{"id":3040,"date":"2016-11-03T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=3040"},"modified":"2016-11-03T08:00:56","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T12:00:56","slug":"a-portrait-of-the-professor-as-a-retiring-man-milton-reigelman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2016\/11\/03\/a-portrait-of-the-professor-as-a-retiring-man-milton-reigelman\/","title":{"rendered":"A Portrait of the Professor as a Young Man: Milton Reigelman"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY BRENNEN AMONETT – STAFF WRITER<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I believe a privilege of attending a small liberal arts school in central Kentucky is the community built by Centre\u2019s presence in Danville. It\u2019s safe to say that the names of Centre legends don\u2019t retire with them, and that a school of 1,400 students can feel the impact of a leading figure for years after they\u2019ve left Centre. Dr. Milton Reigelman is sure to be a name to remember and thank long after his upcoming retirement in June. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Reigelman, an institution on campus, to discuss his retirement; what years at Centre has been, and what comes afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you like some tea? I hope you don\u2019t mind if I have some.\u201d Dr. Reigelman flipped on his electric kettle and sat across the thin coffee table adorned with the geometric sculpture of a prowling panther. On one wall in his office hung a large painting of Big Ben and two Ken Keffer cityscapes. There were three copies of Moby Dick on his bookshelf, a book he considers \u201cthe greatest work of art ever to come out of America.\u201d Dozens of pictures of students occupied a bulletin board above his desk, photographs spanning decades all over the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to sit close because I don\u2019t have my hearing aid.\u201d He reclined into a large chair diagonal to my position across the table and set down a mug in front of me. I came to conduct the interview, but almost immediately, I was the interviewee.<\/p>\n

He wanted to know about my own experience: where I am from, what my interests are, where I will be studying abroad. For the first ten minutes or so, our conversation had been entirely about me. It didn\u2019t take me long to understand why Dr. Reigelman, a man who is clearly invested in truly knowing his students, would spend over four decades at a school like Centre, a college that places an emphasis on developing personal relationships between students and professors.<\/p>\n

In regards to his lengthy tenure, 46 years is a significant portion of one\u2019s life to devote to any one thing. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a feat,\u201d I remarked. \u201cYes, but so is robbing a bank,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

Dr. Reigelman holds the title of being at Centre longer than anyone else on campus today, although he admits, \u201cit might be good or it might be bad, it\u2019s unclear.\u201d Yet from the impact he\u2019s had in so many departments across campus throughout his time at Centre, it\u2019s hard to make the case that his lasting impact will be anything other than positive.<\/p>\n

At varying points in his career, Milton Reigelman has been in charge of the Norton Center, admissions, financial aid, the alumni house, development, student life, a member of the English faculty, and acting president before President John Roush\u2019s arrival in 1998. \u201cOne regret,\u201d he joked, is that \u201cthey\u2019ve never let me coach. I think I would be a good basketball coach.\u201d He gave me a list of credentials, including a biking course he taught with another Centre legend, Kitty Baird, then asked, \u201cwould you put in a recommendation for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

When I touched on his use of the word \u201cregret,\u201d he very quickly made clear there was nothing more he could have expected from Centre. \u201cCentre has been exceedingly patient with me and generous toward me. It didn\u2019t take long after we arrived to realize this was the place we wanted to stay.\u201d Originally from Washington, D.C. then moving to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Iowa City, Dr. Milton Reigelman had never lived in a small town until he arrived in Danville. \u201cBut this has fit very nicely. And it still does, we\u2019re going to stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the amount of travel Dr. Reigelman has done throughout his life, his decision to remain in Danville goes to show how influential the community has been on Milton, and his legacy proves how influential he has been on the community. After all, Dr. Reigelman is credited by many as a pioneer in Centre\u2019s study abroad department, and a large reason Centre boasts its high national ranking today. Until the 1990s, the study abroad department consisted of an occasional Centre Term trip. Mike Adams, the Centre president at the time–who Reigelman considered \u201ca little controversial, particularly towards the end\u201d\u2014wanted to get Centre students abroad. Centre is a small school in small town in a small inland state, and he saw the need for expansion. Thus the London program was created, then Strasbourg, Merida, China, Japan, and so on. Today, Centre is proud to have 10 semester abroad programs and multiple Centre Term trips every year.<\/p>\n

