years.

The center was established in 2004 in JMU's department of kinesiology to develop and offer activities promoting physical activity for girls and women and to enhance their knowledge of health issues. The center conducts research related to women's physical and mental well-being and shares information on the role of physical activity throughout the lifespan of women.

Dr. Marylou Barnes, who received a bachelor of science degree in physical education from JMU in 1952 and returned in 1968 to earn a master's degree in counseling, provided the lead gift for the Morrison-Bruce Center, the Dr. Marylou Riddleberger Barnes Endowed Gift for Faculty Development.

For more information on the Morrison-Bruce Center, go to Web site at www.jmu.edu/kinesiology/cppagw.

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