Lincoln Hall Project
Lincoln Hall Scrapbook
Lighting a Spark | What Just Happened? | Sights and Smells | A World of Knowledge | Hall of Love | Pass the Popcorn | Curtain Call | Finding Faith | The Professor I’ll Never Forget | The Nose | Years of Tradition
Whatever your memory of this campus landmark, be part of her renovation by sharing—in prose, poetry, or lyrics—your memories of the classes, people, performances, or other ways your life intersected with this iconic building.
- Submit your memory or post it to Facebook
Lighting a Spark
“Fall 1978, and I was a newly minted Rhet 105 TA standing in front of his first class in Lincoln Hall. Twenty sullen freshmen sat before me as I walked into the first-floor room along the south corridor. I had visited it the night before and looked at the old desks, made sure I had chalk and an eraser, and took a deep breath in anticipation of the following day. The bell rang at 11, and as I started to speak, 20 pens snapped to attention to write whatever I was about to say in their notebooks. This, I thought, was power. But I also stood before them frightened beyond belief that they would, like dogs, smell my fear and not take me seriously at all. Fortunately, I staggered through that first class, grew more comfortable with them as they with me. In short, I had a wonderful time teaching, so much so that I have made it my life’s work.
“I currently teach English at New Trier Township High School, and with all the technology in the classroom—projectors, computers, iPads—I still think back to my first day in my first classroom in Lincoln Hall with its couple of pieces of chalk, eraser, and blackboard, and marvel at what a gift it is to be a teacher.”
—Mark Wukas, BA ’77, history; MA ’79, English
“As a student in the late ’80s, I had several classes in Lincoln Hall, including a speech communication class in Lincoln Hall Theater with Professor David Swanson. In 1994, Dean Jesse Delia invited me to interview with him to become his assistant. I vividly remember walking up the grand stairs again and thinking about all the students whose footsteps have worn indentations into those stairs and what those students have gone on to do for our world. I got the job! It was my great pleasure to later call David Swanson (as well as so many other faculty members) a colleague and friend. Seventeen years later, I still hold that position and anxiously await returning to my office in Lincoln Hall.”
—Paula Adametz Hays, AB ’89, economics
“I enjoyed reading the article about the renovation of Lincoln Hall (A Gift for the Ages) in the spring issue of the Illinois Alumni magazine. One of my fond memories of this historical building goes back to the spring semester, 1967, when Professor Norman Graebner gave his lecture for a 100-level U.S. history course I was taking, in the Lincoln Hall Theater. A skillfull speaker, Professor Graebner held everyone’s attention with his instructive, interesting presentations. At the end of his final lecture for that class, everyone in the theater (lecture hall) stood and applauded heartily. I resided at Newman Hall, and Lincoln Hall was at a convenient location for me, just a block away, across Wright Street. It’s a real treasure for the Champaign-Urbana campus. ”
—Joseph Ferrero, AB ’69, geography
“I cannot walk past Lincoln Hall without thinking about the many hours I spent working on my honors thesis with Dr. Ruth Anne Clark. When I began my studies at the U of I, I would never have believed that I would one day have the opportunity to get to know and work with a professor who was so passionate, inspirational, and cared so individually for her students. Just the other day, someone was looking at one of my framed graduation pictures and asked who the woman was in the picture. I said, ‘That is Ruth Anne. One of my favorite people in the whole world.’ Lincoln Hall is a beautiful building, but the people and relationships formed there are what makes it truly remarkable in my mind.”
—Shannon Littleton, AB ’03, speech communication
“My mother had wonderful memories of Lincoln Hall working in the office of the philosophy department where she would take attendance for teachers. I remember seeing a wonderful picture of her sitting at her desk in her office in about 1948-49. She met my father at U of I around the same time. My personal memories are of wonderful freshman English classes and reading books I never would have read. And being inspired by one teacher to write my best short story ever for a final exam just by using a photo from a magazine—Sidewalks are for Understanding. ‘Landscape Architecture’ was a great class with an innovative and ‘include all populations’ teacher, Albert Rutledge, whose book I still have—Anatomy of a Park.”
—Carol Warchol Bennett, BS ’74, recreation and park administration
“I well remember that great voice of Paul Landis. I remember the excitement of getting into his Browning class, knowing we would hear him reading some of the poet’s dramatic writings. It was Gene Shalit who first introduced me to Paul Landis’s magnificent reading of that Dickens classic. Some of my great memories of Lincoln Hall.”
—Sander Postol, AB ’49, general curriculum; AM ’50, English
“I had a part-time job as a math tutor for Project Upward Bound during weekday evenings on the 1st floor of Lincoln Hall. In good weather, I would perch myself sideways upon an open windowsill on the west side of the 1st floor, looking out at Wright Street, waiting for the start time of the session. It turned out that this tutoring job was an impetus toward getting an MS in math (at another institution) and becoming a college math instructor.”
—Kevin Rock, BS ’87, finance
“My first introduction to Lincoln Hall, even the University of Illinois, was in 1934 when I was in 7th grade. I attended with my 4H group. Lincoln Hall mesmerized me. I stood on the Gettysburg Address and marveled at that marble scroll; I stood in front of the building on the Quad and delighted in the artwork of Schneider; I stood before the Lincoln bust; I attended my first ballet in the theater; I kept going back into the building every chance I got. I determined then I was going to the U of I knowing that money was slim in the Depression. (4Hers were housed in the Women’s Building next door.) After Nurses’ Training at Cook County Hopital, I arrived in Urbana in 1945 to work at McKinley Hospital, then the University Hospital, and work my way through the U of I, first in journalism and then for a master’s in English. I spent many memorable hours with professors in classes at Lincoln Hall. I am delighted that the building will be preserved in the update for generations of students that follow.”
—Jeanette Dodge, BS ’49, journalism; MS ’62, English
“The year was 1973. We were in a seminar room in Lincoln Hall. I had just completed responding to questions posed by my dissertation committee, led by my advisor Dr. Ruth Anne Clark. Professor Clark asked me to step outside for a moment so the committee members could confer. As I stepped into the corridor of the Lincoln Hall first floor, I turned right and walked several feet away from the room in which a conversation was going to occur that, to me, would set the course of my future. I leaned against the wall and a good deal of my life raced through my mind. Standing in that huge hallway in Lincoln Hall, I felt terribly small and unbelievably nervous. Had I done well enough to earn a PhD? Would I leave that building walking on air with happiness, or would I have to slink back to my family with word that I didn’t quite measure up? After what seemed like hours, but I'm sure it was only a few minutes, Dr. Clark came out of the room and walked toward me with a big smile on her face. She told me I ‘passed’ and asked me something like, ‘Do you feel better now?’ Honestly, I never felt better, and it all happened in that grand building with such an illustrious past. I hope the renovations accomplish what Dean Watkins writes in her statement in the fall 2009 LASNews. That is, the building will continue ‘to respect our heritage’...and ‘inspire future generations.’ It is a building that has given me many fond memories.”
—Roy Stewart, PhD ’73, speech communication
“My fondest memory of Lincoln Hall was the lectures and taking exams. It was a time when I could forward myself in college and for my career later in life. Lincoln is a clean, comfortable facility to study and learn in. The place provided me the know-how in being a good student at the University of Illinois. Thanks.”
—Lillian Fok, BS ’99, biology
“I miss sitting in the lecture hall with hundreds of students in MCB classes and other classes as well. I had a special area where my friends and I would sit near the bottom of the lower right wing of seats facing the stage. Also, I got to add my name to the list of previous students to the board in the back of the stage near the stage exit. I hope they choose to preserve that part of history.”
—Jed Panganiban, BS ’08, anthropology and molecular and cellular biology
“Where I took logic and learned about argumentum ad hominem.”
