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As President Koob has pointed out, the effectiveness of a great university must be measured by something more than the personal success of its graduates. That is because our families, our schools, the businesses we operate and the representative form of government in which we participate are enlivened by one essential element: effective, responsible citizens.

This issue of University of Northern Iowa Today provides numerous examples of excellent citizenship applied for the good of communities in Iowa and elsewhere. Over and over, we fi nd UNI graduates practicing the essential give-and-take between a healthy society and its individual participants. We see the quality of effective citizenship at work in our undergraduates, alumni and spanning entire lifetimes in those who have passed on to leave an enduring legacy. As you read their stories, we hope you’ll agree that their work and their commitment is gratifying evidence that our goal of creating effective citizens is being achieved.

Gerald Anglum, editor of this publication for many years, died November 26. The details are better addressed elsewhere in
this magazine. I was going to resist another eulogy on this page for many reasons. For one, he wasn’t one for a lot of fanfare under any circumstances. For another, there’s a danger of saying something maudlin, which he would have edited out in about one second. Mainly, goodbyes among colleagues and friends are, in part, a private matter.

Once a year for the past five years, Gerald invited me into his office for my performance evaluation. We spent most of the hour talking about bass fishing, Mark Twain, slide guitar players and El Caminos—not because I was perfect or he had nothing to say, but because the real business took only a few minutes and his meaning was always crystal clear. Gerald was as
concise and to the point in his leadership as he was in his writing.

In his offi ce was a black metal Smith Corona manual typewriter, a relic from his days as a reporter on the Estherville Daily News. He no longer used it, but there it was. It weighed about a ton. Anyone who’s used one of these behemoths knows that it takes a considerable, deliberate effort to make a single keystroke. Once committed to hammering ribbon to paper, there’s no taking it back. Therefore, it’s a good idea to choose each word very carefully.Maybe that’s where he learned it.

Gerald loved the university and he loved this magazine. At the risk of violating my own restraints, I must say that I am humbled and honored to be the recipient of a torch he passed even as he courageously accepted the inevitability of his illness. We will carry on the best we can, and that’s all he asked. Still, there’s a big empty hole in the offi ce. No carefully chosen words are going to change that.

—DK

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Last Modified: January 25, 2006