March 20, 2019: One hundred days until retirement, fifty days until my last class

Tomorrow starts the clock on the one hundred day countdown to retirement from Loyola and fifty days until my last exam...after fifty years in the classroom. The last twelve months have been an interesting journey and while I have generally ignored most of the unsolicited and media advice about this next stage of my life, I did try to absorb enough useful information to approach this period with gusto, not dismay. I am leaving Loyola on my terms after a long and very successful run, just as I left the dean's office almost eighteen years ago after hitting all my marks and leaving behind a record of building, accomplishment and success for the Sellinger School, most of which I can hardly recognize today. I certainly can not recognize all the junior faculty on campus. Some of them weren't yet in kindergarten when I started at Loyola and I might have had their parents -- even the grandparents of some of my current students -- in past classes. Lawrence, Kansas and KU can at times seem like a million miles and a thousand years ago, and graduation from Eden Central in June 1969, further still.