—Warren R. Williams, AB ’51, science and letters
“My first acquaintance with Lincoln Hall was taking the ACT test my junior year in 1965. The immensity of the auditorium was truly impressive to a nervous test-taker. However, the warmth and charm of the hall filled me with warm memories of taking French classes during my freshman year.”
—Constance A. Kozikowski, BS ’70, MS ’71, mathematics
“Anthropology Professor Chuck Barris assisted me in my registration, which was held in the Armory. Since I hadn’t chosen a major, I declared anthropology just to get something down on paper. I kept that major as I actually liked both the physical as well as the cultural classes. I needed part-time work so I met with anthropology Professor Art Rohn. He assigned me to work with a graduate student named Cheryl. She had collected potsherds from Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park for her study on the Anazazi Indians. My job was to sift through the thousands of numbered pieces to recreate a pot. Thus began my connection to Lincoln Hall.
“Between classes, at lunchtime, or whenever I had free time, I would trek over to Lincoln Hall. Before I would start my basement descent, I’d stop at the lobby vending machine for ‘lunch,’ which usually consisted of a chocolate Caravelle candy bar. Upon reaching the basement floor, I’d flip a light switch and then bend down to duck under the low-hanging pipes. My locked, caged-in ‘lab’ was at the end of a long corridor. I didn’t have a key, but my small wrists enabled me to reach in through the chain-link to unlock the gate, find another light switch, and begin my task. Making what amounted to a 3D jigsaw puzzle was solitary, and sometimes frustrating, work. There seemed to be a never-ending supply of potsherds. It was also slow work; but I did find and glue my share of matches to earn the paycheck I’d collect from Dr. Rohn. (Looking back, my work environment in Lincoln Hall’s basement sounds rather creepy—dimly lit, creeping under pipes, all alone...sounds like the makings of a good horror movie!)
“As a postscript to my Lincoln Hall story, Mesa Verde kept calling to me. In 1984, I finally got to explore the place from where those potsherds originated. I even bought Mug House by Arthur H. Rohn in the visitor center. Recently I took a road trip and revisited Mesa Verde finding it a truly quiet and hauntingly beautiful place where one can still retrace the footsteps of the Anazazi.”
—Patricia (Butkus) Barnett, AB ’69, anthropology
“It is late afternoon and the camera follows a Peruvian potter down the hallway near the balcony. It could be any hallway at Illinois until I see a bust of Lincoln. Twenty-five years ago my ceramics in archaeology class was treated to a film about South American pottery filmed in 1967. Most of the film was about the making of Shipibo pottery complete with a backyard kiln in the dead of winter. But it is the image of the potter walking past Lincoln’s bust that will always stay with me. As an archaeologist and graduate student in anthropology, my life and Lincoln Hall were inexorably linked. I knew Lincoln Hall from top to bottom, including the little secret about Lincoln Hall’s cinemagraphic history. My bottom experience began in the late 1970s when Lincoln Hall was my home as an archaeologist working for the Illinois Archaeological Survey. Our office was in the basement and from Lincoln Hall I would travel the length of Illinois discovering archaeological sites on Lincoln’s prairies and landscapes, near Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River, and in the far reaches of southern Illinois. I remember walking from Lincoln Hall to IMPE in snowdrifts, Chicago-bound students boarding the buses on Wright Street for Thanksgiving, the basement as a tornado sanctuary, the Quad in deep summer, and haunting the basement office I shared with ancient Native Americans and their artifacts in my first year as a graduate student.
“My top experience began in the mid-1980s when I was a teaching assistant for the World Heritage Museum that Dr. Wisseman describes so wonderfully (see memory below). I remember moving armor, writing labels, and designing an Egyptian exhibit. As much as I love the Spurlock Museum, I marveled at that elevator and the nooks and crannies of the fourth floor. I am thrilled for the renovation and sad that the Lincoln Hall of my younger days will be transformed forever. I have read that the Lincoln bust is safe and will be returned someday. May all of the ghosts of former occupants celebrate but forgive me, Abe, for revealing one of your secrets.”
—Richard Edging, AM ’84, PhD ’95, anthropology
What Just Happened?
“Back during my time as an undergraduate I belonged to a registered student organization known as Positive Event Chain. The goal of the group, loosely defined, was to take part in events that would spread good karma, the notion that doing something nice for someone else would prompt them to help other strangers and so on. Functionally this resulted in our group running activities like giving out free hugs on the Quad (before this was cool to do) or delivering people hand-written comments like handing out fliers.
“One such event was our yearly Secret Santa Spoof. We would always meet in Lincoln Hall (because it was almost always open and I later had a key as a sociology graduate student) and over the years observed that one of the girls a cappella groups would have a gift exchange leaving nice wrapping paper in the trash bins. So our event became a deviant re-use activity, of an odd kind. Each person would pull a name out of a hat and that person would become their giftee. They would then venture out into the depths and nooks of the building in search of odd gifts found in corners and beneath piles. We could go out for an hour and gather derelicts like old tires, trophies belonging to clubs from the 1970s, theater props or costumes, misshapen hunks of wood, ancient cassette tapes, and any other strange relics of the past we could find in the basement, attic, or wherever else in the building. We’d then wrap the gift, invent a story, and give them to each other in the room as jokes. Nobody ever actually wanted these gifts, of course, so they’d end up back where they were found, but we had the understanding that they wouldn’t be given again the next year. This event went on for about three years and brought some good laughs until the lot of us graduated.”
—Jeff Ginger, BA ’06, sociology
“I took a Natural History of the Vertebrates course from Professor H.H. Shoemaker over in the Vivarium. One of the requirements of the course was to stuff a bird and a mammal. One of my coursemates was lucky enough to find a pheasant that had killed itself by flying into the side of Lincoln Hall and he got to stuff it. Larger birds were much easier to stuff than smaller birds like warblers.”
—Suellen (Thompson) Jagels, BS ’64, MS ’66, teaching of biological science
“On the morning of September 11, 2001, after seeing the planes hit the towers in New York and people running through the streets, I remembered I had class at 10 a.m. in Lincoln Hall. I can’t recall the exact course name/number, but it was one of my favorite classes that year. As I walked to class the campus had an eerie silence to it, yet everyone seemed so close at the same time. I walked into class and immediately began to hear questions and theories about how this could have happened and why. As the debate escalated, the theme became clear...it had to be our fault. Most of the people in that class were more left-leaning than me. In fact, I was and remain, very much on the right. At first I was perplexed. How could these people, my fellow classmates, blame US for this? What could we have done that warranted such hatred? But then I caught myself before I became irrationally enraged. I thought to myself, ‘Only in the United States of America could a debate like this happen. The people that struck these towers and killed so many people today didn’t have the opportunities we have here. Debates like this don’t take place in their country. If they did, there’s a good chance this might not have happened. Only in America can the people question their government so openly and even so hostile at times...and still remain free.’ I think President Lincoln himself could have sympathized with that after what he went through to save his own Union. That was the day the idea of America became real to me. America is just that...an idea that people can govern themselves. No act of terrorism or war can kill that idea now or in the future. It’s inherent in our DNA as human beings to be free to choose our own destiny. Once again, I think President Lincoln could not have agreed more. ”
—Zach Youngblood, BS ’01, psychology
“Seems most of my classes were in Lincoln Hall, which I remember as warm and welcoming, always bustling between classes with laughter, idle chatter, and profound (or I suppose that's what we thought at the time) philosophical discussion. But my most vivid memory is walking into the building my senior year for my 1 o’clock production class on November 22, 1963—30 minutes after learning John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The silence that moment is what I remember most—a profound silence that shouted our shock and shared grief. Professor Hewitt walked into the classroom and said ‘no class today; let’s use the time to mourn our loss and honor the memory of our fallen President.’ And, silently, we walked out of the classroom, out of Lincoln Hall, and numbly walked to the nearest chapel.”
