Eight faculty retire
By Deborah Lilly and Heather Lowhorne
Since coming to AU in 1975, J. Douglas Nelson; professor of political science, chair of the department of history and director of the center for Public Service; has been active on campus and in the community. When he’s not singing in the Anderson Symphonic Choir or working with the Model United Nations or the Center for Public Service, he’s serving on boards such as the Anderson Public Library and the Madison County Habitat for Humanity. He is a problem solver. “What’s really great fun is to define issues, define problems, define opportunities and then begin to bring resources together to deal with those matters in a constructive manner,” he says.
The Center for Public Service is a highly competitive honors program that assists students who are interested in careers in public service. “It’s purpose is to take outstanding students who show aptitude for leadership and enable them to become strong leaders in providing and meeting basic needs of our society and world in a direct fashion,” says Nelson. “Many of the kids at AU come here for the purpose of trying to make a difference with their lives in terms of some broader good … And what we try to do through this is to take those who show unusual promise and help them move quickly into leadership positions.”
Nelson has been the director of the Model United Nations since its inception on the AU campus. The program allows students to explore world issues with a heavy emphasis on conflict resolution. There are Model UN conferences all around the country, and the AU students involved usually attend two or three conferences. “The purpose is engaging students in thinking about and studying international relations and engaging them in some very detailed discussions about how to attack problems in international affairs,” says Nelson.
In 2001 Nelson was awarded the John Morrison award for excellence in teaching. The Morrison award, named in honor of the university’s first president, is designed to recognize faculty and staff who go beyond excellence in performance and have demonstrated a commitment to something larger than self. In 2006 he was honored with a distinguished service award. “It was really nice to be recognized for what I’d been doing,” says Nelson. “I was quite stunned by the selection, but I was deeply honored.”
While Nelson plans on staying involved in the community during his retirement, he also has other important plans. “I hope to have more time to spend with my grandchildren,” he says. “They’re all on the west coast, so at some point we will probably relocate back to the west coast and be near our grandchildren.”
Trish (Bentley) Janutolo BA ’68 grew up in the Church of God in Alabama. Her pastor was determined Janutolo should study at AU and brought her up to Indiana for campmeeting. Janutolo agreed with her pastor’s assessment, and entering AU, she applied herself to her social studies and secondary education majors.
Through Tri-S, Janutolo traveled to Japan, spending eight weeks of two summers there. When she graduated from AU, the Church of God Missionary Board asked her to take on a short-term teaching assignment in Japan. She spent three and a half years teaching English as a second language at a Church of God junior and senior high school. While she was there, she attended Tamagawa Church of God in Tokyo and shared a duplex with the Rev. Tomotoshi Tanaka and his family. The Tanakas opened up their home and lives to Janutolo. It was a gift of friendship she would never forget.
While finishing up her master’s degree in history at Ball State University, Janutolo learned that the Tanakas were coming to the United States where he would study at the AU School of Theology. Janutolo decided she wanted to remain in the Anderson area to return the hospitality the Tanaka family had so graciously offered her in Japan. That’s when she learned of the position of acquisitions clerk at Anderson University’s library. Within the next year, Janutolo was encouraged to take a few graduate classes in library science to see if she liked it. Janutolo did, and she earned her second master’s degree from Indiana University. She ended her career at AU working with serials and government documents.
It was while working at AU that Janutolo met her husband, Blake, now dean of the College of Science and Humanities. They have two children, Angela and Andrew, both AU alumni who are now in graduate school. Janutolo hopes to ease her children’s education expenses by working part time at a public library or tutoring English as a second language. She also hopes to become more involved in her church’s ministry to the elderly. “I’ll start with those things and see what happens,” she says.
Dale I. Bales, Professor of Physics and Chemistry, already has a “part-time job” lined up for his retirement. Sort of. For the past four years, Bales has been the pastor of Mechanicsburg United Methodist Church in addition to his teaching responsibilities at AU.
“Pastoring is a funny thing,” says Bales. “In some sense, no matter how small [the congregation] is, it’s full time. It’s a fairly small congregation that we have now. I’m just planning to put more of the hours that I have available into trying to cultivate that.” During much of his career, Bales has been bi-vocational, serving as an interim pastor or as a part-time pastor at small churches.
Bales is a graduate of Taylor University. He did his graduate and doctoral work at Purdue University. He first came to Anderson University in 1976 as an assistant professor of physics. After seven years at AU, he left for a four-year stint teaching high school at Mississinewa High School in Gas City, Ind. He was then invited back to teach chemistry at AU.
Bales says he has enjoyed his 28 years at Anderson. “There are just a whole lot of really nice people here,” says Bales. “No matter what area you are working in I think you can sit down with people who might have divergent views and still feel like you’re each concerned about the other and it’s not like an adversarial relationship. I think we have much more of that here than perhaps in many institutions.”
