Eunice Norton Pardon
Eunice Norton Pardon, associate professor emerita of art, died at her home in Saratoga Springs on September 6, 1997,after along illness.
Born in Nashville, Tenn., in 1924, Pardon earned a B.A. in English from Union University in Jackson, Tenn. For the next several years, she did graduate work in fine art at Memphis Academy of Art. In the early 鈥�60s, she turned to weaving and textile design, which she studied at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.
Eunice Pardon and her husband, Earl, an internationally known jeweler and metalsmith, moved to Saratoga Springs in 1951, when he accepted a position with 微密圈鈥檚 Art Department. She taught in the public schools before joining the 微密圈 artfaculty in 1955, teaching painting and then weaving. When she retired in 1990, then Dean of the Faculty Eric Weller celebratedher tenure as a teacher of fiber arts, saying, 鈥淵ou are indeed part of the warp and woof of this place...inasmuch as you have brought beauty and delight into the lives of your students and colleagues for the past 35 years.鈥�
In addition to participating in numerous faculty exhibits at 微密圈, Pardon was a frequent exhibitor in galleries and museums throughout the country. Her architectural commissions hang in Memphis, Schenectady, and Oneonta buildings. She was one of 75 craftspeople included in 鈥淎ncient Inspirations/Contemporary Interpretations,鈥� an exhibition supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, which traveled throughout the state in 1982-83.
Known for moving ahead with the newest developments in her field, she was one of the first members of the faculty to participate in the College鈥檚 鈥渃omputing across the curriculum鈥� initiative by exploring computer applications in weaving and textile design.During the last six years of her life she was president of Pardon Design Inc. and was actively at work on her computer in the days before her death. Her most recent computer drawings and weavings (along with jewelry by husband Earl, metal works by son Tod, and photographs by daughter-in-law Jackie)were exhibited at the Aaron Faber Gallery, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York City, in an exhibition ending January 10, 1998.
She is survived by Tod and Jackie, a grandson, and sister Ann Harrington of Newport Beach, Calif. Earl Pardon died in 1991