Retirees 2016, © UWinnipeg
The University of Winnipeg honours the retirees at a reception on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 in Riddell Hall at 2:00pm.
The list of retirees include (in alphabetical order) – Carole Anderson, Linda Dietrick, Glen Einarson, Murray Evans, Darlene Frederickson, Alan Gershuny, David Hewlett, William Terence (Terry) Hidichuk, Lorna Jensen, Judith Kearns, Colleen Little, Heather C. Mathieson, Eva Pip, Doran Reid, Nolan Reilly, Patricia Russell, Warren Schuetz, John Tooth and Orval Voakes.
If we added all their years of service together, it would cover more than a century of dedicated work. That is a remarkable number reflecting commitment and service. The mark these individuals have left on each student that they assisted, taught or listened to resonates through generations of students and colleagues. You will be missed.
Learn about some of our colleagues* (in alphabetical order).
Dr. Murray Evans,photo supplied
Dr. Murray J. Evans, Professor (English),
34 years served
Do you have a favourite spot on campus?
I love the place but no particular spot in it.
What will you miss the most?
My students
What won’t you miss?
Marking.
What have your students taught you?
They have taught me that while they may share certain characteristics, they are unique individuals that each merit attention in person, in their academic assignments, and in their changing cultural conditions across the time of my career. They deserve my optimism and my ignorance of how well they’ll do until the course is entirely over.
What has been the biggest change that you have seen during your time at UWinnipeg?
The computer/digital revolution (I bought my first computer in 1984) and its effects: ease of work, expanded workload, shifted cognition (e.g., in my students), and decreased social togetherness.
What makes you happy?
Amazing grace.
What motivates you? Or inspires you?
Along with the above answer, exemplary lives or moments of lives (family, friends, colleagues, strangers, biographies) wise books, and meditation.
What is your favourite accomplishment?
Vocational: Research, teaching, and publishing on Romantic author Samuel Taylor Coleridge after 25 years of being a medievalist.
Avocational: Playing classical piano better and with less fear now than when I was an accomplished teenage pianist.
What are you looking forward to the most post retirement?
Doing nothing when I want.
Linda Dietrick, © UWinnipeg
Dr. Linda Dietrick, Associate Professor (German),
27 years served
Favourite spot on campus?
I like the areas around my department, Modern Languages & Literatures: the conversation lab, the Mod Foyer, and the corridor to the Foyer. As department chair I had a hand in redecorating them. I do hope all of Centennial Hall will one day get back its midcentury-modern sparkle.
What will you miss the most?
Walking into a classroom and feeling that I have something to teach that people actually want to learn.
What won’t you miss?
Well, this isn’t really the time or the place to list annoyances. Besides, I won’t have to deal with them anymore, will I?
What have your students taught you?
Among other things: confidence, humility, patience.
What has the biggest change that you have seen during your time at UWinnipeg?
Obviously, the expanded campus and administrative structures. But the students have changed, too. Many of them are missing some important basic skills, though many also have some good, new skills.
What makes you happy?
Sharing my obsessions, (not just academic ones) with like-minded nerds and being outdoors.
What motivates you? Or inspires you?
Being able to engage with other people who know what the heck I’m talking about when I go on about language, late-eighteenth-century German literature, and plants.
What is your favourite accomplishment?
Lately, an article I wrote on botany in German poetry around 1800.
What are you looking forward to the most post retirement?
The freedom to continue my research without pressure from other duties and to give talks and write for the gardening community.
Darlene Frederickson, © UWinnipeg
Darlene E. Frederickson, Instructor/Curriculum Specialist,
42years served
Favourite spot on campus?
Buhler Centre stairwells – good for exercise with lots of light.
What will you miss the most?
The people in the three departments I have worked with – Printing Services, the Centre for Distributed/Distance Learning and PACE (Professional, Applied & Continuing Education). And also colleagues at the other post-secondary institutions in Manitoba.
What won’t you miss?
Deadlines.
What have your students taught you?
Humility, in a good way.
