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Hey! I got off of Facebook years ago. Good to see, thank goodness, you're still in Mexico Beach. I thought of you and prayed many times when the hurricane hit a few yrs ago. eenickleget@hotmail.com Drop a line someday. Cheers! --Eliza

I remember you Bill, primarily as VP in charge of the Asian Division. But, we met briefly in Singapore before that. You resigned, Susan replaced you and proceeded to drive the AD into the ground. I retired July 31, 2014 and moved on to other things. I'm pretty old, but still hanging in, partying a bit and working out at the gym 5 times a week. Am in Bangkok at the moment, still feeling the effects of the Halloween celebrations last night. I sincerely hope you are doing well!

Tom was highly intelligent and loved to tease colleagues.  He didn't understand he sometimes went too far and offended people.   Dan Curzon Brown described him as a "perfectly adjusted person."  I told Tom once, "nothing embarrases you," which he seemed to like.  Tom was at his best during his two years in the early 1980s with the European Division; he rented a house in a German village where he entertained Marylanders including me.  Later Tom visited  me in the U. S.  but wound up telling me not to bother visiting him in Venice, Florida.  For me Tom remains a puzzle.  Sincerely,  John Cabell Breckinridge (Jack) Calbert.

Wish I had known Pat Quinn was in touch with Tom Jackson. In the late 70s, Tom played touch football with George Sydney, Jim Vickery, me, and other Marylanders. In the 80's, he was at Osan and a few of us had some good times there as well. The only other Colgate alumnus I've run into with Maryland, Tom was an interesting, knowledgeable and humorous guy. Rest in Peace, Tom.

When Exchanges cease – inexplicably

One day in 1997 when an offer from our Heidelberg Headquarters asked that I participate in an online training for the UMUC Distance Education program, I had no idea what this meant for the future of my standard teaching methods. But once the curtain unfolded for the training to begin, I soon felt that I was in good company, given the large number of UMED colleagues (both known and unknown) who happened to be on the list of participants. As the training proceeded, the names of a number of colleagues immediately registered as reference points on the WebTycho platform, above all, on account of their active and incisive inputs. One such colleague was Warren Johnson, located at Augsburg in Bavaria, as those of you from our first group of European DE faculty might recall. From 2004 until June 2012 our so-called MdFF community grew and transformed into a seasoned marketplace catering to the concerns and teaching interests of the Europe DE faculty. Our individual  postings, opinions, meme identifiers  – whether on education, politics, international affairs or social issues – mapped us out as distinct digital natives. The forum helped to create familiar, and at times, predictable individuals, always engaged in vibrant conversations as a group with each other. Warren was always a key asset in all directions of the various discussions.

One fascinating thing about this was that a lot of us on the MdFF list never personally met, nor were we ever personally to meet, one another. If I am not mistaken, MdFF stood for Maryland Faculty Forum; and Bruce Hull was one of the care-takers. As commonly known, later developments made it necessary for the forum interactions to cease at some point in 2012. But some of us continued afterwards to interact with one another every now and then via email or other forms of social media. Warren and myself were engaged in email exchanges beginning from the early 2000s. Later on, our conversations mostly involved our mutual interests in the DE mentoring program, grassroots news and other happenings in Germany.

Sometime in 2013 before Term II started, Warren wrote he had noticed that I was listed for an evening course at an Ed Center in Stuttgart where he was also scheduled to teach that term. We were both thrilled, because it meant we were going to be meeting each other in person for the first time. On the first day of class, I arrived at the school parking lot long before Warren. When he arrived, he immediately saw me standing nearby and waved to me… What I was not aware of: Warren was wheelchaired. But, he worked himself – with obvious ease - out of his specially adapted van. That maneuver sent out an instinctive signal to me that nothing could subdue the fun and joy of our first encounter.

Being in a wheelchair tends to prompt sympathy in people. There is also an assumption that being wheelchaired implies disability, and hence, incapacity or challenges to negotiate mobility issues. But, like most of us UMED folks, travel had always been a major part of Warren’s teaching career in Europe. And, as far as I could surmise, Warren had overcome any possible impediments in his background with aplomb. Break time was when I visited him downstairs to have a brief chat. His mood, accompanied by his vintage laughter upon seeing me, was always contagious.

At long last, our courses finished when the term came to an end. As I stood in the final wintry night, seeing Warren take off and disappear on his long way back to Augsburg from Stuttgart, I became instantly convinced of the resilience of spirit and the power of human will. It revealed also to me the complexity of some of Warren’s thoughts as I had come to recognize over the years. Being on the teaching trail together with Warren in Term II of 2013 was the first and last time I saw him. It’s never too late to mourn or brood over the passing of a dear one or friend. The last time I tried to contact Warren was during the first weeks of the pandemic in 2020 when much of Germany was on lockdown. For the first time, I received no response. Now, I know why. Without my knowledge, he was no more, having passed away in the previous year.

Warren, definitely, would appreciate me sharing parts of our very last exchange with you below. I think it is deserving of his memory. In a way, his few words here testify to his integrative disposition and the kind of person he really was…

Oh wow, dear Warren!

I just found out that you are also present on the OMA website. I posted something on the "Colleagues Forum" sometime ago and never revisited until today. You can't believe how often I have reflected about you, ever since we all became so orphaned by UMUC Europe. Well, my own separation (of course, not self-imposed) was in March 2014 when I concluded my very last course in Stuttgart. It was in the same building where Ron Taubitz, you and me found ourselves last time.

I hope you've been doing fine.

Carry on blessed!

*****

Hi Patrick,

How nice to hear from you!  I, too, left UMUC in 2014.  Retired in August, having taught 40 years, and that was enough. 

It was hard to tell who was more delighted about my retirement -- me or my wife.  I am sorry to say, before Spring was over I lost her. The immediate cause was an embolism. The underlying cause was a brain tumor.

Orphaned in Europe is right.  But we persevere, don't we?

All the best to you and your family,

Warren

*****

Dear Warren, hi there again!

Very sorry to hear about your loss. I count it as somewhat comforting that it occurred after your formal retirement from UMUC. At least it enabled you, I assume, to devote a certain degree of precious time with her together, prior to the inevitable departure. May she rest in peace. [………]

*****

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for your kind words.  In truth, there's never enough precious time, no matter how much time you spend together.  Shortly after we got married, a sociologist, waxing eloquent, insisted that marriages are doomed to failure if the couple come from different cultures, speak different languages, and observe different faiths.  At least once a year, we jokingly asked, "Is it time yet?"  It never was time.  In the hospital, a priest administered the last rites.  At her funeral, a minister my wife picked out had the last words. Prominent in his words were those of a Muslim who celebrated Thanksgiving with us when he first came to America almost 50 years ago and remembered my wife as one of the kindest persons he ever met.

As for UMUC, I gambled and got a payout, and completely turned my back on teaching or, to nab the words of Chief Joseph, "I shall profess no more, forever." Naturally, with the Mad Hatters in the White House I vow gets broken from time to time in order to inspire informed opinions.  

[……………]

We are lucky, we survived a lifetime of teaching and kept our dignity.

All the best, my friend,

Warren

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May He Rest In Peace

We've been everywhere...