Arrival at UM-Dearborn, Summer 1965 (Part 16)
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After I signed my first-year contract with the University of Michigan-Dearborn (or rather the U. of M., Dearborn Center at the time), I was offered the chance to teach a summer course, and I gladly accepted, since the pay was quite good for summer teaching. The term was for August and September, and the class was small, so it was a good way for me to be introduced to the curriculum and to become acquainted with the campus and my colleagues before the beginning of the fall term in early October. The campus was on quarters of three months each at the time, but with the beginning of the next term in January of 1966, the campus went to trimesters of four months each.
We stayed our first few days with Bob and Nancy Mossman, with whom we had formed a close friendship back at Pitt. They lived in an apartment in Taylor, not far from Dearborn. Nancy gave us the grand tour of the City of Dearborn in her brand-new Ford Mustang convertible, which was then new on the market, at the beginning of a long period of popularity. We were received at the Dearborn Campus by Prof. Myron Simon, who encouraged us to live in Dearborn, since many of the faculty chose to live in Ann Arbor, a matter which galled Myron because that made it difficult to schedule faculty meetings. We were amenable to his direction, since we had no reason to live in Ann Arbor and make the long commute of 35 miles each way. We found a flat in an attractive neighborhood in East Dearborn, owned by an elderly Polish couple, who lived on the ground floor of the house. They rather adopted us and were continually offering food and advice. Mr. Lelek’s wife could speak only a few words of English, but she was very warm toward us. The apartment was unfurnished, so we had to go buy some basic, mostly used furniture. Myron lived with his family not far away, so he and I often rode together to the campus.
I had three colleagues in English, all of whom were Jewish. We joked about my being the token Gentile, but we were all good friends. In fact, they would sometimes consult me on literary references to the New Testament, with which they were not very familiar. Sydney Warschausky, was a specialist in 20th century English literature, Myron Simon was also in modern literature and English education, and Larry Berkove was in American literature. English was part of the Discipline of Humanities in the Division of Literature, Science, and the Arts, one of three academic Divisions of the campus, along with Engineering and Business Administration. The Discipline of Humanities also housed faculty members in philosophy, linguistics, art history, and foreign language. The other Disciplines (administrative units) in the Division of Literature, Science, and the Arts were Science and Mathematics, Education, and Social and Behavioral Science.
The campus was very small when I joined the faculty, and we were all housed in the same building, se there was a pleasant intermingling of faculty from all disciplines; we often ate our sack lunches together in the faculty lunchroom—humanities, science, engineering, and business faculty cross-pollinated each other. There was a Faculty Women’s Club that also got us together socially, fostering our cross-disciplinary comeradery. Unfortunately, as the campus grew and we added young faculty who were more wedded to the disciplines they were trained in, we separated physically and psychologically. Nevertheless, the seeds of interdisciplinary objectives did bear significant, if short-lived fruit in the form of a Core Curriculum when we expanded to a four-year program and the creation of a Division of Interdisciplinary Studies.
Once again, we established some rich and long-lasting friendships in those first years: Roger Verhey in mathematics and his wife Norma, David Emerson in chemistry and his wife Shirley, Emmanuel Hertzler (biology) and his wife Myrtle, Sydney Warschausky and Larry Berkove in English and their wives Lorraine and Gail, respectively. Roger and I became prayer partners, meeting in our offices for lunch. He was my closest friend and chief support among the faculty. The Emersons and we were socially active with each other because they, like us, lived in Dearborn. Larry Berkove was single during our first years at UM-Dearborn Campus, and we often had him to meals at our house. When he met and married Gail, we were among the first to know about the engagement, and we were invited to their Jewish wedding in Chicago. When their children began to be born, we were invited to the bris (circumcision) of their first son.
As has been the case wherever we have lived, we had another close circle of friends in the church we attended, in this case the Northwest Church of Christ in Detroit, not far from where we lived in Dearborn. Our closest friends there were the minister and his wife, Dr. Joseph and Geneva Jones. Joe had come to the minister’s job from Oklahoma Christian College, where he was a dean. Being very interested in Christian higher education, he quickly established a connection with Michigan Christian College in Rochester, MI, and taught classes there. At the same time he was pursuing degrees in counseling and doing a significant amount of counseling for the church. He and I became fast friends and often had lunch together to talk about theology and life in general. The Joneses and we were often in each other’s homes. We were also taken under the wings of some older couples whose hospitality and companionship we greatly enjoyed.
As soon as we had settled into our home and my job, we began to explore the possibility of adopting a child. We registered with the Children’s Aid Society in Detroit, and by the end of my first academic year at UM-Dearborn, we had taken into our home a six-week old baby girl, whom we named Liann Kathleen. She is still a beautiful daughter and a great support in our old age.
Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.)
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