When Dorothy Weise started teaching at Elgin Community College in 1976, the typewriter was one of her main tools. Over the years, the professor of office administration and technology saw typewriters give way to word processors, then to PCs loaded with software that made office work easier in many ways, more frustrating in others.
When biological sciences professor Robert Steinbach started with the college in 1968, a biology course barely mentioned DNA, but now genetics has an ever-expanding role in the curriculum.
While such dramatic changes were taking place in these fields and others, professors such as Weise and Steinbach not only had to keep up but also continue to convey the fundamentals to legions of students.
But more than 200 years of collective teaching experience has left ECC this spring, with the retirement of 10 longtime professors in fields ranging from music to nursing.
College President Mike Shirley said the retirees have been a part of a faculty that took the college from 2,000 students in 1966, with no permanent buildings and a handful of career technical programs, to 28,000 students, 12 buildings, two campuses and 1,800 courses.
“Everyone retiring now has been part of that history and has helped shape the foundation upon which we all work and learn,” Shirley said.
“But most importantly, they have served thousands of students. So while change is the standard at ECC, there are some timeless attributes upon which people have come to depend and expect. Our faculty care about students.”
Most of the retirees agree that a love of teaching has kept them with ECC for so long.
Steinbach, an aquatic biologist, said that although he could have made more money working in industry, he wouldn’t have given up any of the time he spent teaching.
“I enjoyed teaching immensely,” Steinbach said. “It was over in the twinkle of an eye. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone.”
For some, such as Weise, the love of teaching was so strong that the paperwork for her retirement remained on her desk for four months before she felt she was making the right choice.
One of the more noteworthy retirees is music professor Robert Hanson.
In 28 years with ECC, Hanson has seen the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, along with other school-associated instrumental and choral groups, make the transition from performing in high school gyms and church halls to playing in their new home in the Visual and Performing Arts Building.
Hanson was the ESO’s director in 1988 and 2000, when the Illinois Council of Orchestras named it the Orchestra of the Year.
Nursing professor Nancy Rooker, a 25-year veteran, has come to admire the person she sees as her average student, usually a single mom in her 30s.
“They are so focused,” she said. “This week they are my student; next week they are my co-worker.”
The other members of the Class of ’02’s retirees are James Craig, professor of environmental control systems, 17 years at ECC; Margaret Kienitz, professor of nursing, 27 years; Lester Szewczyk, professor of mathematics, 15 years; Aaron Vessup, professor of speech, 22 years; and Carl Zeigler, Jr., professor of sociology, 27 years. Another retiring faculty member, Barbara Wascher, professor of office administration and technology also is a 1964 graduate of ECC. She has taught there since 1973.
Jack Weiss, dean of academic development and learning resources and a retiree, has seen firsthand how some of those long-time professors have touched students’ lives.
“It was wonderful,” Weiss said of his 32 years with ECC. “It has been the best job anyone could ever have asked for.”
