{"id":243125,"date":"2016-12-22T06:09:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T20:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=243125"},"modified":"2016-12-22T06:09:27","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T20:09:27","slug":"nmc-professor-25-years-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmc-professor-25-years-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"NMC professor of 25 years passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Barry<\/a>
Barry Wonenberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The longest teaching professor at the Northern Marianas College, Barry Wonenberg, passed away yesterday. He was 58 years old.<\/p>\n

Sources said Wonenberg suffered from a heart attack at about 6:30am yesterday. The actual time of his passing has yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n

NMC president Dr. Carmen Fernandez expressed sympathy while recognizing Wonenberg\u2019s talents and accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarry Wonenberg [was] an extraordinarily talented artist and one of the most beloved instructors at Northern Marianas College. He was a great asset to our college and we will miss him dearly,\u201d said Fernandez. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was NMC\u2019s longest serving instructor, and his contributions to the college and his dedication to student learning will not be forgotten,\u201d she added. \u201cWe plan to commemorate his life with a tribute ceremony to be announced at a later date.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis sculptures and other works of arts have been recognized locally and internationally, and his active involvement in the arts and humanities earned him the respect and admiration of the CNMI community,\u201d added Fernandez.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease keep Barry and the family in your thoughts and prayers,\u201d said Fernandez, addressing NMC students through email.<\/p>\n

Wonenberg also served as a board member of the Northern Marianas Humanities Council.<\/p>\n

NMHC board chair Frankie Eliptico said NMHC lost a valuable partner with Wonenberg\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of his incredible talent and wealth of knowledge, we always valued Barry\u2019s insight and vision on the Humanities board,\u201d said Eliptico. \u201cThe Humanities has lost a great advocate and we have lost a good friend and colleague.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a phenomenal artist whose creative brilliance influenced many students and other painters, sculptors, and designers in the CNMI and elsewhere,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Among the most pained by Wonenberg\u2019s passing was his best friend, Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Robert Hunter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was my best friend in the world. Barry loved Saipan; he is a great human being. Barry loved the people here and was a great dad. He was also the longest serving instructor of NMC. It\u2019s a big loss. It\u2019s a sad day for me and a sad day for a lot of people,\u201d said Hunter.<\/p>\n

Hunter recalls being with Wonenberg the night before his untimely death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was totally surprising. I was with him last night until about 8:30pm and he was just fine. It was a shock to everybody that morning,\u201d recalled Hunter.<\/p>\n

Wonenberg taught arts at NMC for 25 years. He had a Bachelor of Arts from Boise State University and Masters in Education from Framingham State College. He specialized in teaching ceramics, sculpting, and bronze casting at NMC.<\/p>\n

Wonenberg also represented the CNMI at the 9th, 11th, and 12th Annual International Sculpture Symposium, an international sculpting competition in China.<\/p>\n

He was also an illustrator of CNMI history textbooks. Several of Wonenberg\u2019s large scale sculptures remain on permanent exhibit at the International Sculptors Symposium in China and he also represented the CNMI at several Festival of the Pacific Arts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The longest teaching professor at the Northern Marianas College, Barry Wonenberg, passed away yesterday. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":243129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[14845,26,69,1120],"class_list":["post-243125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-barry-wonenberg","tag-cnmi","tag-nmc","tag-nmhc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}