Retirements

Fine Arts Professors Leave Behind Cultural and Artistic Influences
By Jodi Fuson

The Fine Arts Division at Doane lost two long-standing art professors and a Spanish professor this year to retirement.

Assistant Professor of Spanish Christy Hargesheimer will continue to teach at Doane on a part-time basis but will share an office with an incoming visiting lecturer. Richard Terrell and Gary Martin will leave behind their teaching responsibilities but plan to continue to create art in their private studios.

Christy Hargesheimer

Christy Hargesheimer came to Doane seven years ago after teaching in the Lincoln public schools for most of her career and brief stints at the Nebraska Department of Education and Nebraska Wesleyan University.

"This was an end-of- the-career job for me," she said.

Her husband saw the Doane ad and thought it was a perfect match.

"So finally, to get him off my back, I applied, and they hired me immediately," she said.

Maureen Franklin, dean of faculty, is happy with the changes Hargesheimer made to the program during her seven-year stay.

"She built up our program, expanded the offerings in the program and expanded the countries our students travel abroad to," Franklin said.

When Hargesheimer came Spain was the primary destination for students seeking a Spanish-speaking exchange. Spain is still popular, but Hargesheimer has encouraged travel to Central and South American Spanish-speaking countries, too, such as Chile, Argentina and Panama. Hargesheimer also took students on interterm trips to Mexico, which gave non-Spanish majors an opportunity for a more guided multicultural experience.

While at Doane, Hargesheimer has helped students get acquainted with not only other countries but the Spanish-speaking community right in Crete.

"I've been real interested in helping Doane and the Crete community interact, specifically the Spanish-speaking population," she said.

Her students have helped teach evening English-as-Second-Language classes at Crete Elementary and produced a radio program in Spanish that aired locally. Hargesheimer believes these experiences enhance not only her students' language fluency but also their cultural fluency.

"If their learning is confined to the three hours in their classroom, I can't guarantee their fluency," she said.

Looking back at her decision to come to Doane, Hargesheimer said she believes it was a good fit.

"I like that autonomy that I had as to what materials I was going to use," she said.

And she liked the smaller student-teacher ratio that allowed her to interact with her students on a more personal level. Her students fondly refer to her as "La Profa."

One year, Hargesheimer used her musical and multicultural connections to bring a Cuban group to campus that was touring the United States.

That is one of her favorite memories. Part way through the concert, she and her students got up and started dancing in the aisles in Heckman Auditorium.

At the prompting of a student, Hargesheimer started Sigma Delta Pi, a National Hispanic Collegiate Honor Society. Hargesheimer hopes to continue as the sponsor of the group, which has grown from three to about 15 members.

Hargesheimer also sponsored the campus chapter of Amnesty International, a human rights group. She also sits on an national committee for the organization.

One of the things she liked about working with both groups was the opportunities students had to  develop their leadership skills, she said.

During her years at Doane, Hargesheimer, a Fulbright Scholar who taught in Chile, has had several Fulbright finalists. This year Audrey Brydl-Andrews was selected to travel to Spain to teach as a Fulbright Scholar.

"So that was kind of a crowning jewel," Franklin said.

Hargesheimer will continue to be on campus a few days a week to teach a history of human migrations honors seminar next fall and an upper-level Spanish course.

"I just didn't want to go quietly into that retirement," Hargesheimer said.

She has a few ideas for books and is working on translating an Argentine novel. Hargesheimer also hopes to find more time to focus on her musical hobbies --playing violin, fiddle, and piano and to be more active as an abuela (grandmother) to her four grandchildren.

Richard Terrell  

Richard Terrell, a professor of art who also shared his acting talents on occasion, wraps up nearly 40 years at Doane this year.

"After a while you get invested in a place and a program and you want to see it develop," Terrell said of his long tenure.

He leaves behind several works in the college's permanent art collection, which he put a lot of energy into building from 30 pieces to 300-plus. Many pieces are on display in offices, public places on campus and in the campus gallery.

