Machele Timberlake, assistant professor of education and coordinator of student teachers in the School of Education, died unexpectedly Thursday.

Timberlake began teaching at Baker University in the fall of 1999. She began her career teaching special education courses and then transitioned to supervising and coordinating student teachers about five years ago.

“She was not on campus as much as others because her job was to be out in the schools working with the student teachers,” Peggy Harris, Dean of the School of Education, said.

Harris said working with the student teachers was Timberlake’s favorite part of her job.

“She was so skilled in that,” Harris said. “That was her love. I think you could talk to any of the student teachers and they would say, ‘she’s so good.’ That was just a perfect fit for her. She loved it.”

University President Pat Long said she is shocked and saddened by Timberlake’s death.

“Especially during this time of year, this is just heartbreaking for our students and her colleauges and for us at Baker,” Long said. “I am confident that (Timberlake’s) legacy will live on through her students and the hard work that they do and the teachers that they will become. But right now we are all just reeling from the shock and the sadness, and knowing what a void this leaves for Baker and for her family.”

Timberlake grew up in Wyoming and attended college in St. Louis. Harris and Timberlake met around 1993 when they were taking a statistics course for the doctorate program at the University of Kansas.

“We became friends and she would come here and we would study together for our tests,” Harris said. “That’s when (Timberlake) started loving Baker.”

When Timberlake’s husband, Bill, took a job in Brussels, Belgium, the two women stayed close friends.

“While they were there, we corresponded,” Harris said. “This was before e-mail, so we wrote letters. That sounds unusual, but we would write letters back and forth.”

When Harris and her husband, former athletic director Dan Harris, spent a semester teaching at Harlaxton College, they visited Timberlake and her husband for a long weekend.

“Machele did all the sight-seeing in Brussels for us, and they opened up our home,” Harris said. “While we were there, I videotaped and interviewed with her and sent that back to Baker … While I was at Harlaxton, they saw that tape and interviewed her in person when she got back to Kansas and then hired her while we were in Harlaxton.”

Students, faculty and staff at Baker were notified of Timberlake’s death through an e-mail sent by University Minister Ira DeSpain Thursday evening.

“This is a very sad time for Baker, and especially for the SOE, and I hope we can take comfort in each other and in recognizing the wonderful memories we have of Machele as our colleague, friend and teacher,” Harris said in an e-mail to Timberlake’s Diversity in Education interterm class.

DeSpain said he considered Timberlake a trusted friend and colleague. In 2001, the two worked on a week-long observence of the civil rights movement.

“I enjoyed that,” he said, “I enjoyed that thoroughly.”

DeSpain said his wife and Timberlake also had a close relationship after a Baker student student taught in his wife’s classroom.

“They had a really close bond and admiration for each other,” he said. ”They were close over the years.”

DeSpain said he is thinking about Timberlake’s family today and what a great spirit she had.

“She was very positive,” he said. “(She was) really a hard worker. The word that comes to mind is warmth. She was a very welcoming kind of person; very warm personaility that was interested in people that she was talking to. She was interested in knowing about you and really was a welcoming sort of person.”

Harris said Timberlake was very close to her two children, Christy and Eric.

“It’ll be a huge loss to them,” Harris said. “And to her husband. They were a very close family. It’s just unbelievable.”

DeSpain’s e-mail said Timberlake’s death was very unexpected. Harris said Timberlake had outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday and appeared to be recuperating on schedule.

“Her husband found her when he came home Thursday,” Harris said. “He went to work and found her when he came home. I don’t know if it was some kind of complication with the surgery or what.”

Harris said arrangements have not yet been made for any type of service.

“They haven’t made any of those plans,” Harris said. “They said they would let us know when they made those plans. They’ve talked like there might not be a service right away. But it’s still so fresh, they weren’t sure.”

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