—Judy Hill, AB ’64, speech communication
“It was a never-to-be-forgotten event—one where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when it happened. My 20th-century American literature class was about to begin, when the professor, who seemed visibly shaken, announced that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas. He dismissed the shocked class, and said to me as I filed out, ‘I’m so sorry’ as if he thought that because I was from Boston, Mass., I would be especially upset. To receive the news in the building named for another assassinated president was a painful irony.”
—Carolyn (Pettipas) Gritter, AB ’65, AM ’67, French
“It was spring 1970. The spring of anti-war demonstrations and Strike Week, during which students were to boycott all classes. I was taking a final exam in English history in Lincoln Auditorium when someone opened the rear door and began berating us for not participating in the boycott. Fascinating times.”
—Michael Crowley, AB ’73, political science
“Oh, Lincoln Hall. There are so many great (and not-so-great) memories that I have of that place.... Whether it be slipping and falling on those slick Quad-side steps after sorority recruitment one night, anxiously waiting to take one of my miserable molecular and cellular biology exams in the iron stairwell outside the doors at the top of the theater, sneaking in to my sociology lecture through the stage entrance and getting not-so-subtle glares from my professor, or taking part in my sorority’s, Alpha Phi, King of Hearts Male Pageant fundraiser there in the theater my freshman year, I will forever remember Lincoln Hall in all its chipped paint, broken chair, warm and comforting glory. It’s one of the spots on campus I can look back on and get a shiver down my spine...one reminding me of how hard I worked, how hard I fell, and how I always had Lincoln’s nose to wish me luck!”
—Megan (Flaherty) Harvey, BS ’06, psychology
“During Dr. Edwards’s class on narrative writing, Roger Ebert (yes, that Roger Ebert) injected many comments about obscure works and their connection to our particular class assignment. On one afternoon, Roger droned on about some opera and its supposed relevance to Dr. Edwards’s earlier remarks. Dr. Edwards said he did not recall that opera and asked Roger to sing a few bars. ‘But Professor Edwards, the last time I sang in one of your classes, you kicked me out,’ said Roger. To which Dr. Edwards replied, ‘Sing, Mr. Ebert. Sing!’ Loud applause rippled through Lincoln Hall as Roger left the room.”
—Allan Wallace, AB ’63, rhetoric
“I have two...Memory #1: One day I was leaving Lincoln Hall and everyone was cheering and yelling. They were saying, ‘OJ is not guilty!’ Everytime I hear anything about OJ Simpson, I always remember walking down those stairs! Memory #2: I really liked a guy that I happened to see standing outside of a room in Lincoln Hall one day. I didn’t even notice he was talking to another lady (or maybe I didn’t care!). I, of course, walked up to him and started talking to him. At that point, he stopped me and said, ‘Ummmm...I’m in the middle of a Spanish oral exam.’ I felt like a complete idiot and still laugh about that incident today! I always thought it was strange you had to take your oral exams in the hallway!”
—Bree (Palmeri) Abbott, AB ’00, sociology
“I remember taking several classes in Lincoln Hall and visiting the LAS offices upstairs, but one of my fondest memories is when I took an EMT class there. We used to meet on Saturdays when no one was around. For practice we had scenes set up that could be just about any scenario. I remember walking into one of the downstairs bathrooms and finding fake blood coating the walls and mirror and feeling just a bit horrified at what I might find, knowing full well it was all staged. I never looked at that bathroom the same!”
—Susan Kittivanichkulkrai, AB ’99, English
Sights and Smells
“I went to the University of Illinois from 1984 to 1988. The one location where I probably spend the most hours, awake or asleep, was Lincoln Hall. I was a speech communication major so many of my classes were at Lincoln. But Lincoln Hall was also my favorite study building. I would pretty much study there every night. Writing papers, studying for tests. Sometimes I would pull an all-nighter in the same room that the test was being held in. All the janitors and Campus Patrol knew me. I loved the oldness and the character of the building. The steel gate on the elevator was awesome. Lincoln Hall was a huge contributor to my education at the University of Illinois. My favorite building on campus. My college memories will always include Lincoln Hall. I recently visited Lincoln Hall. After 24 years and the new renovations, I think I can still faintly smell the aroma of my Swisher Sweet cigars from the many, many, many all-nighters I pulled there.”
—Robert Kazuk, AB ’88, speech communication
“I have many memories of lectures in the theater but my most vivid memory is of walking up to the top floor and walking around the statuary whenever I wanted a peaceful few minutes by myself. I don’t recall ever seeing anyone else up there unless I invited someone to go along with me and only special people were invited.”
—Gust Rouhas, BS ’69, microbiology
“I am pretty sure I had a class in Lincoln Hall every year during my undergrad. While I always appreciated the grandeur of this beautiful building, I also remember the faults. First of all, I remember you didn’t want to show up late to a class in the main hall because you ran the risk of getting a chair without a desk! Also, I remember having a class on an upper floor that had a window that wouldn't close. This was in January, so I wore my winter jacket the whole time and was still cold! This is why I am so excited to see this building be brought into the 21st century, and only wish I was still at U of I to use it.”
—Andrew Ogorzaly, AB ’09, urban planning
“When preparing to attend college, I visited nearly every state school in Illinois prior to making a decision. The last school I visited was U of I and from the moment I stepped out of my parents’ car, I knew I had found my new home. Coming from a rural Illinois high school with only 59 graduating seniors, I loved the diversity and opportunities that Illinois afforded me. The number of students attending U of I did not deter me, but admittedly did not sink in until one of my first classes in Lincoln Hall. Sitting in this large theater surrounded by hundreds of other students, I realized where I was and loved it even more!”
—Kelly Hutchings, BS ’04, MS ’06, geology
“I am sure that many, many students remember the fun they had watching as a squirrel ran back and forth behind the lecturing professor. I will not forget these moments as I was one of the teachers on the stage. Fun memory.”
—Paulette Graziano, BS ’63, MS ’65, economics; professor of economics; academic advisor
“I will forever associate Lincoln Hall with the smell of hazelnut creme flavored coffee. It was the only kind we ever seemed to have in the computer lab (aka “collab”) I helped manage for Professor Noshir Contractor. I spent countless hours in there my senior year transcribing video and audio from the research he had conducted in that lab. Nosh generously donated one of his many Gevalia coffee makers to the greater cause of pulling all-nighters. It wasn’t necessarily great coffee, but there was plenty of it. Fond memories indeed, but these days I’m strictly a straight up, no frills black coffee kind of guy.”
—Brian Maggi, AB ’92, speech communication
“I remember the smell of the building and the creative graffiti in the bathrooms. I think the LAS students generated by far the most thought-provoking and funny exchanges.”
—Keith Reese, BS ’79, chemical engineering
“I used to manage the archaeological collections that were stored in the basement of Lincoln Hall. We would have to walk down the hallway with our heads lowered so we wouldn’t hit them on the pipes, we would talk with the building maintenance guy who had his office there, we had to move collections out of a small room that was going to be used as someone’s office. I think that was an old dressing room...I also remember taking an archaeology mapping class in the basement as an undergraduate in what was Professor Chuck Bareis’s lab. I also remember wherever you walked, the halls or the stairs, were worn with the paths of students walking over the years.”
—Angela Neller, AB ’89, AM ’98, anthropology
“Anthropology Professor Chuck Barris assisted me in my registration, which was held in the Armory. Since I hadn’t chosen a major, I declared anthropology just to get something down on paper. I kept that major as I actually liked both the physical as well as the cultural classes. I needed part-time work so I met with anthropology Professor Art Rohn. He assigned me to work with a graduate student named Cheryl. She had collected potsherds from Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park for her study on the Anazazi Indians. My job was to sift through the thousands of numbered pieces to recreate a pot. Thus began my connection to Lincoln Hall.
