Professor’s Legacy of Care for Graduate Students Lives On in New Fund

Geraldine Falk recently made a $50,000 gift to establish a new fund benefitting graduate students in the Department of Sociology (SOCY) in honor of her late husband, Professor Emeritus William “Bill” Falk.

The fund will provide financial assistance to graduate students who face expenses related to travel, conferences, internships and extracurricular activities.

Bill joined the University of Maryland as chair of SOCY in 1986. He held that position for two separate tenures, in addition to serving as interim chair of what is now the Department of African American and Africana Studies.

“Bill was exactly what every faculty member wanted in a chair. He was open, relaxed, and had a keen recognition of what sociology could do,” said SOCY Professor Emeritus Reeve Vanneman. “When he talked to you about your career or a research draft you had shared, he could give you the good news and the bad news with the same quiet honesty. That advice was especially important for the many graduate students he mentored, but also for colleagues and friends.”

In his 26 years of service to the university, Bill left a lasting impression on the faculty, staff and students with whom he interacted, particularly with regard to his mentorship.

“One of the most striking things about Bill’s commitment to institution building is seen through his impact on students and faculty, particularly junior faculty. He was always willing to mentor students and younger colleagues through his willingness to read and comment on their work and his open-door policy for career advice,” said SOCY Distinguished University Professor Emerita Sonalde Desai.

One of the graduate students Bill worked closely with, Karen Albert, SOCY M.A. ’96, often reached out to Falk for such advice.

“‘Encouraging’ is one of the best ways I can describe him,” said Karen, to whom Bill offered a paid graduate assistantship. “He was always very encouraging of me to explore whatever direction I was interested in within the broader research he was working on, and when I was finishing my master’s degree, when I went to him and said ‘I know that I don’t want to be a professor, so I think I am going to just take my master’s degree and go,’ he said ‘That’s fine, I am sure you will find a career path that will work for you.’ And I did.”

Today, Karen is the Vice President and Head of Internal Audit at Constellium, a global leader in the development, manufacturing, and recycling of aluminum products and solutions. She says that the programming, data, analysis, and “people-reading” skills she acquired over the course of her graduate program really helped her find success in the corporate world.

“I can't thank Bill enough for the promise he saw in me, and for basically funding my graduate experience. That's why giving back to the university now is so important to me,” said Karen, who serves as the chair of the BSOS Board of Visitors. “Bill really thought that there is no better investment in the future than in our students, and I know that me trying to figure out how to make my own contribution to that is definitely making him smile.”

Give to the William "Bill" Falk Endowed Graduate Student Support Fund in Sociology 

Published on Mon, Jul 27, 2026 - 10:55AM