Lifelong Learning
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN CHRISTINE WEEKS AND DR. FRED OHLES, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, NEBRASKA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
On June 28, 2019, Fred Ohles packed up the remaining items in his office and took a final stroll around the campus of Nebraska Wesleyan University as President, a position he had served with enthusiasm and gratitude for 12 years. Fred didn’t see his last day as an ending, but rather as the first entry on the next page in his multi-chaptered life and career. Christine Weeks, the publisher of Lincoln 55+, had the great fortune of meeting Fred through their mutual membership in Rotary Club #14, and they instantly bonded over a love for the written word. In his usual gracious way, Fred agreed to share his story, and to reveal how he’s making the most of retirement.
Christine: Fred, I know you traveled a lot in your career but I don’t think I know where you are from.
Fred: My earliest days were in Minneapolis, MN where I was born. My father was a teacher and we moved a lot. I lived all over the country, including: Massachusetts, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and New York.
C: Where did you land for college?
F: I went to Carleton College in Northfield, MN where I majored in history. I went on to Brandeis University in Massachusetts where I obtained my Masters and Ph.D. in 1977 and 1981, respectively.
C: What was your experience like in Germany?
F: I went to Germany to study political censorship in the early 1800s, which required me to review various police reports, court proceedings, etc. that were all written in a German script that is no longer used, though I did get good at reading it. Marburg was where they archived the records of the censorship committee employed by the Electoral Prince who ruled that part of Germany. Archived in this building were items dating back centuries, including a document written by Martin Luther, and a giant red wax seal on an edict with the signature of Emperor Barbarossa from the 12th Century!
C: What was the first position you held after college?
F: I wanted to be a professor and started out working as a part-time teaching assistant at Brandeis, then at Boston College, for two years each. In 1981, I took a job teaching the History of Germany in Melbourne, Australia. I was hired for a temporary teaching position for a year and a half and the best part of moving to Melbourne was meeting my wife, Rosemary.
C: I always enjoy a good love story. Tell us how you met.
F: We met at the International House at the University of Melbourne. Speaking of international, Rosemary grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her mother was Chinese and her father was Portuguese, Filipino, and Indian. While in Melbourne, we enjoyed going to the theater together, where I felt very lucky to be holding season passes to two different theaters. Soon after returning to the US, we got engaged, and I accepted a teaching job at Upsala College in East Orange, NJ. During that time, we got married. Our marriage license is in Malay, so I honestly can’t tell you what it says. I do have a funny story about having an interracial family and the births of our daughters Erika and Andrea. When Andrea was born in Washington, D.C., the census taker came into the room and saw me holding Andrea and wrote down “Caucasian” on the birth certificate. Erika was born in Minnesota and when the census taker came into the room, she looked at Rosemary, then at Erika, and wrote down “Asian.” So, we have one of each!
C: I know you made a lasting impact at Nebraska Wesleyan. Can you tell us what you are most proud of during your time there?
F: I’m proud of so many things:
• The faculty and the deans developed the Archway Curriculum which is a national model for how to teach the liberal arts.
• We built Acklie Hall of Science and expanded the boundary of the campus in the process.
• We ran the largest funding campaign in the school’s history.
• We changed athletic conferences and in doing so, the Iowa Conference changed its name to the American Rivers Conference.
• Our Men’s Basketball team won the Division III national championship in 2018.
“What has brought me the most joy in my career has been working with our students and watching their successes; talking with them; having visits with student government leaders; going to their plays.”
- FRED OHLES
C: Since retiring, what have you been up to?
F: I’ve been keeping busy doing projects such as:
• Organizing and partnering with Rosemary as co-mentors of a Council of Independent Colleges program, the Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission Seminar.
• Writing a full length, two-act play, “Drawn Back.“ It’ll have a reading in the fall. I’m also starting a few one-act plays, one is a spoof called “Beautiful People.”
• Creating and publishing crossword puzzles. I’ve had two crossword puzzles in the Wall Street Journal and one in the Los Angeles Times that appeared in Lincoln Journal Star, and, of course, Lincoln 55+!
Looks like Fred has his act together, and we applaud him for that!