“Between classes, at lunchtime, or whenever I had free time, I would trek over to Lincoln Hall. Before I would start my basement descent, I’d stop at the lobby vending machine for ‘lunch,’ which usually consisted of a chocolate Caravelle candy bar. Upon reaching the basement floor, I’d flip a light switch and then bend down to duck under the low-hanging pipes. My locked, caged-in ‘lab’ was at the end of a long corridor. I didn’t have a key, but my small wrists enabled me to reach in through the chain-link to unlock the gate, find another light switch, and begin my task. Making what amounted to a 3D jigsaw puzzle was solitary, and sometimes frustrating, work. There seemed to be a never-ending supply of potsherds. It was also slow work; but I did find and glue my share of matches to earn the paycheck I’d collect from Dr. Rohn. (Looking back, my work environment in Lincoln Hall’s basement sounds rather creepy—dimly lit, creeping under pipes, all alone...sounds like the makings of a good horror movie!)
“As a postscript to my Lincoln Hall story, Mesa Verde kept calling to me. In 1984, I finally got to explore the place from where those potsherds originated. I even bought Mug House by Arthur H. Rohn in the visitor center. Recently I took a road trip and revisited Mesa Verde finding it a truly quiet and hauntingly beautiful place where one can still retrace the footsteps of the Anazazi.”
—Patricia (Butkus) Barnett, AB ’69, anthropology
“I was a graduate student in Lincoln Hall, 1975-77 in interpretation, with my office in the very last space as you walked to the end of the catacombs—the basement area—and I adored every minute of it. Somehow, I hope I get to work in this building again before I’m gone—in the new and improved Lincoln Hall.”
—Rodney Kroemer, AM ’77, speech
“I first came to work at U of I in the beautiful and historic Lincoln Hall. I look forward to its well-deserved renovation.”
—Anonymous
“I love this building. I had classes in the theater and classrooms. I hope it is just as beautiful following the restoration.”
—Deborah L. Stewart, BS ’74, microbiology
A World of Knowledge
“I remember when I was a junior at U of I in the early ’80s, my boyfriend (also a student) was hired to build and/or refurbish some of the exhibits [in the World Heritage Museum] so he spent quite a bit of time up there. I would take him lunch almost everyday and we would walk around up there. It was fun to explore those old buildings and find surprises like little museums and displays. Also loved exploring all the tunnels under campus!”
—Kristin Goltry, BS ’86, biology
“As an undergrad in 1968, I had a Latin class in Lincoln. My professor suggested that we tour the building’s museum if we hadn’t already done so. It was amazing to discover the treasures it contained!”
—Stephen Beller, BS ’70, psychology
“I recall visiting the World Heritage Museum as a schoolchild, then returning as an adult to join the board and participate in the transition to the Spurlock Museum. I also recall sponsoring a presentation by Dr. George Bass, the father of nautical archaeology, in the auditorium.”
—Allan C. Campbell, M.D., BS ’65, zoology
“I worked for four years in the fourth-floor attic of Lincoln Hall as a curator, tour guide, etc., in the former World Heritage Museum. Our crowded museum had no climate control or modern conveniences. Pigeons got in through broken windows and left deposits on our classical statues, and we had an elevator so old that a sixth grader thought it was one of the exhibits. Sometimes I had to close up the museum, flipping switches on an archaic alarm system, giving my password (“Athena,” the Greek goddess) to campus security, and racing for the back stairs before the siren went off. This beloved but creepy setting became a character in my archaeological mysteries Bound for Eternity and The Fall of Augustus.”
—Sarah Wisseman
“Aside from having numerous classes in Lincoln Hall, I also worked in the fourth-floor museum one year. But as an archaeology major, I spent many hours working in the basement archaeology lab, washing, labelling, and cataloging artifacts and typing up site records.”
—Gloria Fenner, AB ’58, science and letters; AM ’62, anthropology
“My first memory of Lincoln Hall is from my very first day as a freshman—sitting in an English class, the TA walking into the room, hoisting herself onto the teacher’s desk and sitting there, cross-legged, reciting Beowulf in Old English. I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t high school!’ My most vivid Lincoln Hall memories, though, are from the World Heritage Museum. I would go into the museum when I had a few minutes between classes (because I think at least a quarter of my classes were in Lincoln Hall). Even though it was shabby and kind of dim, I felt like it was my own museum—maybe it’s a distorted memory, but I remember being in there alone a lot! In 2003, I attended one of the tours for the opening of the Spurlock Museum, and have to admit that even though it is beautiful and impressive, it didn’t feel like ‘my’ museum!”
—Janna Lawrence, AB ’78, rhetoric
“I took classes in Lincoln Hall as a student from 1954 to 1956. Later I returned with my fifth grade classes for field trips to the museum. The students enjoyed seeing the mummies and nature displays.”
—J. Conerty, AB ’56, general agriculture
“I returned to CU after a many-year absence, wanting to finally have a tour of the [World Heritage] Museum, to find it had just closed for renovation. So I look forward to having another opportunity.”
—Stephen A. Wolf, AB ’69, sociology
“It is late afternoon and the camera follows a Peruvian potter down the hallway near the balcony. It could be any hallway at Illinois until I see a bust of Lincoln. Twenty-five years ago my ceramics in archaeology class was treated to a film about South American pottery filmed in 1967. Most of the film was about the making of Shipibo pottery complete with a backyard kiln in the dead of winter. But it is the image of the potter walking past Lincoln’s bust that will always stay with me. As an archaeologist and graduate student in anthropology, my life and Lincoln Hall were inexorably linked. I knew Lincoln Hall from top to bottom, including the little secret about Lincoln Hall’s cinemagraphic history. My bottom experience began in the late 1970s when Lincoln Hall was my home as an archaeologist working for the Illinois Archaeological Survey. Our office was in the basement and from Lincoln Hall I would travel the length of Illinois discovering archaeological sites on Lincoln’s prairies and landscapes, near Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River, and in the far reaches of southern Illinois. I remember walking from Lincoln Hall to IMPE in snowdrifts, Chicago-bound students boarding the buses on Wright Street for Thanksgiving, the basement as a tornado sanctuary, the Quad in deep summer, and haunting the basement office I shared with ancient Native Americans and their artifacts in my first year as a graduate student.
“My top experience began in the mid-1980s when I was a teaching assistant for the World Heritage Museum that Dr. Wisseman describes so wonderfully (see memory below). I remember moving armor, writing labels, and designing an Egyptian exhibit. As much as I love the Spurlock Museum, I marveled at that elevator and the nooks and crannies of the fourth floor. I am thrilled for the renovation and sad that the Lincoln Hall of my younger days will be transformed forever. I have read that the Lincoln bust is safe and will be returned someday. May all of the ghosts of former occupants celebrate but forgive me, Abe, for revealing one of your secrets.”
—Richard Edging, AM ’84, PhD ’95, anthropology
Hall of Love
“Freshman year, I had an English class in Lincoln Hall; two years later, in summer school, I had the same professor who I still thought was the best-looking man I had ever seen. A year later, we met by accident at Country Fair Mall (ah, Goldblatt’s, Henry Kay Jewelers...) and a year later, we were married. Our children are now in their 30s—how time flies. ”
—Sharon Swanson, AB ’72, AM ’74, English
“On September 25, 1946, my first day at the University of Illinois in Lincoln Hall, at 4:00 p.m., Nathalie Furst sat down next to me in Professor John Frey’s German 1H class. I was three months back from the European war and the Army. Nathalie was fresh from high school, also three months before. Virtually seven years later, on the evening of my graduation from the U of I dental school we were married. It will be 58 years this coming June. Dr. Frey and his wife subsequently became close family friends. Could we ever forget Lincoln Hall?”
