DocAndersen
My father retired from Indiana University in 2005. I suspect given his choice he would have continued teaching. My father loved teaching more than anything other than his family. It is funny looking back now, at what was then. I get my love of Indiana football and basketball from my father. Yes, there are many reasons why I still root for the teams I rooted for as a child. One of them is the memory of listening to games with my father.
I think the one thing I remember most about my father is one year; a previous class was asked “who do you remember most” from your IU academic career. Coach Robert Montgomery Knight and Doc Counsilman were the top two names on that list. They impacted thousands of students every year. But in that top five list was a science educator. A person that helped maybe 100 different students that year. Yes, the big names were remembered as they should be. But on that list of remembered professors, teachers, people that impacted students in ways they recalled years later was my father.
Sure, my dad and I didn’t always see eye to eye. Early in life, I realized I probably wasn’t going to be an educator. I love the interplay of business and technology. To me, the vast universe of business is more interesting. I am sure that bothered my father, but he never let on. He always supported me. So these pictures today of his retirement party. He went to the university for a couple more years after this party, as a professor emeritus, but eventually he moved his university life to the house he shared with my mother. My father was a grand man!