What has the biggest change that you have seen during your time at UWinnipeg?
The indigenization of the campus and no buses on Spence Street.
What makes you happy?
Students who really try.
What motivates you? Or inspires you?
Students who really try.
Your favourite accomplishment?
Well, being a good employee and equally, helping students, in the classroom or administratively.
What are you looking forward to the most post retirement?
Seeing my house more during the day. Walking in the morning. I am hoping the cat might be happier and stop throwing up.
David Hewlett, © UWinnipeg
David Hewlett, Full Professor
45 + years served
Favourite spot on campus?
Convocation Hall, Asper Theatre and Lockhart Rotunda.
What will you miss the most?
My student and production times plus lunch at the “Jurassic” table in Riddell Hall.
What will you not miss?
Committees and strategic goal setting.
What have your students taught you?
Humility and what a privilege it was to being a teacher involved in the arts.
What was the biggest challenge during your time at UWinnipeg?
Understanding what we do, how to do it and make it relevant.
What makes you happy?
Designing and helping others achieve their dreams.
What is your favourite accomplishment?
Being part of the creative team that developed the very successful theatre program.
Dr. Terry + Phyllis Hidichuk, © UWinnipeg
Dr. Terry Hidichuk, Executive Director, the United Centre for Theological Studies
7 years served on the University Board of Regents, two of which as chair, and employed for 6 years.
Do you have a favourite spot on campus?
While I was at the University, I made some conscious life style choices, one of which was to become physically fit. As I have worked to achieve and maintain that goal, Duckworth and the Wedlake Centre have become important places for me. It not only is great place to work out, it is wonderful to see some of the same faces every day. Although there is not a high degree of interaction, a form of community develops. It has been a good place to be.
What will you miss the most?
I have developed friendships at the University. In spite of all the good intentions to maintain regular contact, I know life happens. I will miss those regular interactions.
What won’t you miss?
From time to time, I have experienced a little crankiness around the University. I won’t miss that.
What have your students taught you?
From my students, I have learned tenacity, patience and because theology is a confessional discipline I have learned again what I sometimes forget; the importance of faith in one’s life.
What has the biggest change that you have seen during your time at UWinnipeg?
Since 2003 when I arrived at my first Board , there have been so many change it is difficult to prioritize them,. I will mention three. Theological Education at the University has been re-structured. In 2013 the Faculty was closed and the United Centre for Theological Studies was established. The size of the new structure fits the size of the program and the size of the student enrollment. Perhaps the biggest change however, has been the size of the footprint or the Campus. The new construction and renewal has enhanced the way we can offer academic program and research excellence to the community. Finally the change that hopefully will have the most powerful impact is Indigenization. It will bring important and necessary changes to the University.
What makes you happy?
What motivates you? Or inspires you? One of students is 90 years old taking their second graduate degree. That inspires me.
What is your favourite accomplishment?
This isn’t really my accomplishment but it gives me great satisfaction to see our students receive their degrees. We are small community and most of our students are older, second career folk taking their degrees part-time. I admire their tenacity and their accomplishment.
What are you looking forward to the most post retirement?
I keep hearing from friends that once retired, they don’t know how they had time to do their jobs. I imagine there will be things that come along that will fill my time but for the immediate future I simply want to go home and do those things that I want to and when I want to them.
Dr. Eva Pip, © Dan Harper
Dr. Eva Pip, Full Professor
37 years served. “There is still gas in the tank, but no place further on this road to travel.”
Favourite spot on campus?
It used to be the memorial flower garden until the RecPlex centre, as well as the beautiful spruce trees that had once been planted beside McNamara Hall.
What will you miss?
The students, the joy of lecturing, the satisfaction of having done the best I could. I will continue to do research with my collaborators outside the university.
What have your students taught you?
Fresh perspectives on approaching social and environmental issues, the joy of learning new things that can be applied to one’s lifestyle for better health and quality of life. Loyalty, trust and laughter. The warmth of continued connections decades after the student has been fledged and gone out into the world to make her/his own way, wherever that may be. The pleasant incongruity of having taught the parents, then their children.