—Irving Gittelman, D.D.S., BS ’50, general curriculum
“The first day of class my freshman year (8/27/73), I met my wife, Dawn, in Lincoln Hall Theater in a Poli Sci 150 class. She and I had been in the same (our first) class in the Armory the previous period (Psych 108), where she sat with a mutual female friend with whom I had gone to school since kindergarten. My friend (so Dawn told me later) pointed me out and said that I was smart. About a minute after I sat in a seat on the aisle in Lincoln Hall Theater, Dawn came up to me (as she had followed me into the building and Lincoln Hall Theater), introduced herself and gave me her address and phone number (which I still remember). Suffice it to say that this never had happened to me before. Dawn was adorable and sweet, and within a few months she was my girlfriend. We have been happily married for over 32 years, and Lincoln Hall Theater was where it all began.
“I also remember lectures by Michael Scher in European History (Hist 211-212) in Lincoln Hall Theater. He was a dynamic young assistant professor. During class he would get so excited that he would whip his sweater off in the middle of a lecture. The female students were in love with him. Tragically, he died of a drug overdose.
“Finally, the midnight movie on Saturday night sometimes was shown in Lincoln Hall Theater instead of the Auditorium. Other weekend movies also were shown there. What a deal they were—50 cents or a dollar. (This was well before the days of VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-ray.) The running commentary by students during the movies (usually R- or X-rated comedies or dramas) added to the atmosphere.”
—Jeff Langer, AB ’77, history
“Fifty-four years ago I met my now wife Audrey Gore Mass at McBride’s drugstore (Urbana). It was a bit like the song from South Pacific, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ ... ‘You may see a stranger and then, even then you will know, and once you have found her never let her go.’ I did not, and how lucky I am.”
—Arnold M. Mass, AB ’57, general curriculum
“My memory of Lincoln Hall: Sitting on the steps on a warm Sunday afternoon with my then girlfriend and now wife and eating cheese sandwiches that we bought at Bubbie and Zadie’s Delicatessan.”
—John Spurgeon, SB ’75, teaching of math; EdM ’80, education
“Some of my favorite memories of Lincoln Hall involve the countless nights I spent studying in one of the empty classrooms with my future wife, Jennifer. We always ordered pizza (usually from Pizza World), which was dutifully delivered to whatever classroom we happened to be working in. The delivery people were quite accustomed to this practice especially around midterms and finals. I’m guessing that the construction crews are going to find a lot of old pizza boxes during the remodeling....”
—David Townsend, BS ’88, microbiology
“Like many others, I have numerous memories of Lincoln Hall. Similarly, like many others, my wife and I met while involved with a production in the theatre. I was playing the title role in MacLeish’s J.B. (I believe it was 1962) and my wife-to-be was assisting with the men’s makeup. I was a doctoral student and she an undergraduate. I had gray in my hair to appear older and Judy thought I was a much older man! Now that we are approaching our 46th wedding anniversary, our age difference has virtually disappeared! I’m delighted that Lincoln Hall is being renovated. It was a great old building and will be a fine one in the future.”
—Don Wilmeth, PhD ’64, speech
“I have many fond memories of Lincoln Hall and my years in Champaign. Especially a young lady, who I’ve lost track of, named Kasey!”
—Peyton Wood, BS ’84, chemistry
“There are two wonderful memories I have of Lincoln Hall. The first of which, was meeting my soon-to-be wife for the first time. It was the last semester for both of us (my bachelor degree and her master's degree). We had a speech communication class together. We shared glances for the first few days, and then as luck/fate would have it, we were placed into the same group for our semester-long project. The flirt that I am started our journey together by grabbing her keys off her desk, sorting through them, and then in my cheesiest pick-up line fashion asked her, 'Which one is the key to your heart?' I wasn't sure if she thought it was funny or if she thought I was that cheesy, either way, it worked and I've been making her laugh ever since.
“The second story brings us to our engagement. We still had a friend that was teaching in the Department of Speech Communication. I had politely asked our friend if she could help me propose to my wife. I wanted to ask my wife to marry me in the same room that we met in years ago. Our friend answered 'yes' of course. So, we spent a full day designing posters with pictures of my wife and I since we started dating, poems, etc.... I also purchased candles and champagne for the event. A couple weeks later, on a weekend evening, our connection at Lincoln Hall and a couple other friends had opened up the classroom and decorated it for me. The posters were up, the champagne was chilled, and there were candles on all the desks. The room glowed! I convinced my wife that we were going down to U of I for a get-together with some friends, and that we should stop by Lincoln Hall and visit the room we had met in. As we approached the door to the first floor room, we could see the glowing behind the glass. I believe she was catching on to what was happening. Regardless, when we swung that door open, the room was beautiful. After a short speech on how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, I knelt down on one knee and asked her to do me the honor of spending the rest of her life with me.
“After an excited yes, a wonderful wedding, seven-and-a-half years, and two amazing little girls...we love each other more than we could have ever imagined in that starry room.”
—Paul Mosher, AB ’00, speech communication
Pass the Popcorn
“I had a ton of classes in Lincoln, some remembered more fondly than others (coughstatisticscough), but my favorite memories involve movies. I was introduced to Plan 9 from Outer Space one memorable evening, complete with audience commentary on choice bits of dialogue. On another evening, my dorm friends and I endured a Star Wars marathon of the three original movies back-to-back. While it was hardly a megaplex theater, the experience and camaraderie of a Lincoln Hall movie night could not be surpassed.”
—Emily Schnabl, AB ’88, anthropology
“I saw my first Jack Nicholson movie in Lincoln Hall, and it was Carnal Knowledge.”
—Joseph Squier, BS ’80, psychology
“It is late afternoon and the camera follows a Peruvian potter down the hallway near the balcony. It could be any hallway at Illinois until I see a bust of Lincoln. Twenty-five years ago my ceramics in archaeology class was treated to a film about South American pottery filmed in 1967. Most of the film was about the making of Shipibo pottery complete with a backyard kiln in the dead of winter. But it is the image of the potter walking past Lincoln’s bust that will always stay with me. As an archaeologist and graduate student in anthropology, my life and Lincoln Hall were inexorably linked. I knew Lincoln Hall from top to bottom, including the little secret about Lincoln Hall’s cinemagraphic history. My bottom experience began in the late 1970s when Lincoln Hall was my home as an archaeologist working for the Illinois Archaeological Survey. Our office was in the basement and from Lincoln Hall I would travel the length of Illinois discovering archaeological sites on Lincoln’s prairies and landscapes, near Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River, and in the far reaches of southern Illinois. I remember walking from Lincoln Hall to IMPE in snowdrifts, Chicago-bound students boarding the buses on Wright Street for Thanksgiving, the basement as a tornado sanctuary, the Quad in deep summer, and haunting the basement office I shared with ancient Native Americans and their artifacts in my first year as a graduate student.
“My top experience began in the mid-1980s when I was a teaching assistant for the World Heritage Museum that Dr. Wisseman describes so wonderfully (see memory below). I remember moving armor, writing labels, and designing an Egyptian exhibit. As much as I love the Spurlock Museum, I marveled at that elevator and the nooks and crannies of the fourth floor. I am thrilled for the renovation and sad that the Lincoln Hall of my younger days will be transformed forever. I have read that the Lincoln bust is safe and will be returned someday. May all of the ghosts of former occupants celebrate but forgive me, Abe, for revealing one of your secrets.”
—Richard Edging, AM ’84, PhD ’95, anthropology
“Taking a great Greek mythology class, sitting through many final exams, and watching midnight Bruce Lee kung fu movies with a packed, loud audience. Thirty years later sitting in the same lecture hall with my daughter during her biology lecture.”
