Nostalgic Moments
Posted Friday, November 18, 2016 06:40 PM 

   When it comes to our common UMUC-ED history, I think there is plenty to be nostalgic about. Details of the past which have influenced and shaped our professional lives are like a theme park that we feel compelled to revisit, each time by a different entrance. This is the conclusion I draw from our recent Heildelberg get-together. It was indeed one such entrance. The years 1989/1990, I believe, drew a line of demarcation between the past of UMUC-ED, on the one hand, and the trajectory of its future – including the relationship of all of us to UMUC-ED on the other. During most of the 1990s, there were widespread fears among colleagues - brought to bear in various conversations - that the end of the Cold War and the emergence of German re-unification would lead very soon to the end of UMUC-ED operations in Germany. It is true: fear is normally more vivid than hope; and the 1990s indeed entered a dramatic phase. Yet, as realistic as such predictions might have been, it is worth-while noting that it took almost two decades and a half for the eventuality of the actual operational eclipse of the ED to come full-cycle. In any case, by 1999 and the turn of the century, I had, on my part, taught at a total of 63 Ed Centers scattered all over Germany and the Benelux. (This, to be sure, sounds like a lot of places I had the chance to commute to. However, Wikipedia lists the number of US military installations that ever existed in Germany as having amounted to a total of 216 including the few that are still in operation). I assume about 90 percent or more of those bases hosting the ED Centers were no longer in existence by 1999!

Here are a few photo excerpts from my nostalgic Dictionary…

They show some memorable Commencement and classroom events stretching specifically over the end of the 1980s and the immediate period thereafter… Excuse the poor quality of some of the images. I have had to scan them for posting here…. Finally, I wish to remind that a few of the photos appearing below depict some of our dear colleagues and friends who have departed in the meantime. May their souls rest in peace!

The scene here shows my December 1990 morning class at the North Point(Kriegsfeld) Ed Center (does anyone else remember that tiny dot in the middle of nowhere?...). This was a small base with, I was told, a total of 90 military personnel. The base was slated to be closed down by the end of the term I was teaching there. From the classroom window I could witness a few troops dismantling a monstrously huge parabolic antenna. I was told the entire unit was to be relocated with all their gear to Kuwait in order to participate in the First Gulf War (aka Operation Desert Storm) and not return to Germany ever after… And so it turned out to be! [NorthPoint, Dec1990]

The scene displayed above was my first and last class at the Aschaffenburg Ed Center in May 1989. That base was closed down a few months later. Of course, news about the mounting cascade of base closures always came at the price of one’s peace of mind. [Aschaffenburg, May1990].

This scene here catalogs my very last class at the Stuttgart Army Airfield. After this ‘lunch class’, my next schedule to rush to was an evening class at the Ramstein Airbase – a distance of roughly 200 ks or 3 hrs apart, yup: those were the days of the monster commutes; yet we sensed a strong obligation to make it; always on time! [Stuttgart Army Airfied, March 1990]

This is a pre-commencement boat-ride scene of 1989. The person with the outstretched arm is Joe Arden making a point. On his left is James Taylor.

Commencement 1989: Fabian Schupper on the right

Commencement 1989: Ron Schlundt is getting robed

Commencement 1989

Commencement 1989: Ron Schlundt, Bob Hollweg

Commencement Scene 1991: Bob Hollweg, Paul Rose

Commencement Scene 1990: Jane McHan, LeAnn Cragun [+]

Joe arrives with guests to kick off Commencement 1992

Commencement 1994: Patricia and Joe Shapiro

Commencement 1995 - On the right: David Glaser, John Floyd [+]

Commencement 1995: Manfred Deckert and Patricia

Commencement 1995: Paul Phillips & LeAnn Cragun [+]

1999 Classroom Scence at Campbell Bks High School in Heidelberg featuring Patrick Dua and H Schwarzkopf. I was hijacked from my own class next door to have a free drink with Hartmut and his students. This was Schwarzkopf's last engagement with UMUC-ED. After this class, he sent himself off to retirement.

Mannheim Campus: a restaurant scene from the rice-and-salmon eat-out of Mondays

Mannheim Campus: Patrick Dua; {?}; Diane Jones-P; Paula Harbecke

Mannheim Campus - Faculty Meeting - one year before Campus closure in 2005: Dean Mary Fiedler (table head); on her left side: Allan Pepper, Ron Taubitz, Terri Dangel, {?}, Brian Cann. William Gardiner is seen on the left of photo. Sorry, I can't identify the rest...