MEMORY BOOK ENTRY – Ed Kropa

After leaving Kenyon I enrolled in the Ohio State mathematics graduate school.  I remember watching Kennedy’s Cuban Missile Crisis speech in a tiny restaurant on a flickering b&w TV.  The next year Bob Dudgeon and I got together and rented an apartment in north Columbus.  Bob had started in math at Case Western and transferred.  As a residual of Sputnik, OSU undergraduate was requiring ROTC or a math class at the college algebra level or higher.  To deliver the class to a large number of students, lectures were done via closed circuit TV to multiple classrooms.  Graduate student types were in the rooms to answer questions following lectures.  Early on the camera was set up in the back of the room to shoot the blackboard.  Soon the camera was moved to the the ceiling and the lecturer wrote on acetate like used for overheads – a big improvement as the camera didn’t have to move to follow the topic.  Little did we know but Bob and I experienced very early distance learning.

We drove to JFK’s funeral, leaving when the radio went to classical music at midnight.  I suspect the lack of a television prompted our seeking a way to be more involved in the event.  We got there in time to get on the route to the funeral and watched that phalanx of world leaders march by.  I remember Charles de Gaulle a half step ahead on the front row.  The memory of that riderless horse still gets to me – it seemed the horse wanted to get loose to run and exhaust itself in anger.

Just as the procession came into view, windows opened up behind us and one couldn’t help but think the worst.  Our coats were bulky enough we could have had weapons underneath – we were never checked.

Once the procession passed we walked to Arlington and while we weren’t able to get close enough to see the ceremonies, we happened to be standing where we were split by officials making a path for the Senate to get to their place.  Seems like we could hear pretty well.

I got a teaching job in late summer the next year at The College of Saint Mary’s of the Springs (now Ohio Dominican) and did that for a year or two and came to believe the wisdom of that saying “If you can’t teach, administrate” and moved over to Admissions.  Financial Aid was were I thought I should be but that spot was blocked so I started looking and ended up at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa where I did Financial Aid, Admissions and Registrar in several combinations for 43 years retiring at commencement May of 2011, with the title of Registrar Emeritus.

I met my future wife at OSU through somebody Bob knew – the old fix up business.  My first year in Iowa she taught elementary art for a year in Troy, Ohio and we were married the next summer (1968).  She was able to get an elementary art position in Mount Pleasant that fall so that worked out well and gave us a good start during the DINK years.  I guess you could say we simply grew where we were planted – I got pulled into community betterment projects and boards – she became an appreciated artist and teacher, illustrated and wrote books for an educational publisher.  I am most proud of my involvement with saving the empty in-town, art deco high school building and its jewel box auditorium and refurbishing it for new public library and community center space.  Two boys successfully launched.