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I lived in Collegeville, MN at St. John's University (SJU). This was my sophomore year, and I lived in the graduate student housing in a single room in Joe Hall, on the second floor. There were a couple of small single rooms for underclassmen. There was a nice small space right by my door where I could park my bike. It was nice not to be in a traditional dorm with its associated noises. This year, I could focus on going to sleep at 10 or 10:30 and get up and have devotions in my room without being bothered or bothering anyone else. There were several nuns that I got to know over the course of the year, and they were very friendly. There were also a few male graduate theology students who were not on the priest track.
After my spring freshman year, when I had taken Foundations of Mathematics, I decided I liked mathematics much more than physics. This led me to decide on mathematics as a major (as opposed to engineering as I initially thought), but I didn't declare this formally until some time in my sophomore year. In my senior (junior?) year in high school, Marcia and I had team-taught a Sunday School class at the Methodist church at which she had grown up. I enjoyed that, and I knew that Marcia was pursuing teaching at the elementary level. Additionally, both of my parents (and my mother's parents) were teachers. My conclusion was that at least to get started with my mathematics degree, I could become a high school teacher. Thus, as I chose classes for my sophomore year, I looked at the requirements for a secondary education endorsement and started taking those courses. I also knew that having a coaching endorsement might help me to get a job, and I had an interest in possibly coaching soccer, so I also looked at the courses needed for coaching. To that end, the first three and last course below were chosen from this mindset. The two math courses were chosen because one was required and the other an optional elective. The Hebrew was for fun.
Both of my mathematics classes happened to be taught at the College of St. Benedict's (CSB) and by the same professor, St. Jane Igers (I believe that was her name). The Math Analysis seemed like a natural extension to my freshman calculus sequence. The Geometry was a more abstract course, and some got it, and some didn't. I wasn't always fully confident in my professor's grasp of the content. I noticed that another student in the class and I often asked clarifying questions (since we had both read the material beforehand and saw some fuzzy issues being presented). I became friends with this other person, and his name was Marvin McDonald (who was a psychology major and a math major). The Hebrew class was taught by an older monk, but he seemed to know things quite well. The two education courses just seemed like grind work where I had to jump through hurdles. Nothing stands out. No comment for the other two classes, since I don't recall much.
One comment that I recall about my Math Analysis class. For some reason, one time I didn't finish all the homework problems that I was asked to turn in. I wrote something in the area that I had left blank, similar to the following: "I didn't get to these problems, but it probably doesn't matter since you likely don't look at all the questions." Now, looking back, I am embarrassed to have written such a callous comment. She wrote back underneath my note, "Yes, I do." That was embarrassing. I believe that I apologized to her.
In my freshman year, I had a semester of Greek and chose my January term course to be an independent project to build on that. This fall, I took a Hebrew course (only 1 credit), and I decided to take another independent course by working with my Hebrew professor on translating part of Genesis. This was more difficult for me since I had only had a 1-credit course and hadn't mastered as much, but the J-term did reinforce some of my Hebrew understanding.
I have alluded to some thoughts about this elsewhere, but I will try to briefly summarize my thoughts. I started out with the goal of doing engineering since I was always good at and enjoyed both mathematics and science. But in the spring of my freshman year, I took a course called Foundations of Mathematics. The content of this course was so different from what I had ever had. It was much more abstract, and we hardly ever talked about applications of these mathematical ideas, but they were interesting and intriguing on their own merit. I thoroughly enjoyed abstract mathematics, and I was good at understanding it in a natural way. This seemed exciting to do more and I so I chose to major in mathematics. Eventually, when I worked on my doctoral degree, my speciality was in the broad area called abstract algebra.
The two PE courses were needed for my coaching endorsement. The education course was required for the secondary education endorsement. Linear Algebra was required, and Mathematical Statistics was an elective that fit into my schedule and sounded interesting.
My Linear Algebra class I found quite easy. I had the same professor at CSB that I had for two courses in the fall. I enjoyed this material, probably setting the disposition I had the next year for a quasi-related course. I really liked the Mathematical Statistics I course, but probably the professor more so than the content. While I did enjoy the content, it (and the second semester) was likely the hardest course that I had as an undergraduate. However, the professor was amazing. His name was Dr. Robert Dumonceaux (Dr. D). He would talk about his kids and his pigs (sometimes in the same sentence). He might stand on a chair to make a point. He was engaging and interesting, and wanted us to understand. Thanks, Dr. D. I enjoyed the education course and tried to pay attention. I also found the FORTRAN course interesting. I found the Principles of PE interesting for another reason. See The Uniqueness of my Principles of PE course if you are curious why.
In my freshman year, I had a full year of New Testament Greek. Since 1965, St. John's was the home for an affiliated library called the Hill Monastic Microfilm Library (HMML - later renamed to what shows up on the link). This library has many documents of ancient manuscripts in many different languages, one being Greek. I am not sure of the logistics, but someone at HMML must have contacted a Greek professor to see if any students could type up some library cards and other documents that needed an understanding of Greek (actually, just a bare understanding of the alphabet was needed). I qualified, and I must have been recommended, because they asked for me. I decided that was more interesting than working in the Admissions office, so I turned down the latter in favor of the former. I used an IBM Selectric typewriter that had a ball that I could mount on the typewriter for Greek and switch to English when needed. Quite slick. One of the current scholars at the time was an Ethiopian expert named Getatchew Haile. Besides having many Ethiopian contributions, he also had some Greek contributions. (I only did the latter.) Later, I read a really interesting book entitled Held at a Distance by his daughter, whom I sometimes saw come in to visit him after school. I really enjoyed this job (and I got paid for it).
The job above was part of my formal financial aid package, but during the January term, there was an option to work extra hours at the St. John's Liturgical Press, the publishing house for St. John's Abbey. I think I learned about this from a friend in class in the fall, Marvin McDonald. This was the only time in my life that I actually used a formal punch card to clock in and out. I just did grunt work of many different sorts. It probably paid minimum wage, but I need to save for the upcoming wedding and other things, so I worked while I had extra time during January. The stench of the printing ink was very bad and it didn't feel good in my lungs.
As indicated above, I was able to park my bike in my dorm. I tried to frequently ride, but usually just on local roads.
I still hitchhiked into St. Cloud. I would then often get a ride after church on Sunday night back to campus. What generous people there were to do so.
Some time during this year, I got involved with an ecumenical gathering in the old quadrangle once a week of other students and priests who had a common view of praising God in song and word. Two of the priests that I met there I invited to come to my wedding at the end of the semester.
For one of my spring classes, I needed to spend time observing school classrooms and I was connected with Albany High School. Additionally, with Marcia and I about to be married in early June, we needed a vehicle. Therefore, during my January term, we did some looking for cars. One Saturday, we bought a Gremlin. What could go wrong with a model like that? (See details for how that came about and worked out.)
In the fall, as mentioned above, I was in a class with Marvin and sometimes we road the bus back to St. John's after class. One time in the latter part of the semester he asked me if I was making plans for the summer. I told him that I was applying for a job as a contractor. You can read more about this conversation here. FORTHCOMING
Published 2026-07-29.
If you find any errors in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail.com. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]