Margaret Church
On the ride up the elevator to the Archives at Purdue my hands start sweating in anticipation of what I will find when the doors finally open. I have reserved MSF 74, the only folder they have on her. I step out of the elevator and reach the front desk at the Archives. “Uh, hi,” I say awkwardly to the person behind the desk. It’s my first time to the Archives; I’m not quite sure how things are run here. “You’ll need to fill this out and put all your things in a locker except a notebook and pencil,” the person informs me with a smile. “Okay,” I reply and proceed to fill out my information and put my book bag in an empty locker. Then I take a seat and one of the archivists brings out a folder and places it on the table in front of me. I could have sworn it glowed under the fluorescent lights and angels sang at its arrival. This is it, I thought, let’s see what all I can learn about Margaret Church.
The first papers in the folder were old English test booklets from when she was in college. Flipping through those there wasn’t much information to gather, just little notes taken down during the test. Next, I think, looking for something that I can really learn a lot about her from. I find a typed paper written by her, and I begin reading. This is what I have been looking for, I think, smiling to myself.
On the bottom of the typed paper Church had written “I wrote this for my 40th reunion yearbook. You may like to read it. –M” (MSF 74). She may have written that about 30 years ago, but it was like she meant it for me. Reading through the page Church describes all she has done after high school, her degree from Radcliffe, work as an English professor, and finally her time at Purdue University (MSF 74).
She writes about her experience teaching at two universities, but admits “Purdue and Lafayette, however, were to be [her] destiny” (MSF 74). Here at Purdue she wrote many articles and book reviews, wrote her second book and started a third (Bess). She earned many titles during her career, like editor of an English journal on campus, which is now extremely popular (MSF 74). More impressive than the titles she was able to list on her resume, though, is the personal connections she made while at Purdue.
She writes heartfelt descriptions about Purdue, describing it as more than just a school she teaches at, but a home. She came to Lafayette, Indiana in 1953, with her “car and trunk piled high with almost all [her] belongings” and lived and taught in Lafayette for almost 30 years (MSF 74). During that time Lafayette truly became her home.
Her colleagues say about Church that “she was a fan, a preseason rooter for Purdue’s basketball team, [and] a season-long optimist about its football team” (Bess) This same enthusiasm she had for sports and her other leisure activities, her colleagues reveal “she brought to her students and to her writing” (Bess). Teaching was obviously a passion of Church’s since she did it for so long and she even gives credit to one of her classes in the preface of her second book, Don Quixote: The Knight of La Mancha for coming up with some of the ideas discussed in the book during class discussions (Don Quixote). Others that knew her have only good things to say in her memory, claiming that she “became a role model” in her field (Bess).
Having finished reading all the papers in MSF 74, I delicately close the folder and tell one of the archivists that I’m done. She smiles and takes the folder away as I go to the door and take the better part of an hour trying to open it. There is dead silence in the archives except for my knee banging against the tiny door. After my escape, I limp to the lockers and get my bag. Geez, I think, I learned a lot about Margaret Church, but that door is definitely something I won’t be forgetting any time soon. On the ride down the elevator I try to ignore my throbbing leg and think on everything I have learned about Margaret Church and find it inspiring. She worked hard for all she achieved and made personal connections with everyone she met and worked with along the way. By crediting her students in her books and being such a kind and dedicated person, Margaret Church redefined what it means to be a role model. She was a role model to her students then and continues to inspire students, like me, today.
The first papers in the folder were old English test booklets from when she was in college. Flipping through those there wasn’t much information to gather, just little notes taken down during the test. Next, I think, looking for something that I can really learn a lot about her from. I find a typed paper written by her, and I begin reading. This is what I have been looking for, I think, smiling to myself.
On the bottom of the typed paper Church had written “I wrote this for my 40th reunion yearbook. You may like to read it. –M” (MSF 74). She may have written that about 30 years ago, but it was like she meant it for me. Reading through the page Church describes all she has done after high school, her degree from Radcliffe, work as an English professor, and finally her time at Purdue University (MSF 74).
She writes about her experience teaching at two universities, but admits “Purdue and Lafayette, however, were to be [her] destiny” (MSF 74). Here at Purdue she wrote many articles and book reviews, wrote her second book and started a third (Bess). She earned many titles during her career, like editor of an English journal on campus, which is now extremely popular (MSF 74). More impressive than the titles she was able to list on her resume, though, is the personal connections she made while at Purdue.
She writes heartfelt descriptions about Purdue, describing it as more than just a school she teaches at, but a home. She came to Lafayette, Indiana in 1953, with her “car and trunk piled high with almost all [her] belongings” and lived and taught in Lafayette for almost 30 years (MSF 74). During that time Lafayette truly became her home.
Her colleagues say about Church that “she was a fan, a preseason rooter for Purdue’s basketball team, [and] a season-long optimist about its football team” (Bess) This same enthusiasm she had for sports and her other leisure activities, her colleagues reveal “she brought to her students and to her writing” (Bess). Teaching was obviously a passion of Church’s since she did it for so long and she even gives credit to one of her classes in the preface of her second book, Don Quixote: The Knight of La Mancha for coming up with some of the ideas discussed in the book during class discussions (Don Quixote). Others that knew her have only good things to say in her memory, claiming that she “became a role model” in her field (Bess).
Having finished reading all the papers in MSF 74, I delicately close the folder and tell one of the archivists that I’m done. She smiles and takes the folder away as I go to the door and take the better part of an hour trying to open it. There is dead silence in the archives except for my knee banging against the tiny door. After my escape, I limp to the lockers and get my bag. Geez, I think, I learned a lot about Margaret Church, but that door is definitely something I won’t be forgetting any time soon. On the ride down the elevator I try to ignore my throbbing leg and think on everything I have learned about Margaret Church and find it inspiring. She worked hard for all she achieved and made personal connections with everyone she met and worked with along the way. By crediting her students in her books and being such a kind and dedicated person, Margaret Church redefined what it means to be a role model. She was a role model to her students then and continues to inspire students, like me, today.