Joel Speckhard, associate dean of admissions and financial planning and director of financial planning, died Sept. 13 at a Chapel Hill hospital.

Joel had been an Elon staff member since 1990. He was an active and respected member of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators as well as the North Carolina Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. He is survived by his mother, four brothers and a sister.

Staci Powell, director of admissions records, says she will miss Joel's sense of humor. "I miss seeing him waltz right past Marsha Boone's desk and into Susan Klopman's office," she says. "He just had this way about him that made us laugh about things that he did."

But aside from his Joel's sense of humor, Staci says he took his job seriously. "It was evident that he really cared about his job," she says. "He took care of students in whatever ways he found possible. We knew that whatever he was doing, it would be done well."