Two
retirees contribute a combined five decades to Saint Mary’s
An
open letter from Mid DePauw, upon her retirement
“Fred
Rogers wrote: ‘In every neighborhood, all across our country,
there are good people insisting on a good start for the young, and doing
something about it.’
“For 25 years I’ve loved being a part of this wonderful
neighborhood we know as Saint Mary’s College. Thank you to all
my former students as well as the sisters of Holy Cross and faculty
and staff colleagues for making these years such a blessing. My heart
is filled with so many precious memories of lives, journeys, and learnings
shared.
“I pray God will enrich Saint Mary’s and all who hold her
dear. If you’d
like to be in touch, you may reach me at DePauw
@aol.com.”
Mary
E. (Mid) DePauw, Ph.D., was director of the Counseling & Career
Development Center from 1980–2005. On the occasion of her retirement,
President Mooney said, “Dr. Mary Elizabeth DePauw is leaving Saint
Mary’s College after 25 years of dedicated service to our students
and to our community. Those who know Mid well, recognize her as a woman
of deep faith. She unabashedly professes herself to be an Irish Catholic
girl, living her life as a servant of God. She has always integrated
her clear understanding of the mission of Saint Mary’s College
as a Catholic institution into her work and into the training of her
staff.”
Friends and colleagues cited her passion for the College, her students,
and for them. DePauw presented at local and national levels on mental
health issues and taught a class for all new resident advisors and interested
student leaders on human relations. Her work supplemented the ongoing
training for student staff.
“In the final analysis,” said President Mooney, “what
really matters is the spirit of love shared in our lives. Mid has made
a lifetime of understanding this, and she has shared this spirit of
love with all of us. Mid is a teacher, a counselor, a donor, and a volunteer.
She is truly a friend to the College.”
Resident
music historian, Clayton Henderson, bids farewell
Clayton
Henderson came to Saint Mary’s a quarter of a century ago to chair
the Music Department and teach courses in musicology. He retired at
the end of this past semester.
“I
was an academic gypsy—moving every four to five years—until
I came to Saint Mary’s,” he said. “From almost the
start of my teaching here, I recognized that Saint Mary’s was
the place I wanted to stay. What makes the College special is that fortuitous
combination of things: staff, faculty, and administration committed
to making the College the best it can be for our bright, talented students
whose futures hold so much promise for us and for a civilized world.”
He joined the faculty as professor and chairman of the Department of
Music in 1980. In 1983, he became chairman of the Department of Communications,
Dance, and Theatre. He served both departments in this capacity until
1989 when he returned to full-time teaching. For the past 25 years,
he has served the College as resident music historian and as the representative
to the National Association of Schools of Music. For the non-music major
he developed such courses as American Popular Music, The Worlds of Music,
and his newest course, Folk Music U.S.A. He has taught approximately
3,000 non-music majors.
An outstanding jazz and popular music pianist, Henderson has presented
annual recitals on campus that have drawn large and enthusiastic audiences
from the greater South Bend community. An organist as well, he has served
as director of music in several area churches. Most recently he was
“Pop”
in the Saint Mary’s College production of “Gypsy”
and as “Mr. Field” in the recent premiere of Zae Munn’s
opera, “Witness.”
He is a scholar on Emma Wixom-Nevada, an opera singer celebrated in
England and throughout Europe and Russia in the late 19th century. His
next major research on Wixom-Nevada will involve work in the archives
of opera houses in England, France, Italy, and Russia. He hopes to be
able to do this over the next two to three years and publish a book
on the singer by 2009, the sesquicentennial of Wixom-Nevada’s
birth. He is also nearing completion of his extensive revisions for
the second edition of The Charles Ives Tunebook and hopes that the book
will be published in the next year or two.
Henderson’s career as a musicologist has encompassed a wide range
of scholarship and expertise. After completing his doctorate in musicology
at Washington University, he established himself as one of the preeminent
Charles Ives scholars in America. His Charles Ives Tunebook is regarded
as an indispensable tool for scholars interested in Ives and in American
music of the early 20th century. His article, “The Slippery Slopes
of Fame: Paul Dresser and the Centennial of ‘On the Banks of the
Wabash Far Away,’” was the winner of the Indiana Historical
Society’s Jacob Piatt Dunn Jr. Award for the best article in Traces
of Indiana and Midwestern History. His recent research has produced
two books, The Life and Music of Paul Dresser, and a biography of Emma
Wixom-Nevada.
