Inspired by the PBS film Over There: The Adventures of Maryland's Traveling Faculty, celebrating the European Division's 70th anniversary, OMA is seeking memoirs of the overseas experience.  We want to document this unique chapter in higher education and make sure that our stories are never lost. UMGC’s Archive shares our interest, hoping to enliven its extensive overseas records with memoirs. 

For info regarding submitting a memoir, please read the Memoir Project Guidelines.

With thanks to the dozens of members who have submitted memoirs to date, we will be adding to those below on a rolling basis:

Recently Added

Dennis Gwynn
      Times Flies  (added June 14, 2026)

Charles Krumbein
      An Unnerving Weekend     (added December 22, 2025)  

 

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MEMOIRS

Diana Ahmad
      Walking Home One Night from Class in the Western Corridor 
      A Few Snippits of My Maryland Days  
      Maryland's Impact on My Life  

Kambiz (Tommy) Akhavein
      Downrange Experience in Afghanistan

Johnnie Aldrich
      June-Dec 1977 Kenitra, Morocco

Joe Arden
      Maryland in Vietnam...Almost Full Circle
      Far Away Places With Strange Sounding Names
      Maryland in Europe & Asia: So Much the Same -- Yet, So Different
      Dangerous Decades: The 70s to the 90s
      Generally, One Never Knows  (added Oct 2, 2024) 

Larry Arnoldy
      IT and the MMIS 

Daniel Bennette
     International Students in Bahrain 

Alexander Boeringa
      Once Upon a Time in UMUC  

Paul Brewer
      Schwäbisch Gmünd – A Noble Experiment 

Charles Brumfield
     Travelling To West Berlin Through the Soviet Sector

Duncan Butts
      My Russian Destiny and UMUC 

Ralph Capio
      The Pleasure of Adjunct Teaching
      Ubiquity  

John Caruso Jr.
      Touching the Untouchable  

Mary Clawson
      I Must See Turkey & Siam: A Woman in the 20th Century  (added November 22, 2023)

Jerry Collins
      Korea: A Change for the Better
      Student Cognition
      An Unforeseen Consequence

Frank Concilus
      My Early Years with Maryland

Jim Cramer
      Adventures in Education UMUC Style 
      IBMI Japan

Douglas Dallier
     Typhoon Teaching in Okinawa Japan  

Diana Danziger
     A Base Commander Celebrated  

Edward Davis
      Memories from the Asian Division: Part 1 

Elizabeth Hawk Davis
      The Accompanying Spouse 

Leo Carson Davis
      Take Out All the Dead Things

Edmund Deaton
      Some Notes  

Michael Denison
      Munich Campus, Augsburg Campus, 1984-1992
      North Base, Sinai

Nancy Derr
      Arriving, in 1971 
      Sandbank 
      Moron and Dunoon
      Zweibrucken  
      Return to Izmir  

Patrick Dua
      A Dual Existence  

Kevin Flanagan
      Grad School on The Rock 

Daved Earl Forde
      Twenty-Two Years with UMUC in Bangkok 

Ray Fox
     The Splendid Quarter-Century

Pauline Fry
      Field Study Courses
      Tehran, Iran 1977
      A Guitar Is a Guitar in La Maddalena

Aaron Gewirtz
      Breaking the Rules
      My Introduction to UMGC
      Where is Abu Dhabi? 
      Next Stop: South Korea
      Weekend Seminars: Opportunities for Fun and Extra Income
      The Spanish Experience   
      A Somewhat Shocking Arrival in Bitburg, Germany  
      DE or Not DE? That was the question 
      A Great Collaboration  
      Farewell Email to My Students 

David Glaser
      A Maryland Moment
      Vietnam and the University

John Golembe
     Maryland's USAFE Conundrum  

Cooper Graham
      Some Notes on Life at Yokota Air Base from One of the Summer Help

Dennis Gwynn
      1976-1993 Everywhere
      Snapshots 3
      More Snapshots of Life with Maryland
      Being There
      In Trouble in Asia
      Fitting In 
      How Nice It Was  
      Tiny Badge          
      After Teaching           
      Getting Out of Dodge  (added June 17, 2024) 
      Maryland on Wheels    (added Oct 18, 2024)  
      Times Flies  (added June 14, 2026)

Julie Porosky Hamlin
      UMUC's Other Teaching Frontier 

Phylis Hanna
      Woomera - Nothing to get in your way 

Lisa Henkel
      An Unusual UMUC Commencement

Rosemary Scholl Hoffmann
      The FBI Calls on the Mediterranean Office
      Morocco's Last Stand

Stephen Holowenzak
      Memoir 1, Sketches of UMUC Life: EUROPE 1984-1998
      Memoir 2: Sketches of UMUC Life: Middle East 1988-1998
      Memoir 3: Sketches of UMUC Life: Asia, 1998-2006
      First Great White House Tour   (added July 27, 2024) 

Sharon Hudgins
      Bootstrapping Through Education
      A Personal Perspective on the UMUC Hiring Process
      Munich Campus Tours Program: Prague & the Velvet Revolution
      Weekend Seminars for Refridgerator Repairmen in Berlin

Tom Hudgins
      War & the Classroom
      European Division Study Tour: Rome & the Vatican 
      Mastering the Art of Being a Student

Talbott Huey
      UMAD Memoir

Bruce Hull
      Administration and Faculty Representatives
      The Field Study Game: An Example
      European Division: Class Visits     (added June 17, 2022)

John James
      Twenty Years of Asian Division Memories

Bruce Janoff
      UMUC Lecturers Scale Mt. Fuji
      Halfway Round the World: Kunsan, South Korea

