June 5, 2019: Last 'lecture'

Not in a class and not really a final lecture, but my final opportunity to make remarks to the university community -- including the president -- at the event celebrating years of service to and retirement from the university. One of my better, prouder moments.

Bene merenti retirement ceremony

Leaving Loyola after almost 25 years -- starting July 1, 1996 and leaving June 30, 2019 for two more years of an effectively paid sabbatical (or simply a two-year buy out of my tenure) -- was much easier but also much later than I had expected it to be. The girls in expensive private or out-of-state school kept me in the clutches of Loyola, even as my satisfaction soured, with lazy, inept and overpaid administrators, pre-woke political correctness, and an anti-business culture that infected Loyola.

It was good for most of the time it lasted and my quip -- that the best job on campus was (former) business dean -- served me well since I "stepped down" from that post in June 2001. Eighteen years later I had about fifteen satisfying years under my belt and found a most opportune time and opportunity to leave with salary and benefits maximized, including four free-tuition years for Jane at Marquette, worth about $150,000 after-tax dollars. Gaby had an opportunity from Loyola Marymount -- a tuition scholarship worth over $180,000 after-tax dollars, but she wisely spurned it for thew challenge and glory of UCLA, just seven miles up the freeway from Tim Snyder's LMU.