What has the biggest change that you have seen during your time at UWinnipeg?
A move away from traditional “pure” science to programs oriented towards the job market. The complete pervasiveness of technological gadgetry and instant, constant, but less personal, communication.
What makes you happy?
Science for me is a spiritual pursuit. There is no joy that can compare to finding out things that nobody has ever known before, to using that knowledge to try to improve our environment and health and wellbeing, an appreciation for the Creator. Laying the groundwork for others to follow and make even more exciting discoveries. Science is also an addictive pursuit. I have never once gone on vacation while employed at the UWinnipeg.
What motivates you? Or inspires you?
For me, Science demonstrates how incredibly wisely our universe is crafted, and how difficult it is to envisage that everything is simply there by chance. For me, a chickadee or a bumblebee are proofs that God exists, that there is far more than what we can see, touch, or feel with our limited senses and understanding., that there is continuity and immortality in the vast unknown, that our endeavors here during our brief flame of a lifetime are not lost and are not in vain. Ultimately, we are a part of everything and everything is a part of us. We must respect our environment and safeguard it from greed, ignorance and wanton destruction. We are all connected, and when we destroy one part of our beautiful planet Earth, we ultimately destroy ourselves. We allow ourselves to become so distracted and sidetracked, yet all of these things are so shallow and ephemeral and meaningless. For me, the best place in the world is in the bush, or on a quiet untainted lake, or in my garden. My life philosophy has been to be able to look at the end of each day and be able to say that, inside myself, I did the best I could, I made every effort, even if it did not have any larger or lasting effect.
What is your favourite accomplishment?
Composing piano music for meditation and spiritual growth, and producing a CD. Publishing a book that tried to promote spirituality and the human spirit.
What are you looking forward to the most post retirement?
I will continue to do research outside the university with my collaborators. Otherwise I want to garden to my heart’s content, be active in promoting horticulture in our province. There are thousands of books I wish to read. I wish to compose more music. I wish to make more stained glass projects. I wish to devote more time to my enormous shell and mineral collections. I wish to do a lot of writing and publishing. I never did find out what it is to take a vacation, it seems dull, selfish, and wasteful. In the end, I wish to approach God and be confident that I did a credible day’s work.
Doran Reid, © Kelly Morton
Doran Reid, Director of Athletics
27 years served
Favourite spot on campus?
My favourite spot was always in the gym when it was filled with student athletes, staff, UWinnipeg alumni, and sports fanatics of all ages enjoying themselves.
What will you miss the most?
Working weekends with dedicated staff and students that were so good at what they do.
What won’t you miss?
Working weekends.
What have your students taught you?
That no matter what your first impression is when you first meet them, they will almost always surpass your expectations for them.
What has the biggest change that you have seen during your time at UWinnipeg?
The growth of facilities and resources for the students, staff and faculty.
What makes you happy?
Twenty-five degree Celsius weather, a cold beverage and green grass as far as the eye can see.
What motivates you? Or inspires you?
I am inspired by the accomplishments of others.
Favourite accomplishment?
I am most proud of the growth in the number of student athlete Ambassadors for the University of Winnipeg while I was Director of Athletics (From 60 to 200+)
What are you looking forward to the most post retirement?
I am hoping I can see even more of the world.
Warren Schuetz, photo supplied
Warren Schuetz, Graphic Designer
27 years served
Favourite spot on campus?
I like the quad the best.
What will you miss the most?
I will miss my three coworkers, who I spent the last 25 years with.
What won’t you miss?
Decade after decade in the basement.
What has the biggest change that you have seen during your time at UWinnipeg?
As technology progressed my interactions with people went from mostly face to face to serial emails.
What makes you happy?
Sunshine, making music, making art.
What motivates you? Or inspires you?
Non-fiction books on so many topics.
Favourite accomplishment?
Retiring, so I will have time to do my favorite things.
*Some retirees choose to complete the questions and some answers might have been edited for space.