According to Reigelman, the fact that over 80% of Centre students study abroad gives the campus \u201ca different culture.\u201d The expansion of the study abroad department and the welcoming of international students (a focus on \u201cimport and export,\u201d as Reigelman calls it) have been two of the biggest changes on Centre\u2019s campus over the last half-decade. Dr. Reigelman sums this up by saying, \u201cthe student body doesn\u2019t look like it did, doesn\u2019t think like it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way we really coddle our students,\u201d he added, \u201csomeone else is paying for much of what you do here. You don\u2019t have to worry about buying food, budgeting, you never have to cook a meal, you never have to cook a dish, you never have to mow a strip of grass. Really, it\u2019s unbelievable. Suddenly [when you study abroad] you live with other people, often people you don\u2019t know, you\u2019re going to be given a food stipend, you\u2019re going to learn how to shop and what healthy eating is, you\u2019re going to learn to cook, to share, you\u2019re going to learn the division of labor\u2014you can learn that in an anthropology course, but no, you\u2019re going to do it! Talk about high impact learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh impact learning\u201d seems to be the focus of how Reigelman\u2019s sector of Old Carnegie treats the idea of studying abroad. Centre\u2019s impact on a global scale isn\u2019t \u201cnew\u201d per se, it has had an impact across the world since the 19th century, but Reigelman has helped to institutionalize the college\u2019s international focus. Although he humbly refused to accept my praises for his leadership over the Center for Global Citizenship\u2014when asked how it has impacted the mission of the college, he simply responded, \u201cwell, I can\u2019t say it\u2019s me\u201d–Reigelman’s personal focus on changing students comes out in any conversation on the subject. He prides himself on his ability (\u201cthough I\u2019m not sure it can be proven,\u201d he remarked) to be able to tell the difference between students who have and who haven\u2019t studied abroad. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of maturity and confidence,\u201d he continued, \u201cboth intellectually and personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond building Centre\u2019s study abroad department to national prestige, Reigelman has influenced not only the college, but students around the globe, for years. Speaking to his own \u201cintercultural experience,\u201d Dr. Reigelman taught American Literature behind the Iron Curtain in 1979 \u2013 80 as a Fulbright lecturer. Teaching in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Ukraine, he witnessed the Cold War from a perspective not many Americans had the opportunity to experience.\u00a0 As an American, he was loved by the Polish but constantly under Soviet surveillance. Put simply, he considered it \u201cmind boggling.\u201d He explained, \u201cit gave me a belief in you cannot understand where you are unless you have something to compare it with. It calls into question the assumptions one makes about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about his time as acting president, he confessed, \u201cin some ways, it was the easiest year I had at Centre. I was basically not trying to sink the ship-or if I sunk it at least not let them know I was on the ship when it sank.\u201d In a display of his colonel pride, he then pulled up his pant leg to show off his pair of gold checkered socks with the Centre logo on them.<\/p>\n

Countless other tales, such as marching with Martin Luther King Jr. and hearing his I Have a Dream<\/em> speech, or eating breakfast with Prince Charles graced our conversation. His ability to recount such momentous anecdotes should serve as a testimony to a career well served. Sharing poetry and playscripts ensures a commitment to propagation with a personal touch.<\/p>\n

An aficionado of literature, drama, music, and Cowan dining, Milton Reigelman embodies the essence of a liberal arts education. A true lover of knowledge, he has spent his years at Centre working to expand Centre\u2019s reach abroad and bring bits of the globe back to Danville in the name of global citizenship. Through this effort, he has had the pleasure of impacting the lives of young men and women for nearly half a decade. \u201cOne of the highlights,\u201d he told me, \u201cthis past weekend, seeing and talking with students, some of whom graduated a long time ago, and seeing what they\u2019ve done with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Reigelman\u2019s devotion to the cultivation of the intellect will not go unappreciated after his retirement in June, and will certainly manifest itself in new endeavors. He plans to write a revisionist book on Moby Dick, whose thesis will be to \u201cforget about that stupid whale and Ahab, it\u2019s not about them,\u201d and one day, he hopes his letters to Kate Middleton and Prince William will pay off by receiving a visit from them to Danville. He also wants to become a concert pianist (or at least learn to play some simple Chopin), and students will still be able to find Dr. Reigelman at Jane Barleycorn\u2019s where he will soon begin his part-time bartending career.<\/p>\n

Lastly, he requested I include a pitch for his newfound interest in becoming Centre\u2019s next basketball coach. In his own words, it reads as follows: \u201cHeretofore secretly, he is plotting. He loves and respects Greg Mason as a person and a coach, but he does covet the job. And should Greg choose to retire\u2014because, after all, he\u2019s getting on\u2014he would apply and is gathering support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY BRENNEN AMONETT – STAFF WRITER I believe a privilege of attending a small liberal arts school in central Kentucky is the community built by Centre\u2019s presence in Danville. It\u2019s safe to say that the names of Centre legends don\u2019t retire with them, and that a school of 1,400 students can feel the impact of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}