During his time at AU, Bales spearheaded the AU TeachScience program, which allows students to graduate with a full degree in biology, chemistry or physics and be licensed to teach, allowing students more career and post-graduate options. Bales sensed at divide between science majors and education majors studying to teach science. “We didn’t identify with them; they didn’t identify with us. It was like they were education majors who took a few science classes. And we just didn’t feel very good about that.” In 2000, Bales took a sabbatical in 2000 and went to the University of Texas to take a look at their science teaching program. Back at AU, he began to organize a similar program in which the science departments took more responsibility in training science teachers. Students can graduate in four years with their degree in chemistry, physics or biology and with a complimentary major in education.
In 1988 Bales was awarded the Nicholson Award, a student-choice honor. This spring Bales was honored with the John A. Morrison award which recognizes service to Anderson University as exemplified by Dr. Morrison, the University's first president.
When Sandra (Stephens) Clark BA 60 graduated from high school, she had no doubt about where she would attend college. “I came to Anderson College because at that time I was a Church of God teenager in Niagra Falls, New York, and that’s where you went,” she says. “You went to Anderson College. Anderson College sent trios and quartets out in the summer to recruit, and I never thought of going anywhere else.”
Clark, professor of English and former director of the writing program, completed her graduate and doctoral work at Ball State University and taught high school English in an Anderson public school before returning to the university. She says she always enjoyed teaching at Anderson. “I liked teaching English a lot,” says Clark. “I liked the part of my job that had to do with mentoring English methods students who would become teachers. And I liked being part of the writing program,” she says. “I was happy to be with English majors.”
And like many of the faculty at AU, Clark enjoyed her students. “The best part about being at Anderson University is the students,” she says. Earlier this year the students reciprocated her affection when they chose to honor her with the Nicholson Award, which is a student choice award.
During her time at Anderson, Clark has had a special place in her heart for international students. “I really just enjoy having them in my classes, and I try to become as friendly as I can with them,” she says. When she was director of the writing program, she tried to place as many international students as possible in her own classes. “They’re so lonely when they come,” she says. She says she enjoyed seeing them blossom from that lonely state into confident students. She was honored for her work with international students with a Heritage Award from the International Student Association.
Clark has been heavily involved with the Tri-S program during her years at AU, leading many cultural trips to London. On her last trip, she and the entire Tri-S group she was with were able to have their picture taken with Dame Judi Dench after watching her in a play.
She encourages everyone at AU to take advantage of the Tri-S program. “I tell my students this: ‘You are crazy if you don’t sign up for Tri-S,’” says Clark. She says even if students can’t afford an overseas trip, they should still go on a Tri-S trip within the United States. “One of the best things about AU is Tri-S.”
“There are two things in my life that I love,” says Ray Freer BA ’65. “One is art and the other is people. Early on I figured a way to get people to pay me to do both things that I like.”
Freer has been teaching art at Anderson University since 1971, also serving as chair of the art department during his tenure on campus. Being involved in the university seemed natural for him. His family history includes Church of God missionaries and pioneer ministers. He began coming to campmeeting at 5 years old. He worked his way through college as a graphic designer at Warner Press. “I was Church of God through and through,” he says.
After earning his bachelor’s degree, Freer moved to California to study at Claremont University and teach art in the public schools there. “Every chance I got, I would get in my car, drive up to the mountains, and sit and draw,” he says. When he returned to Indiana, he lost his scenic mountains, but he fell in love with the farming country and has painted many rural landscapes. Over the years, he has led art students on nearly a dozen Tri-S trips to Paris, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Cayman Islands, and Egypt. Each of these trips have also influenced his art work.
Freer’s work is strongly influenced by Picasso and cubism and also by the fact that he was created many stained glass windows, included the window that hangs on the Reardon Auditorium stage. One of his recurring symbols is the cow. “To me the cow is a peace symbol,” he explains. “The cow is very peaceful, very docile, very content. Their nature is so calm and reassuring.”
Freer says he knows he is finished with a piece when his wife comes down to his basement studio and says, “You’ve been working on that for a long time. Aren’t you finished yet?” “That’s when I quit,” he says, “because I love to paint. I like the application of the paint on the surface. I like the colors and the sparkle of it. The finished product isn’t as important to me sometimes as the process.”
Freer’s work has been in more than 60 shows and has been the subject 12 solo exhibitions. He has won several awards, including the Best Landscape in the Hoosier Salon Competition.
In the last few years, Freer has taught the art history and elementary art education classes at AU. He has a real love for children, and for 10 years ran a Saturday art workshop for community children with the help of his art education students. He has also received grants for develop curriculum for elementary art. The first, which he completed in 1995, focused on teaching art in the 21st century. He later wrote another linking art to other fields of education.
In retirement, he plans to teach art appreciation classes at Ivy Tech. He has four grandchildren living close by with whom he enjoys spending time. He hopes to get involved in volunteer work. And of course, he has some art projects in mind.
