Mary Mumbach

My main work has been in small, new Catholic liberal arts institutions with great programs (run on little money). Since 2008 I've been involved in establishing the Erasmus Institute of Liberal Arts. In 1978 I had co-founded the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, where I served as Dean and Professor of Literature for thirty years (until it drastically changed direction under a new administration). My first year of full-time teaching had been as a charter faculty member at Cardinal Newman College in St. Louis.

I spent the undergraduate years at the University of Dallas (B.A. in English, then stayed for the doctorate at the Institute of Philosophic Studies).

In our spiritedness, on the way to a game in Galveston, nobody noticed there were tornado warnings out. We Belles had a wave crash right over our bus parked at the edge of the ferry.
I especially loved the fact that we weren't ashamed of being small a lesson that made all the difference in future work. We were all taken seriously as human beings with important destinies. What a blessed reunion for me when Mrs. Villadsen and my mother discovered that Telisa and I had been living in New Hampshire only three miles apart! Telisa served for years on our Board of Trustees (and did countless tasks, so generously). I miss her up here.

No children. But, over the years, more interesting students than I can talk about (borrowed other people's children) who were dedicated to liberal arts education and attended our small, unknown institution. For instance, seven became priests (one of whom has started a line of fashion using Guatemalan fabrics that has been featured in Vogue and other publications). There's the cloistered Carmelite nun who gave up smoking the day she entered the convent more than a decade ago (drastic measure!). Quite a few teachers and professors (for instance, in Ohio, Texas, NH, New York, Rome, and China). Lawyers. Literature and philosophy majors who work in the high tech industry, even one who, with a Ph.D. in literature is now a VP at Microsoft.

All twenty-six nieces and nephews make me smile though I miss them. Most of the time I have to settle for pictures and emails while waiting to visit Texas. It was a special gift to spend longer times with the ten who came North at various times to take courses in college or high school programs on campuses where I was teaching. I tried not to persecute them too much!

Ten great-nieces and nephews.

None now. In the past, several cats, including a Maine Coon that I miss.

Reading
Surfing the web
Spending time with family and friends
Traveling

Should find one and report back. Following health news?

Have been lucky enough to teach in Rome often enough that I feel as though going there is like going home. (Should we organize a class trip?) I loved seeing Greece and France one time, but that was 28 years ago. Love NYC, not so far from NH, but haven't been there lately. Of course, trips to Orange are treasured. Coming during Christmas break!

Too many to list (and these not at all in order)! Tender Mercies, The Revolt of Job, Das Boot, Unforgiven, Adam's Apples, Iphigenia, the Gospel at Colonus, The Mission, Kagemusha, Empire of the Sun, Pulp Fiction, Amadeus, (Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Bre'r Phil would remind me if I left that one off.))

Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Faulkner's Go Down, Moses, Shakespeare's, King Lear and Tempest, Homer's Iliad, Dante's Divine Comedy, Poetry of John Donne, Toni Morrison's Beloved. Donald Cowan's Unbinding Prometheus: Education for the New Age.

Some of them, anyway.

Trying to remember.

Thinking, thinking!

Anything but a teacher: a psychologist or a medical missionary?

Learn all you can at every opportunity.
It's important to be entirely wholehearted.

Forming educational institutions. I truly believe that our approach is the right one for the future, not antiquarian but the wave of the future.

Better to follow our callings and to do all for love.