In Memoriam - Gemma Welsch

DR. GEMMA WELSCH, 60 DePaul prof always at forefront 

Vivacious, determined, and intelligent, Gemma Welsch enchanted friends, family and her students at DePaul University.  "Gemma was very strong with a forceful personality, charismatic, charming ... you didn't have to say her last name--everyone knew her as Gemma," said Tim Lockyer, professor of accountancy at DePaul. "Not everyone can go through their whole career with all her degrees and accomplishments being affectionately known by their first name. "To have a person who is friendly, outgoing, sociable, who likes to have these Italian dinners for everyone to come and like each other coupled with her powerful intellect was a compelling combination."  In 1998 and 1999, DePaul's accounting alumni association chose Dr. Welsch for its faculty excellence award for innovation and teaching. In 1999, she also received DePaul's highest teaching award for its active faculty.  Dr. Welsch, 60, a DePaul associate professor of accountancy and founder of its management information systems program, died of ovarian cancer Monday, Feb. 21, at the Palliative CareCenter & Hospice of the North Shore.

When she was a little girl, she asked for a toy adding machine so she could emulate her mother, who was the bookkeeper for the family business. Her joy in accounting grew and eventually prompted her intrigue with management information systems.

Born and raised in Chicago to second generation Italian-American immigrants, Dr. Welsch received her bachelor's degree in accountancy and a master's degree in business administration, both from DePaul. In 1980, she became the first woman to receive a doctorate in accounting and information systems from Northwestern University. In 1972, she joined DePaul's accountancy department faculty and then founded its management information systems program. "Only a few people can teach in both subjects, but she taught both areas," said Ed Cohen, a DePaul accountancy professor who was her teacher before becoming her colleague. "Gemma was very determined and objective-oriented. What she aimed for, she worked hard to get. And her students could see her at any time of the day."

Dr. Welsch embraced management information systems because it complemented the theoretical and academic training she already had, said Harold, her husband of 33 years, who was attracted by her smile when both were freshmen at DePaul. He is a DePaul management professor and the university's Coleman Chair in Entrepreneurship. "She wanted to make sure that there were worldly applications and that we were not just espousing theoretical concepts in the classroom. She actually put it to work." When computers were introduced, she began conducting workshops and training seminars in management information systems, he said. "She was always at the forefront, on the cutting edge, getting people acclimated to basic computers and every stage thereafter," he said.

She also taught seminars and classes in Europe, India and Australia, and held appointments as a visiting professor in Czechoslovakia, Hong Kong and Italy. She and her husband spent a year teaching in Italy and visiting her ancestral home, said her husband. Other survivors include a niece and a nephew. Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Peter Catholic Church, 8116 Niles Center Rd., Skokie.

Chicago Tribune, Feb 25, 2005, pg. 13