—D. Mike Cvetkovic, DDS, BS ’78, biology, and AB ’78, microbiology
“The first day of class my freshman year (8/27/73), I met my wife, Dawn, in Lincoln Hall Theater in a Poli Sci 150 class. She and I had been in the same (our first) class in the Armory the previous period (Psych 108), where she sat with a mutual female friend with whom I had gone to school since kindergarten. My friend (so Dawn told me later) pointed me out and said that I was smart. About a minute after I sat in a seat on the aisle in Lincoln Hall Theater, Dawn came up to me (as she had followed me into the building and Lincoln Hall Theater), introduced herself and gave me her address and phone number (which I still remember). Suffice it to say that this never had happened to me before. Dawn was adorable and sweet, and within a few months she was my girlfriend. We have been happily married for over 32 years, and Lincoln Hall Theater was where it all began.
“I also remember lectures by Michael Scher in European History (Hist 211-212) in Lincoln Hall Theater. He was a dynamic young assistant professor. During class he would get so excited that he would whip his sweater off in the middle of a lecture. The female students were in love with him. Tragically, he died of a drug overdose.
“Finally, the midnight movie on Saturday night sometimes was shown in Lincoln Hall Theater instead of the Auditorium. Other weekend movies also were shown there. What a deal they were—50 cents or a dollar. (This was well before the days of VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-ray.) The running commentary by students during the movies (usually R- or X-rated comedies or dramas) added to the atmosphere.”
—Jeff Langer, AB ’77, history
Curtain Call
“The following is edited from my contribution to the compiled recollections published in the memorial booklet, Charles Harlen Shattuck: November 23, 1910-September 21, 1992:
“One evening in 1953, some theatre types gathered at a campus spot, I among them by virtue of one line in Mary Arbenz’s production of The Time of Your Life. Chuck Shattuck came in and joined us, his passive demeanor masking creative secrets, one of which he revealed to us: the following season, he would stage and direct Hamlet. I was offended; hadn't my senior (high school) rhetoric class analyzed Hamlet line by line for six weeks? Whoever this Charles Shattuck might be, I knew that this tragedy’s star in the theatrical firmament exceeded the reach of any student cast. Staring coolly at one of the world’s renowned Shakespeare scholars, I asked superciliously: ‘Why?’ Composed as ever, Shattuck regarded me with his tight-lipped, amused smile and replied, ‘Well, we think it’s a pretty good play.’ To that, my only rejoinder was a red face. Turning to the others, Chuck then disclosed his intent to recreate the Globe Theatre in Lincoln Hall, a plan so ambitious as to astonish even those familiar with this man’s boundless talents.
“Recreate the Globe he did, and upon its stage a worthy Hamlet, steeped in the professionalism that characterized Shattuck productions. From the irrepressible Preston Tuttle, who carried the play in the lead role, to the music professor would sounded true notes on the recorder, to embellishing minutiae, Shattuck chose, cajoled, and lovingly juxtaposed every participant and prop. U of I Theatre stalwarts George Gunkel and Joyce Chalcraft sparkled as Polonius and Gertrude; desperate, perhaps, for anyone who could speak Shakespeare’s iambic intelligibly, Shattuck cast me as Horatio. The upside of that decision proved to be the bond that formed between me and Tuttle—just as conceived by the playwright. The production proved ‘a hit, a palpable hit,’ thanks to Chuck Shattuck’s unique ability to weave a few golden threads among many dull strands to create masterful tapestries.
“And isn’t this what theater—proven countless times on Lincoln Hall’s venerable stage—is about: artful, sometimes illusory crafting that transports us to other times and places, immersing us in the lives of others?”
Footnotes: 1. The Time of Your Life launched the amazing career of freshman Jerry Orbach, who played the bartender. (Orbach transferred to Northwestern the following year.) 2. The late Stanley Elkin, who went on to literary fame as a novelist, played Antonio, the merchant in Merchant.
—Peter T. Tomaras, AB ’57, general curriculum
“In about the year 1960 I volunteered to usher for the plays at Lincoln Hall. Seeing the photo of the original theater made me remember one of life’s more embarrassing moments. The production was Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author—a play I was obviously unfamiliar with. I was at the entrance high in the back of the theater when the house lights dimmed and several people burst through ‘my’ door. I did my best to collect a ticket from them, but they ignored me and rushed to the stage—being the major cast members! I was glad that the theater was dark to hide my blushes. I went on to paint many a backdrop as manager of scenery painting in my junior year. I still adore live performances, a seed planted many years ago.”
—Louise Darby Glassman, AB ’62, mathematics
“In 1961-62 and the summers of 1962 and 1963, I was a technical theatre assistant for the U of I theatre. I worked on many settings constructed in the workshop just off-stage left on the Lincoln Hall Theater stage. I helped to build and paint them on the stage, and I helped strike them when the shows concluded. I also had the opportunity to appear on stage in the fall of 1961 in Summer and Smoke. In the summer of 1963, I was stage manager for the production of Picnic. Lincoln Hall Theater did present some very interesting scenic issues (mostly sight-lines); it was also a real task to move 16-foot sections of lumber from the hallway, around the structural steel and plaster cyclorama, and then into the scene shop.”
—Richard W. Thiede, AM ’63, speech
“I saw the Amazing Kreskin in Lincoln Hall Theater when I was a freshman in 1968. At that time he predicted that time would end in the year 2000. Go figure!”
—Alan B. Conrad
“Ah, Lincoln Hall! The University Theater Executive Offices (under the foyer) and the Green Room (under the stage) were my homes-away-from-home during my four years’ participation in U of I theater. I acted in The Matchmaker, Aristophanes’ The Birds, The Skin of Our Teeth, and was Hannah in Mary Stuart, all on the main stage in the auditorium theater. And in the classrooms along Lincoln Hall’s corridors, I attended the oral interpretation classes of Ken Burns, stagecraft from Bernie Works, acting from Mary Arbenz, directing from Clara Behringer, Shakespeare from Chuck Shattuck, and worked with executive director Joseph Scott as a student board member and an officer of the Undergraduate Workshop Theater program. I received the Best Actress award for 1961 right there in Lincoln Hall. Those were truly great days for me. Lincoln Hall was a lovely, hallowed, versatile, contantly used building that served the University well. How happy I am to know that the University values that service and is taking care of my old haunts.”
—Mary Sue Divan Murray, AB ’61, teaching of speech
“I arrived at the University of Illinois in the fall of 1967 and immediately marched over to Lincoln Hall to audition for a University Theater production. It was a play written by Webster Smalley titled A Taste For Violence, commissioned for the Illinois Sesquicentennial. Clara Behringer directed. I was cast in an extremely small role, but it was enough to whet my passion for live theatre for the rest of my days. If memory serves I acted in only two other Lincoln Hall productions: The Tempest (directed by John Burrell) and Stop The World I Want To Get Off (directed by Mary Arbenz). Then when the Krannert Center was built (rendering the Lincoln Hall Theater “obsolete”) we all turned our backs on the old gal, our eyes filled with the wonder of a modern performing arts center. I visited the U of I in the spring of 2008 and I wish I’d taken the time to sneak behind the huge cyclorama. There were a lot of student actors’ signatures back there, mine one of them.”