“I never dreamed I would be teaching here,” says Jill (Newberry) Dickerson BA ’68. “I am pretty much born and bred Church of God and Anderson. My dad [Gene Newberry] taught here. I lived close to campus. We hung out her and I knew everybody, but I just never thought about teaching here.”
After graduation from AU, Dickerson began teaching English at Madison Heights and was there for 16 years. She enjoyed working with the students but not always the infighting that sometimes accompanies departments. One evening she was driving by the university on her way home from work and decided to inquire about job openings in the AU English department. The department hired her in 1985 to teach freshmen composition.
Dickerson has enjoyed her time on campus, especially her colleagues. “I grew up with some of the people I teach with in this department,” she explains. She was high school friends with Cindy Poikonen and Sue Spaulding. She was in Camarada with Bonnie Landis and Zola Noble. “So these are my friends,” she says. “And anybody new who has come in I’ve liked as a friend as well.”
But, she adds, “I cannot grade another paper.” Each semester, she has taught 85 to ninety students. “When I have papers to grade, that’s all I do.”
Dickerson won’t be idle in her retirement. Even before she left her teaching job, she was volunteering in the Church of God/Anderson University Archives, where she files, scans, and tries to identify as many photos as she can. “I just feel a burden that the information just not disappear,” she says.
She has aged parents to care for and a new great nephew to enjoy, and she remains close to her sisters and niece. She has plans to read, garden, and travel. “I’m thinking I will keep busy.”
Sue (Miller) Spaulding BA ’67 also grew up in Anderson. Her father, T. Franklin Miller, retired as the president of Warner Press. She entered AU as a music major, but when she thought about teaching, she decided she would rather teach English. While her husband, Spencer BA ’67, MDiv ’70, studied in seminary, she taught in an Indianapolis high school and then at East Side Middle School in Anderson.
As the couple started their ministry together, Spaulding focused on raising their two daughters, Gwen and Christy, but did do some substitute teaching and working in a nursery school. When her husband enrolled in St. Andrews University in Scotland for his doctorate, the family moved to Scotland with him. There Sue taught high school for two years.
When the couple returned to the United States, they settled in Anderson. Spaulding was offered a position in the English Department at AU as an adjunct professor in the remedial writing program. “I thought it would just be for a couple of years and then I would get back into the public schools,” she says. “But every year there was a contract for me and eventually I became full time.” She also found that the job fit in wonderfully with her schedule as a mom.
Looking back over her career at AU, Spaulding says, “The students have been wonderful and a joy to work with, and it’s been wonderful to be a part of a community that values our family and cares about us.”
But Spaulding’s family situation has changed in recent years. “In the last few years, I’ve felt very stretched,” she says. Her father has passed away, but Sue still cares for her mother, Gertie. “Her spirit is very sweet and very loving, and I feel this pull to spend more time with her.” She also wants to spend more time with her four grandchildren and assist her husband as he continues to teach at AU and accept interim pastorate positions.
“I have a grateful heart to Anderson University, to my friends and colleagues. The administration, faculty, and staff have surrounded me with friendship and support, and my heart is full for that opportunity.”
When Ken Armstrong, professor of management and Austin/Cooper endowed professor of global business studies, came to Anderson University in 1990, he had several other opportunities available to him. He had been serving as the chair of the department of business and economics and Olivet Nazarene University, and other schools were pursing him but he felt AU was special. “This was a good place and the people wanted to get better,” says Armstrong, “and I wanted to be a part of it.”
In 1990 he came on as the chair of the department of business. He oversaw the transition from a department to a school of business and was the first dean of the school of business. “We were a school of business from 1991 on, and in 2001 we were honored to be able to add Dr. [R. Glenn] Falls name to that,” says Armstrong. “It was exciting to be apart of that process because were were expanding at that time. We were developing the first graduate program … outside of the School of Theology. The MBA was the first graduate program. We were establishing identity in the Indianapolis market. I was privileged to work with some great people and do some exciting things.”
For Armstrong, retirement is a misnomer. He is moving to Oregon where he will serve as the dean of the management school at George Fox University. He is keeping his home in Indiana, however, and hopes to return in three to four years. “Our long-term goal is to come back here and retire her, but we’re going to take one last great adventure.”
Armstrong is proud of the Falls Business School and the reputation the school have cultivated. “There are very few Christian universities of our size who have made the kind of commitment to business education that Anderson has,” says Armstrong. “… We pride ourselves on the fact that our students when they graduate have both very strong conceptual understanding of business and have had good experiential exposure to business so the can hit the ground running.”
When asked about what he will miss when he leaves AU, Armstrong didn’t hesitate: “It sounds trite, but obviously at the top of the list would be the students,” says Armstrong. “That’s why I’m in this profession, and the students have been delightful. This has been a place where spiritually I have grown as I have interacted with some wonderful colleagues, where we can discuss our differences in how we approach the Christian faith but yet we can come together and pray together and lift each other up.”
