Brashers, Dale E.

Dale E. Brashers, the head of the department of communication at the University of Illinois, died July 5 in his campus office. He was 50 years old. Brashers, whose research focused on how people manage and cope with illness, joined the U. of I. faculty in 1998. He served as the director of graduate studies in the department (then called speech communication) from 2002-2006, and then as associate head until January 2009, when he became head. Beginning in 2008, he also held a joint appointment as a professor of medicine.Brashers earned his bachelor s and master s degrees in 1987 and 1988, respec...