Members of the VCU community remember Irma Bateman, assistant professor of biology, as an inspiring professor and excellent mentor. Bateman died April 2.
“She was the best teacher I ever had,” said Sarah Jones, a student in Bateman’s anatomy class two years ago. “She helped me get into nursing school and she was always there to stay after class and help us study.”
Bateman, a longtime VCU community member, earned her master’s degree in anatomy at the Medical College of Virginia in 1966. For 25 years she taught sciences at senior-level institutions including Old Dominion University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Randolph-Macon College. At the time of her death she was an assistant professor in VCU’s biology department from 1998 to 2006.
“If anyone was a saint, she was,” said Jill Reid, a biology instructor. “She had the patience of a saint and was very laid back and friendly.”
– Bob Holsworth, acting dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences
Reid said Bateman was well-known for treating her students wonderfully. And though she was the “grandmother” type, Reid said, she also had a good time doing things like attending a recent Rolling Stones concert.
Bob Holsworth, acting dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences, which houses the biology department, praised Bateman’s teaching when he reported that her death followed a brief illness.
“For the past eight years, Irma has been an outstanding teacher of human anatomy at VCU,” he said. “She touched the lives of thousands of students in her courses.”
Besides teaching, Bateman served as chairwoman of the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for the Department of Biology.
“I will always remember the long conversations we had about teaching or about courses in general,” said Reid, who also served on the committee. “Irma will truly be missed.”
A court-appointed special advocate and a reading instructor for the Literacy Council in Hanover, Bateman was a member of Iota Beta Gamma, a service fraternity, Chi Beta Phi, a national honorary scientific fraternity, and the Concord Baptist Church.