Terrell came to Doane in 1970 and has since taught print making, design, drawing, painting and art history classes.

Terrell's first year at Doane, the entire art department comprised the second floor of Goodall Arts and Sciences Building.  He was one of two full-time teachers, but for a portion of the 70s was the only full-timer in the department. The art department moved into the old Whitin Library building, where it stayed until the Chab Weyers Education and Hixson Lied Art Building was completed in 2007. Now the art department occupies three floors on the west third of that building.

Terrell said the atmosphere of academic freedom and generous faculty leave policy were a big draw for him. He had three productive sabbaticals that he said were good for his development. He used the time to explore different media and to develop thematic emphasis.

Terrell also enjoyed teaching interterm courses and traveling to Italy with students four times over the years.

Terrell said he is always pleased to keep in touch with students and to hear how their art education at Doane has helped them. He'll never forget a letter he received from a non-art major who told him his whole outlook on life changed after he took one of Terrell's art history classes.

Another of Terrell's former students, Jason Codr (Class of 1995), took over teaching graphic design courses in recent years in addition to his day job as an illustrator at Sandhills Publishing.

Terrell's artistic abilities have left an impression at Doane, too. In 1987 he completed his abstract interpretation of "Stations of the Cross," which has been on exhibit both on and off campus. The mixed media images are designed to evoke emotions through color and composition, Terrell said.

He also created a one-man adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" and performed it for a People's City Mission benefit in 2001. He resurrected scenes from the play a few years ago for a Doane Christmas dinner. An especially fond memory is playing the lead role in an all-college production of "Hamlet" in 1975.

Terrell is also an author and is currently doing a major rewrite of a book he had published in 1994, "Resurrecting the Third Reich: Are We Ready for America's Modern Fascism?" In the book he explored the spiritual and intellectual foundations of the Third Reich.

Terrell looks forward to spending more time with his family and painting at his studio at the Burkholder Project in Lincoln. He also would like to try his hand at editorial cartoons, he said.

Gary Martin

Gary Martin, a 25-year Doane veteran, will continue spinning his wheels creating ceramics following retirement. His on-campus sales of his works around Christmas were a big hit over the years.

Martin said the job description in the Chronicle of Education that he saw 25 years ago was written for him. It called for someone trained in art education that could teach ceramics and build kilns.

He not only built kilns, a type of art itself, but he also built the ceramics program's 2-D and 3D offerings, including ceramics, sculpture, advanced drawing, clay tiles and jewelry making.

Martin got a late start in art, although several people, including a nun at his school, said his parents should send him to an art institute and sign him up for art lessons. After a stint in the Army, Martin returned to Illinois and took art courses and discovered his knack for 3-D art.

"Once you touch that material, there's no going back," Martin said of ceramics.

After teaching elementary, middle and high-school art, he came to Doane in 1984.

Not all students have the patience required to see art through the whole process of working the clay, throwing it, drying it, trimming it, glazing it and firing it, Martin said.

"I equate it to athletes. I told students, ‘I can show you the mechanics of how to do this, but you need to come in and practice."

Some of his favorite memories are teaching beginning pottery and working with artists-in-residence who created 8x10 murals and welding/metal work that graced the Whitin Art Building and Perry Campus Center. The artist-in-residence program allows students to watch a work in process and to gain new insights into new techniques from a different artist.

"That's the value of education, one person showing you one thing you'll need; another showing you something else," Martin said.

As for beginning pottery, he said, "When you go and grab a student's fingers and throw a pot with them, they say, ‘I didn't know I could pull or push a pot that much.' The light bulb goes on. That's the beauty of teaching beginners."

One year Martin hired students to help produce a 17-foot-by-9-foot ceramic tile mural for Noah's Assistance Dogs. Four outdoor sculptures Martin created with students (later removed to make way for the new Chab Weyers Education and Hixson Lied Art Building) were another reminder of his positive experiences working toward a successful end product.

Martin plans to continue collaborating in retirement as he works in his home studio with 1999 Doane graduate Nathan Knott.