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Letter to the Editor: Tribute to Jim Ludwig

For Whom The Bell Tolls, it does now for our kind, respectful, and inspiring colleague Jim Ludwig. A charter member of our original European Summer Semester crew, Jim now joins the ranks of those wonderful ESS faculty members who went before him to that great seminar in the sky: Doris Kolb (Chemistry), Inge Matthews (German), Rick Stalling (Psychology), John Howard (International Studies), Barbara Penelton (Education). Nina Collins (Family and Consumer Sciences). Jim Ludwig will be remembered among his colleagues as the man who discovered WagaMamas cheap vegetarian eats in London. He also had a fairly good claim to having found the plethora of special dining spots on Great Charlotte Street, behind the Goodge Street Underground Station, a short stroll from our regular digs in the Royal National Hotel. I feel certain that the honor roll of faculty members above, along with several of us still waiting for our bell to toll, at one time or another joined as a group on Great Charlotte Street for comradeship and a great meal. Thanks to Jim for that, and probably also to a wise young financial administrator, Gary Anna. Because of Jim Ludwig, with the keen support of Provost Kalman Goldberg, there is a Bradley University paving stone on the walk-about at the famous Shakespearean Globe Theater in London, the first American university to have done so. Thanks also to Jim, we saw Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford in their debut season of Phantom of the Opera, as well as Dustin Hoffman as Shylock inThe Merchant of Venice. I’m partial, of course, but I would readily claim that the European Summer Semester contingent over and over again were among the best and the most dedicated faculty in our university community. They joined together abroad, and at much personal sacrifice, to practice what I always believed was the greatest purpose of higher education: an assembly of teachers and learners on a common intellectual journey. Thank you Jim for being a great colleague and a good neighbor. A favorite piece of Jim’s folk wisdom remains worthy for today’s faculty and students to heed: “Don’t forget to engage in random acts of civil disobedience!”

Elmo E. Roach
Emeritus history
joeroach@me.com

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