Retirements
 Richard
Creel
I began teaching in the Department of Philosophy and Religion
in 1969 and am now living in Fairfax, Virginia, with my wife,
Diane, who is the coordinator of academic assessment for Northern
Virginia Community College, which has five campuses and 60,000
students. My vigorous, unselfish efforts to convince Diane to
keep working during my retirement have failed, so in June we will
both retire and buy a home on the Gulf coast in Biloxi, Mississippi,
my hometown. It has beautiful beaches, great fishing, numerous
golf courses, and big live oaks draped with moss. (Ya'll come
visit!) There, Diane will immerse herself in the needlework she
loves so much, I will continue to read and write on topics in
philosophy and religion, and together we will visit family, tour
the United States, and cook shrimp, oysters, speckled trout, and
flounder. I will also try to relearn how to throw a mullet net.
While at IC, I served several times as chair of the philosophy
and religion department. I also served as chair of the College's
Long-Range Planning Committee on Academic Organization and Campus
Governance (1970-72), vice president and president of the New
York State Philosophical Association (1970-74), and faculty member
on IC's board of trustees (1983-86). I was invited to attend three
NEH summer seminars and two NEH summer institutes. I have published
numerous articles and three books: Religion and Doubt (Prentice
Hall, 1977; 2nd ed., 1991), Divine Impassibility (Cambridge
University Press, 1986), and Thinking Philosophically (Blackwell
Publishers, 2001). This past fall I wrote a paper, "Perfect Being
Ethics," for the Society of Philosophy of Religion. I consider
it wonderful to have worked for so many years with such bright,
devoted, and productive colleagues.
 Earl
McCarroll
Having acted and directed professionally in New York regional
theaters and major Shakespeare festivals, I came to IC in 1971
from Duke University, where I had been director of drama. Since
the Bard had been absent from the College seasons for some 20
years, I began a Shakespeare workshop and directed a lavish Merchant
of Venice in the four-year-old Hoerner Theatre. Thirteen of
the 30 plays I directed at IC were by Shakespeare; two were selected
to be staged at the regional American College Theater Festival.
With Leslie Bennett from the School of Music, I began an opera-musical
theater workshop, which grew and split into the two workshops
now offered. In addition to the College's annual musical, there
has been an annual opera for the last 20 years. I restructured
the actor-training program into its current configuration and
team-taught a workshop in contemporary German drama, culminating
in a stunning Marat/Sade. In 1983 I received a Dana fellowship
for outstanding teaching, and I have worked with IC students in
countless productions.
For several years I was artistic director of the State Shakespearean
Theater of Maine, where IC students worked each summer, some receiving
their Equity cards. CCH Pounder '75, Polly Pen '76, and Laverne
Light '42 were there, and so was lighting designer Paul Gallo
'74, who had his first professional position. On extended sabbatical,
I played Chaucer in Canterbury Tales on Broadway, toured
with John Raitt in Carousel and Shenandoah, and
directed Scott Bakula off-Broadway in The Hope Chest by
Robert Johanson '73. After creating the role off-Broadway of Bronte
in Masterpieces, by Arthur Bicknell '73, I directed the
play at IC. I am now living in New York City and Milford, Pennsylvania,
with my partner of 20 years, John DiLeo, whose second book will
be published in May. I left my library and a large part of my
heart with the Department of Theatre Arts, the Hangar and Kitchen
Theatres, the School of Music, and the Ithaca Opera.
 David
McKeith
I have found a redemptive quality to retirement, in the sense
that I am able to focus on reacquainting, and newly acquainting,
myself with rituals that both anchor and enrich. Perhaps this
is a universal urge in the last chapters of one's life. For me,
whether it be the routine of daily writing, weekly academic workshop,
preying on salmon in Fall Creek, evenings in the kayak, stacking
winter's firewood, or canning seasonal foods, these and more are
structuring my post-employment life in entirely satisfying ways.
And as the annual engagement with traditions of winter solstice
come, I realize that the American psyche, smothered by veneers
of control and accountability, suffers from the absence of just
that, time for redeeming ritual. I'll not teach again. But I continue
to be warmed by a host of good memories of campus friends, colleagues,
and quality students. With a lifetime of reading into the human
experience, I continue to be drawn to writing historical fiction.
For the length and width of good health, I intend to reside in
Ithaca. I'm quite busy with much writing, and I'm taking a poetry
workshop with an Ithaca poet, intense with homework and much pleasure.
