Marie Daniels, Professor, Romance Languages:

“I’ll be tending my garden, reading detective novels, and getting ready to greet and help mentor the new colleagues in Spanish. I’ll have an office in the emeriti house and hope to keep up my Italian and audit some art history classes. As far as CC goes, I am grateful for my 30-plus years here, since it was only at CC that I really got my liberal arts education, team teaching with great professors like Dick Hilt, Mark Stavig, Margi Duncombe, Bob McJimsey, Edith Kirsch, Esther Redmount, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Kathy Merrill, Doug Fox, Jim Yaffee, Joan Stone, Peter Blasenheim, John Simons, and of course, my husband, Doug Freed. I came from a large university with a Romance languages department of 24 and was overwhelmed by the generosity, warmth, and sheer joie de vivre of the faculty at Colorado College. The students were exciting and excited, the mountains were beautiful and literally next door, and I had the chance to teach in Mexico and Italy. What’s not to like?”

Harold Jones, Professor, Chemistry

“Pam and I plan to spend time with grandchildren (three) in Denver and with/at our favorite people and places in Wyoming and British Columbia, and perhaps find some new favorite people in new places.

Teaching at CC for the 41 years that began the year-before-the-Block Plan, was a great career. It was the only job I ever had and seemed, to me, to be about a close to perfect as a place and a position could be. We wish CC the best in the next 40 years.”

Keith Kester, Professor, Chemistry

“I’m writing from the Headache Clinic of Denver which is owned and operated by my physician wife, Salwa H. Hanna. I am currently the part-time office manager, and in the fall will become full-time office manager. Dr. Hanna is an alumna of CC (class of 1973) and a former student of mine. I’m quite confident that being a full-time office manager will keep me plenty busy! However, I also want to work on several writing projects: 1) A collaboration with my colleague in the chemistry department, Ted Lindeman, on a paper on the distribution of charge in molecular species; 2) a paper on “Gender-based Research in Heterogenous Catalysis”; 3) a paper/book on the questions that my being a scientist raise for my being a person of religious faith; and 4) compiling creative writing of my students for publication in some form. I look forward to traveling vacations with my wife, to hiking with my daughters, to doing some gardening, and to getting back to my quilting after too long a hiatus.

What I have valued most  at CC is the many opportunities to work with colleagues in other disciplines (from religion, feminist and gender studies, history, education, and each of the natural sciences including the environmental science program); and to learn from them. I have particularly valued my associations with Donna Coffman, Joe Pickle, Paul Kuerbis, and Tricia Waters. Though it is a less efficient, and therefore more costly way, to teach, the opportunity to team teach with and learn from my co-teachers has been invaluable. I have team-taught with more than 45 colleagues during my career, including seven former CC students.”

Carl Reed, Professor, Art

“I decided five years ago to take advantage of the college’s special senior status, or early retirement program, in order to increase my engagement as a sculptor and designer while I still had the physical capacity to do so. To my knowledge artists seldom, if ever, retire.

I built a new studio attached to an existing sub-standard double-wide house on a property north of Woodland Park, and will continue my attempts to turn this eyesore into a viable dwelling. It affords many opportunities to experiment with various design ideas that integrate aesthetics with function, to build with lumber from a nearby saw mill, and to use a lot of recycled materials. I will sorely miss regular contact with students, but it is better to leave too early than too late. My hope for the college is that the institution will make every effort to hire new employees (faculty, staff, administrators) who are eager to recapture the unique spirit of a small liberal arts college and to resist the increasingly corporate atmosphere that characterizes higher education.”

Libby Rittenberg, Professor, Economics and Business

“On the academic-side, I plan to continue working on my web-based introductory economics textbook (go to www.flatworldknowledge.com if you’re having trouble sleeping) and am playing around with the idea of writing a popular history of bankruptcy. On the nonacademic-side, I plan to spend time with my dear parents in Charleston, S.C.; enjoy great cities in the U.S. and elsewhere, one Craigslist-apartment rental at a time; pen a joint book with my husband Nasit on some irreverent topic; and work with arts organizations at CC and in Colorado Springs to help such vital institutions get through the current rough patch. I had always thought of myself as an East Coast person but am so glad to have leaped across the Mississippi and landed at CC. The opportunity to work with so many outstanding colleagues and students in a beautiful environment has been precious. My family and I are forever grateful.”

John Watkins, Professor, Mathematics

“Whenever I am asked about my plans for retirement I am reminded that it has often been said that the Latin translation of Professor Emeritus is “has-been.” I have to say that my intention for the future is to stay as busy as ever. Next year I am teaching an FYE course on African Literature with a visitor from Tanzania, as well as continuing in my role as faculty advisor to the women’s soccer team. This summer I expect to finish writing a book on number theory that is based on the course at CC that has always been my very favorite one to teach. And I have just begun another book on the history of combinatorics with Robin Wilson, a frequent visitor to our department from England. Colorado College is a special place, and I feel very lucky to have been here the past 33 wonderful years.”