St. Ambrose Legends Retire - St. Ambrose University

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stories
PROFESSORS
[142 years]
Thousands of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
by Craig DeVrieze
original paintings by Leslie Bell ’72
Additional Faculty
Retirements
Brenda DuBois, PhD
professor of social work,
at SAU since 1997
Ragene Gwin, EdD
professor of kinesiology,
since 1990
Dolores Hilden, PhD
professor and chair of
nursing, since 1999
Craig Shoemaker, PhD
professor of marketing
studies, since 1992
Judith White, EdD
professor and director of
education, since 2007
They found a small Catholic college in a modest Midwest community, both so warm and
welcoming they couldn’t help but feel at home.
“It was a nice little campus,” Rich Legg, PhD, remembered of his initial impression of the
St. Ambrose he discovered on arrival in 1978. “It looked like an interesting place to be.”
St. Ambrose College was that in the 1970s. And St. Ambrose University still is that
today, as biology professor Legg, art professor Leslie Bell ’72, MFA, music professor Joan
Trapp, DMA, and philosophy professor Paul Jacobson, PhD, all look toward their May
retirements.
Both in terms of the physical plant and enrollment, St. Ambrose nearly has tripled in
size since each joined the teaching staff in the bell-bottomed 1970s. It has not grown so
big, however, that one man or woman cannot make their mark, or so vast that his or her
departure won’t leave a void.
Trapp will retire after 38 years of advancing the St. Ambrose mission, Bell after 37,
Jacobson after 34 and Legg after 33. Each will leave a lasting legacy and Jacobson said the
unique beauty of St. Ambrose is the opportunity to do just that.
“The thing I always liked about St. Ambrose was that it was small enough that
individuals could make a difference,” Jacobson said. “I think that is still true today.”
Legg, likewise, applauded the freedom that a sense of St. Ambrose community has
afforded faculty to do what they do best. And, though some of the school’s early intimacy
has been lost to expansion, Legg said the school’s growth and progress are laudable, too.
“I like to think of it as a mini-multiversity, with all kinds of different programs serving
many constituencies,” he said.
Trapp was one of six female faculty members campus-wide when she joined the music
department, and she said she is pleased to have watched St. Ambrose grow more diverse
among both faculty and students and more global in its outlook.
“It is so dynamic and alive, and they have the global perspective of a small world,” she
said. “And yet we still have to give a lot of encouragement to students to experience that
bigger world. It’s easy to be isolated in Davenport and in Iowa and the Midwest. The
increase in international studies, students going abroad, going different places to learn
and serve, that has been a really important growth aspect.”
Bell agreed. “The school has grown bigger,’’ he said, “but it has also grown much more
complicated and much more representative of what the world looks like and how the
world thinks.”
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