—Jim Barton, AB ’71, English
“I was in a folk-rock group in the ’70s called The Ship, and we played our first large-stage concert in the Lincoln Hall Auditorium—in 1971. There was only one problem—the five of us hadn’t worked up any group songs yet (except for the original folk opera that had become quite popular), so we played a lot of solos and duets, with the non-participants just sitting there watching. All in all, though, it was tremendous fun, and although the group stayed together for over six years and played many other large venues, we always remembered our Lincoln Hall gig fondly. An update on the group: after not playing together for 31 years, we did a reunion concert at Channing-Murray in spring 2008, and we created a website and released two CDs in 2009. Little did we know in 1971 at our Lincoln Hall concert that we’d still be playing a few of those songs, 38 years later! ”
—Steve Cowan, BS ’71, math (computer science)
“As a PhD student in chemistry (1960-65), my ‘other life’ was with the University Theater, which started with an impulse answer to the open auditions call in the fall of 1960. What followed was a lab theater role as a rabbi in a Sholom Aleichem play and then the chance to work with Chuck Shattuck in Lincoln Hall as Orsino in Twelfth Night and later as Astrof in Uncle Vanya and Pozzo in Waiting for Godot. But finally the demands of family and dissertation prevailed and I dropped out. I remember that time with gratitude (particularly to Chuck Shattuck) and for the close association with students from ‘the other side’ of the campus including Larry Woiwode, Dan Hoppe, and Jan Borgia, and regret to have lost contact with all of them in the years following. After 45 years of teaching and research in chemistry, I am easing back into theater these last four years with the Durham Savoyards and will sing the role of The Mikado in this spring’s production, finally taking the other road and thinking often of Lincoln Hall.”
—Richard Palmer, MS ’62, PhD, ’65, chemistry
“Atius-Sachem Mom’s Day Sing [part of Mom’s Day weekend].”
—Lauren Kraft, class of 2011, communication
“Yes, I attended lots of lectures in Lincoln Hall—slept through a few. I also saw an outstanding student production there of Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera (1972-73?). Echoing Steve Cowan, I was in The Ship from 1971-77, and we did a later Lincoln Hall concert that I remember as the first performance in which we ‘owned up’ to jingles we had recorded for Arby’s, IGA, and other area clients. It was a fun evening in a great venue.”
—Mark Hamby, AB ’78, music education
“Ahhh Capella Extreme benefit concert where we raised over $1,000 for charity. Lincoln Hall frequently provided space for organizations to shine and do good deeds for the community.”
—Anonymous
“I worked for four years in the fourth-floor attic of Lincoln Hall as a curator, tour guide, etc., in the former World Heritage Museum. Our crowded museum had no climate control or modern conveniences. Pigeons got in through broken windows and left deposits on our classical statues, and we had an elevator so old that a sixth grader thought it was one of the exhibits. Sometimes I had to close up the museum, flipping switches on an archaic alarm system, giving my password (“Athena,” the Greek goddess) to campus security, and racing for the back stairs before the siren went off. This beloved but creepy setting became a character in my archaeological mysteries Bound for Eternity and The Fall of Augustus.”
—Sarah Wisseman
Finding Faith
“I have worked at the U of I for over 20 years and I remember having a weekly Bible study in the auditorium at lunch time with other coworkers and students. It was a very spiritually uplifting part of the week. I miss it.”
—Darlene Walker, AB ’79, psychology
“Many memories flood my mind as I recall my almost 20 years working in Lincoln Hall. The first week on the job I saw a notice on the bulletin board advertising a Bible Study at noon and ended up attending it almost every week until I retired. Part of the years I even led the Bible Study and Prayer Group. I also remember attending Illini Christian Faculty and Staff lunch hour meetings. I too remember the classes in Lincoln Hall, especially those in Lincoln Hall Theater. Most of all I remember the people I met from all over the world and the friendships we formed. Hosting international students and serving as friendship family for visiting professors created even more friendships. Having my boss, Professor Tim Liao, nominated me for several awards and receiving the LAS Staff Award remains one of the highlights of my almost 20 years at UIUC. I remember the meetings before work in the morning, at noonhour, and after work at night. When the noonhour held no meeting to attend, a tour of the World Heritage museum on the fourth floor of Lincoln Hall brought joy and knowledge. After it closed and moved, walking for exercise, going to the library, and reading the Daily Illini filled many lunch hours. Although I'm enjoying retirement and gardening, traveling, making mission trips, etc., I miss all of the people at the University of Illinois and am thankful for those who stay in contact.”
—Delores Jean Hill, past employee
The Professor I’ll Never Forget
“J. Wesley Swanson, professor of theater, never let anything as mundane as a catalog course description deter him from teaching whatever he wanted to during any given semester. I’m sure this Master Teacher could have made the phone book sing from the lecture platform. One lazy summer morning during my masters studies, sitting in the coolness of a first floor Lincoln Hall classroom, listening to Wes wax poetic about the stage hand movements of Ellen Terry, the famous English actress, the thought suddenly occurred to me that teaching might be a very rewarding experience. Life has taken me down many roads but none more rewarding than those moments teaching in a classroom, and when I find myself there I always remember a summer morning in Lincoln Hall, Wes Swanson, and Ellen Terry.”
—Arthur R. Williams, AB ’56, general curriculum; AM ’57, speech
“My memories of Lincoln Hall begin in the fall of 1942 when I came to U of I as a second semester freshman (transfer student) in chemical engineering. That year I lived on Chalmers Street, less than a block from Lincoln Hall, and took German there. From then until I was drafted and entered the Navy in June 1944, I took a few more LAS courses (English, German) there and a few times explored the museum on the top floor. Returning from the Navy in 1946 I changed from engineering (although Chem. E. was always in the school of LAS) to studying the humanities, and took more courses in French, English, and philosophy in Lincoln Hall. Moreover I began to act in Illini Theatre Guild productions, mainly under the direction of Chuck Shattuck, who eventually became a treasured personal friend. I especially enjoyed performing for him in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and Webster’s Duchess of Malfi on the Globe Theatre staging that Chuck had installed in Lincoln Hall Theater.
“As a graduate assistant in English, I proudly had half-ownership of a desk in a large office in Lincoln Hall shared by 20 or 30 grad assistants. One year I changed to philosophy, where I also held a grad assistantship and taught a few sections of Philosophy 101. I especially remember the courses I took with Professors Fisch, Turquette, and Will. I returned to English and took courses and seminars with Professors Ray, Gettmann, Secord, and Landis among others. I completed my dissertation under the direction of Royal Gettmann. During all those years my campus home was Lincoln Hall and I have more memories of that building than I could possibly record here. I can’t stop, however, without mentioning a very special professor from the German department, Henri Stegemeier.”
—Leon Gottfried, AB ’48, AM ’51, PhD ’58, English
“Lincoln Hall reminds me of my favorite professor of all time...Jim Nowlan. Thanks for everything, Jim, and I hope you are well.”
—Myra Minuskin, AB ’83, political science; AM ’85, public administration
“During my senior year I was taking a 400-level education class in Lincoln Hall. Also taking this class was an instructor from the engineering department who was completing an advanced degree. He had been my drafting and descriptive geometry instructor in prior semesters. He was T.C. Hartley and on our class breaks he told non-stop golf jokes. Hilarious.....”
—Robert Link, BS ’64, business education
“It was in Lincoln Hall in 1952 that I met J. N. Hook, advisor to those planning to teach English. He was a soft-spoken, modest man who was the first to encourage me on the way to a career and to public speaking. Just steps away from Professor Hook’s office was the classroom of Leah Trelease, a great teacher and caring soul, whose love for literature was infectious. I have attempted to honor her memory with gifts over the past half-century. I can see her even now as I write all these years later. These two were models for a lifetime.”
—Gordon Cohn, AB ’54, science and letters; AM ’55, teaching of English
“I began my study of Portuguese in 1957 on the second floor of Lincoln Hall. The dialect taught was Brazilian-Portuguese. The instructor, Jaime Villa-Lobos, was a graduate student from Rio de Janeiro and the nephew of Latin America’s best-known and most significant composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos. My newfound love of Brazilian music (especially bossa nova) reinforced my interest in the Brazilian language and vice versa—both paths of subsequent exploration originating in the Lincoln Hall class taught by the great Brazilian composer’s nephew over a half-century ago.”
