{"id":12191,"date":"2017-09-08T10:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?page_id=12191"},"modified":"2023-09-14T09:31:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T15:31:16","slug":"celebrating-cc-people-judy-laux-77","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/people-of-impact\/celebrating-cc-people-judy-laux-77\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Emerita Judy Laux ’77"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Laurie Laker \u201912<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Emerita Judy Laux ’77 is an institution all her own, here at Colorado College. A CC staple since she first walked onto campus in 1973, Laux has been teaching economics and business at the college since 1979, and she has \u2014 in her own words \u2014 \u201cloved every minute of it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in 1955 in Greenville, Ohio, to a mason father and a saleswoman mother, Laux is the youngest of four children. Her early memories of Ohio are of \u201cmom\u2019s sales parties, my grandmother\u2019s upholstery factory,\u201d both hardworking women who instilled those values of grit and hard work in Laux from a young age.<\/p>\n

When she was nine, the family moved to Colorado. Moving around was the norm for the family, with Laux attending \u201cthree different 4th<\/sup> grade classes\u201d but loving the \u201csmall towns, good schools\u201d of the Rocky Mountain West. A prolific learner from the outset, Laux graduated from Hotchkiss High School as valedictorian \u2014 one of 49 in her graduating class, the largest Hotchkiss had seen in years.<\/p>\n

The summer after graduation, Laux traveled for three weeks to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, and Switzerland as part of the United States Honor Band, as one of the clarinet players. Funded by her Hotchkiss community, Laux\u2019s summer abroad was the experience that \u201cmade me fall in love with travel\u201d \u2014 a passion she\u2019s continued to explore and immerse herself in for her entire life.<\/p>\n

Following her adventures abroad, Laux interviewed for a Gates Scholarship to attend Colorado College. \u201cMom had to drive me the four hours to Denver for the interview,\u201d she remembers. Surprising nobody, she got the scholarship \u2014 $1,500 per year \u2014 almost half a year\u2019s tuition at CC in 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited when I found out that CC sent a letter granting me the remaining balance of my tuition, room, and board \u2014 I was in!\u201d she says. \u201cI was so excited that I drove up and down the main street of Hotchkiss in my 1967 Barracuda waving the letter!”<\/p>\n

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Arriving at CC in 1973, Laux was a first-generation student at the college. Choosing to earn her degree in Business Administration, she also took 14 blocks of English, \u201cmy second love,\u201d she is quick to add. A true liberal arts student from the start!<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved, and still love, economics because of the process,\u201d she says. \u201cI love predicting what will happen next, using the context of the past for data.\u201d Exploratory and relentlessly curious, Laux was picked by professor Bill Barton \u201957 to work in the department as a student \u2014 helping with course load management, scheduling, and so on. Barton also introduced her to the Women in Management Program at the Keller Graduate School of Management between her junior and senior years at CC, which \u201cended up being an incredibly rewarding experience, one that really helped me,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

After graduating from CC in 1977, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude of course, Laux received a fellowship to the Keller Graduate School of Management in Chicago. Over the next two years, Laux earned her MBA in Chicago, but it was a layover in Colorado Springs, en route home for a break, that truly shaped her future \u2014 far beyond what she might have ever thought possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a layover, I decided to drop by and visit my old department, to say hi to some of the faculty,\u201d she remembers with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill Barton, still there, asked me if I would be interested in returning to CC (after my MBA) to teach accounting! I was so thrilled, I could\u2019ve made it to the Western slope without a flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following spring, after finishing her study at DeVry, Laux returned to her alma mater to teach, taking up a post in August of 1979. She\u2019s been here ever since.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI wasn\u2019t nervous at all,\u201d she says, when asked about her first class back at CC. \u201cI stepped in front of the class (Principles of Accounting) of 33 students and loved it from the beginning!\u201d<\/p>\n

At just 24, some of Laux\u2019s students were older than she, but that didn\u2019t stop her forming a close bond with many of them; she was eager to remove the lectern barrier and embrace the more personal teaching style of the college that she\u2019d loved so much as a student.<\/p>\n

Inexhaustible as ever, Laux recalls her early career fondly. \u201cI was working full time, teaching various courses in accounting, working in the Writing Institute for a summer, teaching co-taught classes between economics and English and so on, but I still found the energy to begin my Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in Boulder!\u201d<\/p>\n

Commuting to and from Boulder for classes when she could, Laux\u2019s Ph.D. took 10 years \u2014nothing to sniff at, given her full-time workload at CC, as well as starting a family and continuing to travel. She finished her degree in 1990, all the while remaining a vital part of the teaching community here at CC.<\/p>\n

Serving as a department chair for three years, Laux\u2019s service to the college is nothing short of incredible. In her 37 years, she has been a part of 13 committees, numerous searches, a Presidential Commission, a reunion co-chair, and she assisted in bettering the college\u2019s healthcare systems, advising countless students, and participating in the First-Year Experience for incoming students.<\/p>\n

In 1996, Laux was promoted to full professor of economics and business economics. Devoted to her teaching, Laux\u2019s scholarship interests developed later in her career, when she decided to focus on \u201ctheoretical and conceptual aspects of accounting and finance.\u201d As with most things she set her mind to, Laux\u2019s scholarship was stellar. Presenting at numerous national and international conferences over the years, her senior thesis students often presented alongside her \u2014 such was the quality of their work, supported by Laux\u2019s effervescent and infectious style of teaching.<\/p>\n

The recipient of numerous prestigious research grants, including departmental support in the form of the Chapman Fund, Laux received the Sidney G. Winter Award for Outstanding Teacher of Economics and Business Administration three times, as well as several endowed professorships, including the John Lord Knight, Schlessman, and Bill Barton professorships \u2013 each of which helped \u201cprovide funding and support for my research and conference travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the classroom, Laux is a prominent musician in the Pikes Peak community, and over the years she has played in numerous musical groups including the Colorado Springs Concert Band, the Pikes Peak Musicians Union Band, and the Pikes Peak Civic Orchestra. Playing the clarinet, hand bells, and singing, Laux\u2019s music now plays a larger role in her life since her retirement at the end of the 2016-17 academic year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really enjoying retirement with my husband Bryan,\u201d she says. \u201cLife is full, with travel, reading, musical groups, and spending time with family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to pick up my guitar again, fine tune my clarinet playing, and write on subjects that aren\u2019t related to business at all! I\u2019ve got a long bucket list, and now I have the time to check things off! The tree of life is full and growing well. I\u2019m loving it!\u201d<\/p>\n

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On behalf of a grateful community, all of us at Colorado College would like to wish Laux well with her retirement. If you have any stories or memories to share about her from over the years, please get in touch!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Laurie Laker \u201912 Professor Emerita Judy Laux ’77 is an institution all her own, here at Colorado College. A CC staple since she first walked onto campus in 1973, Laux has been teaching economics and business at the college since 1979, and she has \u2014 in her own words \u2014 \u201cloved every minute of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":769,"featured_media":12192,"parent":13983,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width.php","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12191","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/769"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12191"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14540,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12191\/revisions\/14540"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}