Homecoming 2003
Jack Cummings: the UW-Whitewater connection
Alumni & Friends, Winter/Spring 2004
John A. Cummings (Jack) and the class of 1953 celebrated the 50th reunion of their graduation from Whitewater State Teachers College at the 2003 Homecoming. But Cummings’ connection to UWWhitewater started earlier than his college admission and extends far beyond his graduation date.
Cummings was raised on a farm in “the metropolis” of Little Prairie just 15 miles from Whitewater. He attended Whitewater public schools before entering the state teacher’s college in 1949. “At that time,” Cummings said, “it was $37 per semester and that was total for books and everything.”
Cummings painted a vivid picture of the campus surroundings and the instruction he received while a student. “Except for the university, the city had no industry except the milk plant,” Cummings recalled. “The university was basically all on the hill. Old Main plus Hyer Hall was it. Graham Street was a road and the elm trees completely arched over Main Street.”
The instruction I received at the “Normal School” was superb. In the science area people like Joe Chopp, Rudy Prucha, Hugo Lahti and Lloyd Liedtke were truly masters in the classroom. What they did was contagious and thanks to these great teachers I was “infected.”
Other fond memories of his undergraduate days include:
“The bell tower stood on the highest elevation in town and if you were coming in from out of town you could see it for miles.”
“The Main Bar, the Huddle, Howies Hilltop and the Goal Post were our favorite first-aid stations, where people worked off their daily rigors.”
“Missing morning classes to go hunting in fall was common practice. We’d go duck hunting and come back and present the game to the instructor or his wife.”
After graduating in 1953 with majors in biology and chemistry, Cummings went on to get a master’s of science in education at UW-Madison, which he completed in 1959. In 1961, when he was teaching at the Fort Atkinson High School, UW-Whitewater president Robert C. Williams summoned him to his office.
“He looked presidential, acted presidential and was presidential,” Cummings commented. “A neat guy.” President Williams wanted him to join the teaching staff. After serious consideration, Cummings accepted and that decision heralded the beginning of a 29-year association with UW-Whitewater as a faculty member in the biology department.
From 1961- 1990, Cummings taught classes in radiation biology, molecular biology, ecology of man, biological techniques and, most notably, he introduced the marine biology course into the curriculum. A fun course, it allowed majors to do something off campus between semesters in Big Pine, Florida. To this day, the Cummings’ divide their year between Wisconsin and the Florida Keys.
In 1950, Cummings married his Whitewater High School sweetheart, Nancy Bogie. Nancy, a 1962 alumnus, went back to school after the birth of their two children and earned a degree in English. Their son and daughter have both subsequently received their undergraduate and graduate degrees from UW-Whitewater. Cummings’ connection has turned into a legacy.
In 1966, Cummings received his doctorate degree from the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley. Then the 1970s brought the “disaster” of the Old Main fire. “I sat across the road at the old Goal Post with Nancy, watching the thing go down,” Cummings recalled. “It was devastating. I could see my office and all the classrooms I used on the north wing just go into a heap.”
Overall, Cummings feels he and the class of 1953 lived in the “best of times.”
“We grew up during a Depression, but didn’t know we were poor yet probably were. You learned to live with what you had. Look at the development; we put a man on the moon and brought him back. Automobiles have improved. Flight… most of my grandkids’ trips or vacations have been flying somewhere. Very different from what we did. We grew up in the era where the most feared individual when you did something wrong was your dad. Now, if something happens at school your dad goes for a lawyer.”
Cummings continues to enjoy his association with the university, serving as master of ceremonies for the fall Emeriti luncheon, participating in winter alumni events in Florida, following UW-Whitewater sports and supporting the university through scholarships and donations. – Cindy Vergenz