Farewell parties were staged this past week to honor six faculty members who are retiring or otherwise leaving Newman University at the end of the Spring 2015 semester. Many nembers of the Newman community gathered to pay their respects to longtime faculty members as well as some with shorter tenures at Newman.
Associate Professor of Education Guy Glidden, Ph.D. is retiring after working 53 years in education. Glidden started teaching at a high school in northeast Iowa in 1962. He came to Wichita in 1977 and spent the next 23 years as director of pupil evaluation and testing for USD 259. In 2000 he came to Newman. He is widely credited for revitalizing and expanding the Education Department at Newman.
Associate Professor of Education and Coordinator of the Evie Hufford Education Lab Karen Rogers, Ed.D. also came to Newman in 2000, and quickly made a name for herself as an enthusiastic and caring teacher. For the past 15 years Rogers has spent fall, winter and spring living in a condo in Wichita while teaching at Newman, and summers at the home she and her husband Manning own in Stillwater, Okla. When Rogers retires May 31, she will return to Stillwater where she and Manning, who is also retiring, plan to go on the “antique circuit” in Oklahoma and surrounding states buying and selling antiques – including the many they have collected over the years – and to set up their own booth in an antique store somewhere in Oklahoma.
Instructor of Education Carolyn Muehring, M.E. is also a longtime teacher who is retiring after a 51-year career. Before coming to Newman in 2006, Muehring taught every grade level from preschool to sixth grade across eight different states and one foreign country. Watch a video of Muehring discussing her career here.
Instructor of Education and Coordinator of ESOL Karen Boettcher, M.S.Ed. leaves Newman after two years with the university. During that time she played a key role in expanding the Master of Education – ESOL Curriculum and Instruction program in southeast Kansas. Boettcher previously served as the director of ESOL for USD 259. Boettcher said she is leaving Newman because she was “called by my church” to become the K-8 principal at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Wichita.
Assistant Professor of Biology Casey McNeil, Ph.D. is leaving Newman to attend the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. McNeil, who taught at Newman the past three years, will be back on campus next fall, however – as a student taking anatomy classes (Under an agreement, Newman provides anatomy classes for all medical students at the KU School of Medicine -Wichita).
Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics Richard Barrans, Ph.D., M.Ed., who is completing his one-year teaching contract at Newman, will leave the university to work as a teacher for the Peace Corps in Malawi, Africa.
