Dear 2G Grandchildren,
When I look in the rear-view mirror, I feel very fortunate to have been part of the Illinois College community from 1964-1969 for reasons that all have to do with learning. It was at a time when it was soul-stirring to be alive, especially to be young and in a transitional phase of life. I feel that I learned so much in those years, not only from my studies, but also from my friends, many of whom became life-long friends. One of those classmates was to become not only my life-long best friend, but my true soul-mate -- my wife of close to fifty years, Sabina (nee Stein) Peknik, a Gamma Delta girl class of '68.
The most memorable life-forming aspect of my years on the Hill was a group of three upperclassmen and one professor who served me as my life role models through their thoughts, words, and deeds while at Illinois College and for years thereafter. Let me introduce you to my four life role models – fellow students Rob McCall, Jack Russell, and Dick Rundall (all two years my senior) and professor Donald Eldred, who was also the Dean of Students at the time.
All three students were my Sigma Pi brothers. Jack was my pledge father when I pledged as a freshman. He amazed me with his intelligence, wit, and kind-heartedness as he oversaw my assimilation into that literary society. Dick invited me to share an off-campus apartment with him after my freshman year in a small third-story apartment at 212 Park (across the street from Rammelkamp Chapel). And Rob amazed me daily with his writing and gentle humor as the Sig recording secretary.
We played intramural sports; we socialized on weekends; and my bride-to-be and I were often entertained by the three of them at the downtown coffee house The Attic where they performed as the core of a talented Woodie Guthrie-style folk-jug band The New Yale Band, which took its name after the original Yale Band, the group of seven Yale University students who founded Illinois College in 1829.
Professor Don Eldred, whom we always called Dean Eldred, was upbeat, outgoing, comfortable with all kinds of students, and very supportive of me personally, a boy from a Chicago who was the first in his working-class family to attend college. He guided me through many areas: he was my Faculty Adviser when I edited the college newspaper the Rambler; he steered me into a volunteer role at Illinois State Hospital, and as my Writing professor, he was the first educator ever to tell me that he enjoyed reading a “composition” I’d written, one about my youthful wanderings in a large Chicago prairie entitled Mouse Village. In addition, he introduced me to great literature of the time that still lives in my brain, like J.D. Salinger’s short story about the end of youth entitled Laughing Man from Nine Stories that connected with me both in 1967 and nowadays: the narrator in this story-within-a-story (“The Chief” in this “Comanche Club” )is a college student who has a girlfriend, like me at the time (see above); he tells a serial-like story full of international mystery (my wife and I were to spend sixteen years living abroad in strange lands); The Chief tells the parts of the story to the youngsters in his care on a baseball diamond; and the main character in the Chief’s serial narrative is a man with a disfigured face who was very athletic and could speak with animals is one I relate to after sustaining a traumatic brain injury ten years ago that has left my own face disfigured.
In the last fifty years since graduation, I have followed their lives and – as much as possible – follow their guidance in living a life with these commitment principles:
- Commitment to Long-term Marriage My role models all stayed married to their IC sweethearts for about 50 years and never plan to divorce. And so did I.
- Commitment to Peace They all disapproved of our government’s involvement in Vietnam and resisted being a part of that conflict. And so did I.
- Commitment to Spirituality While we all wound up in different faiths, we all have tried to stay true to the tenets of our Creator, especially Rob McCall, who has been a village pastor in Maine, written two wonderful good-works books and a monthly newsletter entitled Awanadjo Almanack, and who is “devoted to feeling at home in Nature and breaking down the wall of hostility between us and the rest of Creation.”
- Commitment to Service Rob, Jack and Dick all have lived lives of service to others of all races and creeds through their professional work (teaching and counselling), volunteerism, and community service. And so have I (though less so).
- Commitment to Culturally Competency Respecting the diverse backgrounds, individuality and "lived experience" of others.
Dear 2G Grandchildren, I learned that being in the right place at the right time with the right people is what matters the most in life, especially when looking in the rear-view mirror.
Love,
Your 2G Grandpapa,
George Peknik
#role model #Illinois College # cultural competency # anti-Vietnam War # Sigma Pi Literary Society