The salmon are spawning in the lake's tributaries, and my kayak
is still calling me despite the cold weather. [McKeith, who wrote
this piece late last fall, taught early American history and the
history of environmental thought in the history department. He
helped develop the environmental studies major. --- Ed.]
 J.
Fred Pritt
My 39 years at Ithaca College began with a call from George Hoerner
asking if I would come to Ithaca for an interview. I was at Camp
A. P. Hill at the time, doing my annual two weeks of army reserve
training. To answer Hoerner's call, I was taken to a phone booth
standing alone in an empty pasture. The surreal is sometimes most
real. At the time my choices were being one of 22 public-speaking
teachers using the same syllabus at Penn State or going to Ithaca
College to be part of the invention and growth of a speech and
theater program. I am proud to have watched the Department of
Theatre Arts mature into one of the premier undergraduate professional
theater programs in the nation.
Development of the College in the early '60s had the quality
of a Wild West show. Thanks to that sense of possibilities, we
ran a nine-week, eight-show stock theater for the College ---
the Vineyard Theatre --- for five summers on Martha's Vineyard.
The Players began as an idea of two students but owed its creation
to Howard Dillingham, who, after listening to a presentation,
penned a note to the College treasurer: "Give Fred what he needs."
Next was the College-supported Festival Theatre, the precursor
of the Hangar Theatre.
I created a number of new courses over the years. I've heard
it said that if you really want to understand something, teach
it. In my experience, there are excitement and truth in that statement.
Now, what to do with retirement? As most of us have discovered,
our activity depends largely on how well we are able to say no.
What is happening in my department remains of interest. Noticing
former students every day on television, the stage, or in movies
reminds me that I am a continuing part of my field.
 Imre
Tamas
I began my career at Ithaca College in 1969 and will retire this
spring. As a plant physiologist in the biology department, I have
taught courses in my specialty and conducted a research program
that involved students. The past three decades have seen significant
progress in the department, and it has been my privilege to contribute
to departmental programs on many levels. Over the years I have
directed the research of hundreds of students. Working with them
has been one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling aspects of my
time at the College. Many students distinguished themselves in
their efforts and became coauthors, while still undergraduates,
of some of my published research papers. I have also presented
over three dozen reports at national and international meetings,
many of these also with student coauthors.
For the past 10 years I coordinated the student-exchange program
for summer research with the Agricultural Biotechnology Center
in Godollo, Hungary, an enriching educational and cultural experience
for Hungarian and Ithaca College students alike. In addition,
the conception, design, and construction of the plant-growth facility
in the Center for Natural Sciences required several years of sustained
effort. I engaged nationally recognized experts on controlled-environment
laboratories as consultants and participated in the design of
the various components, including the growth rooms, the greenhouse,
and the plant-tissue-culture room. My time at Ithaca College has
been enjoyable and rewarding. What a marvelous place to work!
I leave this outstanding institution with warm memories of my
students and all my colleagues.
 Steven
R. Thompson
After 34 years of teaching biology at Ithaca College I can say
that I particularly enjoyed working with IC students and still
believe that is what initially attracted me here. I am pleased,
too, with my time as department chair, a phase of my career when
I was able to help solidify the development of a first-class biology
department. Together, my colleagues and I built a course of study
that is a model for under- graduate science studies. We also brought
in new faculty to join us and carry on our program, and in the
early 1990s we developed a fantastic science facility, the Center
for Natural Sciences. Now it is time for the "new" folks to take
over and for me to pursue other interests. In addition to slowing
down the pace of my life, spending more time with my wife, Miriam,
and planning some travel, I am attempting to make all my neighbors
jealous by enhancing my landscaping and gardens. And I continue
searching for vintage fountain pens. As many of my colleagues
and students know, I am never without a pen in my pocket, and
I haunt local antique stores, flea markets, and estate sales for
old pens, which I restore and add to my collection. I am also
working on a history of my family and have traced one branch back
to Sir Raulfe Risley, who lived during the reign of Henry III.
One member of the family, Richard Risley, came to this country
in 1633 and was one of the founders of Connecticut. Finally, I
look forward to volunteering in the community and to reacquainting
myself with my fly rod and hitting the local trout streams.
Photo of David McKeith by Maura Stephens
Photo of J. Fred Pritt by Jon Crispin |