Belden Johnson
      Our First Posting

Julian Jones
      Building International Programs in Asia
      From "Maryland" to "University of Maryland Global Campus"
      Hiring Great Teachers, Avoiding Logistical Nightmares 
      Vignettes of Teaching in Europe and Asia 
      Two Memorable Commencement Speakers in Asia  (added January 19, 2024)

Catherine Kannenberg
      Passat Possessed 

Hugo Keesing
     Karamürsel - An Assignment "with Benefits"
     From the Classroom to the Barracks

Anand Krishna
      Memories of UMUC

Charles Krumbein
      Kagnew Station -- UMUC's Secret Paradise   (added February 8, 2023)
      Thanks, UMUC   (added February 18, 2023)
      Ethiopia Still Haunts Me      (added March 27, 2023)
      You Can't Go Home Again   (added March 31, 2023)
      To Djibouti and Beyond   (added April 8, 2023)
      The Red Sea as a Time Warp   (added April 28, 2023) 
      Doing "The Splits" in a VW   (added May 7, 2023)   
      Making Papa Proud     (added May 28, 2023)
      That's the Fact, MAC!   (added July 20, 2023)  
      Greece Is the Word       (added August 15, 2023)  
      In Memory of the Marquis de Sade  (added September 6, 2023)
      Spirits in the Night        (added October 23, 2023)     
      A Modest Proposal       (added November 18, 2023)
      Fond Memories of the UMUC European Division  (added December 11, 2023)    
      Incident at Arnhem Station  (added January 15, 2024)    
      'Tis the Season       (added January 24, 2024) 
      Harsh Realities       (added March 27, 2024)   
      Blame It on Hem     (added June 18, 2024)     
      An Ocean of Opportunities, A Sea of Regrets     (added July 21, 2024) 
      In Memoriam           (added Oct 9, 2024)  
      The Julian Calendar     (added December 23, 2024)   
      Ethiopian Travel Adventure     (added March 17, 2025)  
      A Long Career               (added April 6, 2025)   
      An Unnerving Weekend     (added December 22, 2025)  

Doug Lemmon
      A UMED Basketball Story: Win-or-Go-Home

Marla Lowenthal
     First Day Teaching for Maryland in Europe

Timothy Maga
      Being an "Asia Marylander:" The Impact and Influence

Chris Mahoney
      Some Maryland Memories

Jane McHan
      A Few Thoughts About My Time at UMUC

Ralph Millis
      Colleagues, Big Daddy, and Three Marines - A Memoir   (added February 11, 2023)
      Guam But Not Forgotten  (added May 17, 2024)

Thomas Murphy
      Boxed In  

John Nolan
      Catching On: In Which I Attempt to Explain How I Got Into This! 
      Camp Leatherneck  
      The Last Field Study (So far...) 

Barbara Dow Nucci
      Palimpsest  

Patrick O'Donnell
      At Camp Greaves and Beyond   (added May 18, 2022)

Karen Olsen
      Dateline Athens, Greece June 1976
      The FACCORDs - who were we and what did we do?

Susan Opt
      UMUC, Munich and Augsburg - Campuses Like No Other

Josh Pachter
      Memories of Thirty UM Years

James Paris
      Ein Herz Gefuhlt in Heidelberg

Melanie Ruark Paris
      Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren

Wayne Pelke
     A Rude Awakening

Kate Pulling
      A Career Change

Jenny Quillien
     Maryland and El Duende

Alex Randall
      I Should have figured it out
      The Aata of D'nalyram

Michael A. Reiter
      A Life-Altering Experience

Stephen Richards
      The UMUC Foreign Language Program in Europe and Downrange
      Hemingway in Kuwait and Hairdo in Djibouti
      The Abrams Building, Frankfurt
      A Different Perspective on Teaching Downrange 

Ron Roman
      UMUC/UMGC Journey

Rodney Romig
     Three-legged Stool

Ron Schlundt
      The Faculty Advisory Committee

Gina Schmidt-Phillips
      My First 20 Years with the European Division 
      Responding to Government RFPs                 
      Maryland's Administration Offices in Europe  

Kathryn Seidel
      The Dean Mother: Elinor Seidel's Legacy to UMGC  

Serge Shewchuk
      How Quickly Time Flies ...or... Blowin in the Wind 1966-1979

Jeff Simons
     Free Fallin'    

Norris Smith
      UMUC/UMGC Memoir

Cord Scott
      My Time with UMUC/UMGC

Gene Stong
      Building a Library in the Asian Division

Forrest Studebaker
      Block Filling and New Career Challenges
      Fire and Ice

Greg von Lehman
     Asian Division Recollections 

David Walczak
      Comprehensive Study Tour: Improving the Quality of Teaching
      Field Study Promotion

Mariagrazia Walker
      The Ocean Was Our Lab

Claudine Weatherford
      It All Started When...
      A Tribute to a Field Rep Extraordinaire

Terry Wegner
     My Life Is a Suitcase

Scott Wiley
     Book Ends

Faith Williams & Bob Conquest
      UMUC For Two  

Lucia Worthington
      Japan Orientation - Global Nomad with a Mission
       Korea - Global Nomad with a Mission
      European Division - Global Nomad with a Mission
       Online Pioneer - Global Nomad with a Mission

Nick Zoa
      Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni
      Harold E Holt Naval Communications Station, Australia
      Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
       Yokota Air Base - Term V, 1982 
      Yokota Air Base - End of Term V, 1982 
       Teaching in Xian, China 
       Iraklion Air Station 
      Afghanistan