“In 1986, I took a job 983 miles (14 hours) away from my home in Wilmington, Illinois without knowing exactly what the job of assistant to the president entailed. This is not to say that job expectations anywhere precisely represent reality as you later understand. But it is not an understatement to say that the position description was intentionally vague and undefined.”
Driving across Iowa, the Nebraska, and finally into Colorado, I wasn’t thinking about my previous jobs at the College of St. Francis, Lewis University, or any other place. My focus was on Regis College, my family, and the vastness between the familiar and the foreign, the known and the unknown. Instead of Chicago, there was Omaha; in place of Braidwood was Ogallala. Landscaped evidence of civilization being congregated; now were disbursed.
What’s a Jesuit?
My new supervisor, the President of Regis College, David M. Clarke, S.J. gave me guidance and support to “do whatever you do best and bring us higher education initiatives that are financially rewarding.” Translation: develop mission-based initiatives that positively impact our budget. It was up to me to make something happen. The “whats” and “hows” were my burden.
My 20-year private higher education experience would provide a valuable framework, but my nontraditional programming spirit might threaten or agitate traditional college boundaries. It was only in the recent years that I had realized my knack for educational programming that seemed to align personal mission with a college’s hidden potential to do more.
While I had no specific blueprint or formula for Regis, presidential leadership and support would give me wide latitude for creativity and failure. It was an opportunity to evaluate the Regis landscape, find pockets for potential, and develop and initiate programs that might meet the needs of new markets. And I needed to know more about Jesuit higher education. And the Jesuits.
Expecting a Fastball, I Got a Knuckleball
Entering that first year, I expected that the pace would be hyper-speed at Regis while several non-job-related issues were also vying for attention. Three kids were starting new schools; one was finishing her last year in college; house hunting in Colorado; and selling a house in Illinois. Fortunately, I was living on campus with my roommate, son Eric, and I could dedicate many evening hours and weekends to Regis in pursuit of potential projects. In the meantime, Dolores was working at Providence High School, overseeing the Wilmington house while selling it, and pondering how this would all work out.
Within the first 5 months, the knuckleball came as the President pitched a totally different task. The Student Affairs area was going through its own turmoil and Fr. Clarke asked me to step into a squabble between the faculty and the Vice-President. Within a few weeks of assessing the situation, it was apparent that the situation would require a leadership change.
At the President’s request, I became the acting Student Affairs Vice President while also serving as the chair of a search committee for the position. I would remain in this added position until a new Vice President came on board in June 1987. During that time, I concluded that other Student Affairs house cleaning was in order. Two directors were terminated and would need replacing.
Then in November Fr. Clarke announced that he would be on a 6-month sabbatical starting in January and the Academic Vice President, Fr. Sheeran, would become the Acting President. Another change was also made: my colleague, John Brennan, was resigning as the other Assistant but would be available to me as a consultant.
To complicate the first year more, family changes were underway with the sale of our Wilmington house, purchase of a house in Arvada, furniture being moved, and my wife being relocated to Colorado in December. In January, she would start a new job in the Regis bookstore. If I were a verb, I would have been entangled in a compound, complex sentence.
Finally, in July 1987, I got the word that my mother, seemingly in good health, died in her sleep. She had visited us only a month before. Little did I know that that would be my last time to see her alive.
Why Did I Come Here?
Looming in the background of this initial year, was the fundamental reason I came to Regis in the first place: to develop educational projects that would serve to ease the College financial burdens. Most of that would simmer on the back burner while sorting out and dealing with internal and external priorities.
The good news for 1986-87 was that son, Tom, was still working at the Morris Herald-News, Jacquie graduated from the College of St. Francis in May, Bob had a successful first year academically and in baseball at Creighton, John made a positive transition as a philosophy major at Regis College, and Eric made the shift to Regis High School excelling academically and in sports. The kids seemed to be doing ok.
Although the initial year was replete with uncertainty and major adjustments, I had navigated it with moderate success and was readying for the next year. Expecting a fastball, I adjusted and hit the knuckleball. It wasn’t a home run, but, considering everything, a bloop single was an accomplishment. Fr. Clarke was back, and it was time to explore what might be possible.
Lessons Learned
One might review that first year of starting a new job, a job that was ill-defined and quickly degenerated into apparent chaos, as a calamity, a time best forgotten. After some 34 years, my take would be vastly different. Why?
- The intensity of living for 6 months in a dorm on campus provided a feel for the College that would never have been possible otherwise.
- Intimate contact with diverse elements, including faculty, staff, and leadership, was baptism by inundation and would expose me to them as a real person under extreme conditions.
- Previous job and living experiences had laid the foundation for dealing effectively with situations that were thrown at me. I was equipped to be moderately successful at the College for the next 27 years.
- My kids might take note vicariously of an example of their father managing an extreme job change.
- My wife endured far more hardships for that year than I did. Looking back on it, my gratitude and appreciation for her cannot be put into words. She didn’t call it quits when she had every right to do so.
- President Fr. Clarke’s charge to me to “bring in new programs and generate new revenue” would be realized in the future leading to several initiatives that generate a $2.5 million quasi endowment for the University.
The 14-hour, 983 mile drive from Wilmington to Denver is reminiscent of my 30-mile drive to Roncalli High School from Joliet to Aurora in 1962 as a 21-year old teacher and coach. Twenty-four years later, the travel time was different, but the enthusiasm, eagerness, and optimism were the same. No looking in the rear view mirror.
Braidwood Beginnings 
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