Craig retires from his CES work on June 30, and so Loni and Tim surprised him with a retirement celebration at his last Institute graduation on May 1.
I love that the cake represented his Purdue and his Illinois years. (It was delicious!!)
Craig and me.
Loni not only planned the party, she made the apron for Craig. It plays on his notoriety for making soup lunches on Fridays for students. Loni has been an excellent secretary and is a good friend, too. I know he will miss working with her.
The Haddock family from Williamsport. Twila Sprague Haddock was one of Craig's seminary students, and her mother, Beverly Sprague, was Craig's secretary at the University of Illinois Institute! It was fun having one of our dual Illini/Purdue families with us.
Also in attendance were Steve and Rosemary Son. Steve did his PhD at Illinois and now is a professor at Purdue. He spoke at the graduation about having worked as a stake clerk when Craig was in the stake presidency of the Champaign, Illinois stake.
As a member of the Lafayette stake presidency, Tim conducted the graduation and took the liberty of sharing about Craig's career. He asked me a week or so ahead of time to write down some of the highlights and email him. I was amazed - Tim spoke without notes at length and covered everything I had written! (Text of what I sent Tim is below.)
Congratulations, Craig! You have worked hard, and deserve the best of retirement.
Craig joined the Church while at Purdue, and as his knowledge of the gospel grew, plans to become a medical doctor quickly changed as the family became a priority for him. He needed a different career path. (He has a double bachelors in biology and psychology as a result. His masters is in counseling psychology; he thought that would help him in his work for CES.)
After serving in the Spain Mission 1973-1975 (Spain was only one mission then), meeting and marrying me, and being a faithful Institute student, he spoke with the Purdue Institute's director, Dan Bachman, about becoming an Institute teacher while finishing up grad school at Purdue.
Dan contacted SLC who said he needed to teach an Institute class for experience (which Craig did) and then Seminary. So, Craig started an early morning Seminary class which he taught for a month on a trial basis, the first early morning Seminary class in the area. Reps from SLC came and observed him, and they invited him to come out to SLC for training for new hirees that summer of 1977. (Most people went to Utah for Seminary/Institute training; Craig's training out here under Dan Bachman was not the usual hiring route!)
Craig did not know for sure that he was hired; all we knew was that he was simply invited to come to the meetings. When he arrived at the meeting for new hirees, still unsure of his employment status, he was handed a folder and packet that said "Craig Isenbarger/Central Michigan University." No one ever said, "You're hired!" But, we took the packet and folder at its word and they began sending us paychecks, so... Craig was the first Institute man located at CMU for the Church.
We loaded a U-Haul with our possessions, found a tiny home in the "banana belt" of Michigan as it was called (we have never, ever seen so much snow in our lives - we still wonder what the non-banana belt areas of Michigan were like!) and rented a home near campus at Mount Pleasant, Michigan in August of 1977. Craig taught weekly classes at Central Michigan University, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo), and a satellite class in Grand Rapids. That plus his seminary duties (if I remember right, he had 3 stakes of Seminary) took him all over the lower peninsula. At the time, he was expected to teach Super Saturdays monthly for each stake, so he was constantly on the road.
Two years later, we had just built a new home on the border of the Chippewa Indian Reservation and moved into it. It was late September, and school had already begun so Craig's classes were in full swing. The phone rang and it was SLC calling. Due to a death in CES, they were shuffling positions. We were asked to go to the University of Illinois (ironically replacing Dan Bachman who had moved there after his Purdue days and was also being transfered in the shuffle.) It meant moving after Institute classes had begun, and the Lansing Institute (Michigan State University) had a man who was asked to take over Craig's area and classes.
Again we packed up our possessions and this time we headed to Champaign, Illinois in October, 1979.
The program at Illinois was very small at the time, but Craig taught 5-6 different classes and that really pulled the students in. It was heavenly to have a building (he'd worked out of our home in Michigan with me as his secretary. Like I knew anything about secretarying!!) and not as much travel; however, he now had 5 stakes of Seminary, and in those days, no Seminary supervisors. Saturdays were always full as a result with Super Saturdays.
(Craig also served in several bishoprics and branch presidencies, as a counselor in the Stake Presidency of the Champaign Stake, as Bishop of the Champaign 1st Ward, and as a High Councilor many times. We also added five kids, Sarah having been born in Michigan.)
The program grew and grew and grew. When Craig first arrived, two or three students per class were the norm. Ping pong challenges with "Brother I" brought in some kids, who then hung around and started taking classes. Soon we were celebrating a class of eight, then ten, then the Wednesday night class climbed to 30+! (Surprisingly, he was not cooking his famous soups then!)
(Much of the Williamsport Branch was in the Champaign Stake at the time, and Craig has actually taught four generations of a couple of those families, something that always makes him smile in wonder.)
During this time, SLC twice asked us to move to Church Headquarters in SLC. An early computer user and very active with the Macintosh Users Group on campus, Craig was frequently called upon to fix computers for CES all over the midwest and east. SLC/CES asked him to head up CES's computer operations for the world. Gulp!! We had to think about that one. But Craig has always wanted to teach, despite being able to easily solve tech problems. And, he'd given up ideas of being a doctor because he wanted to be home with his family. The position being offered meant traveling all over the world. Just not what he wanted to do. We turned that offer down. (Craig was asked again a few years later to move to Church Headquarters; again we said "no.")
The Institute program at Illinois got so big that SLC ended up adding another full time man to help Craig. Then, after many requests from Joe Stucki (president of the Champaign Stake and a Purdue alum who was an Agronomy professor at Illinois) the Institute building was extensively remodeled. They took it down to the studs! Craig, the other CES man, and the secretary had to move into other quarters for nearly two years as the Church redid the building. The offices were relocated at the stake center which was off campus and about four miles away. This was a problem. Through the LDSSA, which was officially recognized by the University of Illinois as a student group, Craig was able to reserve classes in campus buildings and teach Institute in the heart of the U of I campus.
Lots of upheaval and a tough two years all around as the construction of the new building droned on. But it was worth it - the building looks like a visitors' center now and is absolutely beautiful.
Several times CES asked if we wanted to come back to Purdue - we had told them that eventually we would like to return to our roots. But it never felt "right" to us the times they asked, and we were lucky enough that CES accepted our polite request to remain at the University of Illinois rather than transfer back to Purdue. But concerns over our aging parents were rising, so in February of 2006 when CES asked again, we prayed and felt the time was right and accepted the position.
Coming back to Purdue meant big changes for us. This time Craig used ping pong and his famous soups to recruit students. He was very, very happy to come home, to teach in the place he used to come as a nonmember (complete with afro, cut off shorts, and heavy beard and moustache) and then as a new convert, a prospective missionary. A returned missionary and a new husband. This is the place where Craig began his gospel journey, and where he ends his Institute service as part of that journey. But it is fitting that things have come full circle, and that he ends it where he began. :)