—John Means, AB ’60, science and letters; AM ’63, political science; PhD ’69, Portuguese
“I taught my first class in American history as a teaching assistant in Lincoln Hall in 1959. I visited the classroom where I began teaching in 1959 and the room had not changed. Lincoln Hall has many memories—some very happy and others bittersweet. I especially remember the very learned professors of history—J. Leonard Bates, Norman Graebner, and Robert Johannson—who thoroughly engaged their students and added so much to my own education.”
—Gerald Gutek, AB ’57, science and letters; ’59 AM, history; ’64 PhD, education
“My master’s and PhD resulted from months of effort within the confines of Lincoln Hall. After combat in WWII in SWPA, I entered a graduate program at the University of Illinois with my major Professor Clarence A. Berdhal—a tough but most helpful professor. While earning my PhD, my wife, Barbara, and I, and our two children lived in Illini Village, a very small two-bedroom prefab at the edge of a cemetery. Dr. Berdahl gave me a great leap forward as did Dr. Dietz and Dr. Friedel and others. Go Illini!”
—Elston Edward (aka Steve) Roady, AM ’47, PhD ’51, political science
“1. Many painful hourly exams. 2. Rubbing Lincoln’s nose. 3. Professor Hayden’s poli sci classes. 4. Norm Graebner’s class in diplomatic history.”
—Walter Kurczewski, AB ’68, political science
“During Dr. Edwards’ class on narrative writing, Roger Ebert (yes, that Roger Ebert) injected many comments about obscure works and their connection to our particular class assignment. On one afternoon, Roger droned on about some opera and its supposed relevance to Dr. Edwards’s earlier remarks. Dr. Edwards said he did not recall that opera and asked Roger to sing a few bars. ‘But Professor Edwards, the last time I sang in one of your classes, you kicked me out,’ said Roger. To which Dr. Edwards replied, ‘Sing, Mr. Ebert. Sing!’ Loud applause rippled through Lincoln Hall as Roger left the room.”
—Allan Wallace, AB ’63, rhetoric
“The first day of class my freshman year (8/27/73), I met my wife, Dawn, in Lincoln Hall Theater in a Poli Sci 150 class. She and I had been in the same (our first) class in the Armory the previous period (Psych 108), where she sat with a mutual female friend with whom I had gone to school since kindergarten. My friend (so Dawn told me later) pointed me out and said that I was smart. About a minute after I sat in a seat on the aisle in Lincoln Hall Theater, Dawn came up to me (as she had followed me into the building and Lincoln Hall Theater), introduced herself and gave me her address and phone number (which I still remember). Suffice it to say that this never had happened to me before. Dawn was adorable and sweet, and within a few months she was my girlfriend. We have been happily married for over 32 years, and Lincoln Hall Theater was where it all began.
“I also remember lectures by Michael Scher in European History (Hist 211-212) in Lincoln Hall Theater. He was a dynamic young assistant professor. During class he would get so excited that he would whip his sweater off in the middle of a lecture. The female students were in love with him. Tragically, he died of a drug overdose.
“Finally, the midnight movie on Saturday night sometimes was shown in Lincoln Hall Theater instead of the Auditorium. Other weekend movies also were shown there. What a deal they were—50 cents or a dollar. (This was well before the days of VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-ray.) The running commentary by students during the movies (usually R- or X-rated comedies or dramas) added to the atmosphere.”
—Jeff Langer, AB ’77, history
“I also worked for Professor Bareis in the archaeology labs in the basement of Lincoln Hall. I remember washing artifacts and looking up through the windows and over at the English Building next door. I worked there during Jimmy Carter’s failed rescue attempt of Iranian hostages and Ted Kennedy’s run for president. Also took a U.S. history class in the wonderful lecture hall there.”
—Sue (Strickland) Novak, AB ’79, English
The Nose
“My favorite memories are rubbing Lincoln’s nose before a stressful test and getting lost to my first college class.”
—Katy Geminer, class of 2011
“1. Many painful hourly exams. 2. Rubbing Lincoln’s nose. 3. Professor Hayden’s poli sci classes. 4. Norm Graebner’s class in diplomatic history.”
—Walter Kurczewski, AB ’68, political science
Years of Tradition
“I had one free elective as an entering freshman in 1969 because I happened to proficiency out of Rhetoric 101. Used it to take Sociology 100 in the big theater in Lincoln Hall with the lecture section on Friday afternoons at 2 p.m. or some such, with a quiz section in one of the classrooms. Flash forward—we’re taking the tour of campus with my daughter Angela (BS ’03, psychology; MS ’07, Institute of Aviation) on a Friday afternoon—same time—Sociology 100—same theater. I assume that the content had been updated of course, but to still be in the same place at the same time of day was a little odd.”
—Bob Schriver, BS ’73, psychology; MBA ’76, business administration
“I took freshman classes there like most everyone else! Two years ago, I returned to Lincoln Hall for my youngest (of three) son’s freshman orientation. It was exciting!”
—Lisa (Braun) Gorak, AB ’75, teaching of German
“This building is a landmark and the center for my father, E. A. Philippson, for his life’s work. What I do remember as a fourth grader: Lincoln Hall was a large building with tall windows looking out on to those magnificent spaces lined with elm trees turning yellow in the fall. Brick, marble, copper, bronze, all metals turning green, on a rectangular building with a roof overhang and white terra cotta relief arches brought emphasis and majesty to the entrances. The main entrance from the Quad was also the theater entrance all in white marble with a grand stair leading up a full flight to a balcony lobby where you enter into the rear of a beautiful theater. Bas relief vignettes of Lincoln’s life reached out to you with their hands decorated with cigarettes by the students: a different generation of humor. To the left and right there was a long ring of hallways, offices on the interior and classrooms on the exterior. I remember sounds of footfalls on the linoleum, the hissing of door closers resisting the movement of the large wooden doors, the clap of the door stops, the talk of professors and students. I remember the open doors of the departments with women and typewriters at greeting desks. As we got close to my father’s office, I remember some names of his colleagues on the doors—Rehder, Nock, Stegemeier, Yehle, Frey, and Lorbe, to name a few. The museum up on the top floor was a bit scary for my sister and me. It had to do with the lighting and the windows, which were tall and clear to the floor allowing you to look out on the trees below. In the museum I remember the Laocoon statue with the yelling people and the snakes in their hands and other examples from Greek mythology. Roman marble heads, austere and authentic, dotted the displays all mysterious and intriguing. I learned from my father that the collection was special.
“This hall was my father’s professional home for over 25 years and even into his retirement. He attained a full professorship, published books and articles and, for a time edited the Journal of Germanic Languages, which give the U of I a good name. He advised many graduate students who completed the doctorate and went on to become professors and heads of German departments.
“For my last memory, a modern one, I found the plaque where my name appears with other donors. This is a nice ending to the memories I have had as a child, a student, and for many years an alumnus. This building has played a role in my life. Today I am a retired architect living in Oregon, but my visions and memory are clear about this hall and the part that the University of Illinois has played in making me the person I am.”
—E. Benno Philippson, AB ’61, architectural studies; AM ’62, architecture
“Taking a great Greek mythology class, sitting through many final exams, and watching midnight Bruce Lee kung fu movies with a packed, loud audience. Thirty years later sitting in the same lecture hall with my daughter during her biology lecture.”
—D. Mike Cvetkovic, DDS, BS ’78, biology, and AB ’78, microbiology
“I took classes in Lincoln Hall as a student from 1954 to 1956. Later I returned with my fifth grade classes for field trips to the museum. The students enjoyed seeing the mummies and nature displays.”
—J. Conerty, AB ’56, general agriculture