A People, Not a Place
—Rick Cavanaugh ’76
I STRUGGLED with the concept of place in this issue.
I am blessed to live close enough to campus to be involved with the undergraduates, faculty, staff, and coaches. I have been a fraternity advisor, an admissions recruiter, and now an alumni leader.
So to me, Wabash is the people who believe in our mission, as opposed to its location in Crawfordsville or the buildings that make up our campus. They are the spirit of the place, the folks who instill in each class the values of a liberal education that we all hold so dear as Wabash alumni.
This is not to say that I don’t love the architecture of the Wabash campus. It’s a powerful metaphor for our close-knit community of mind and spirit. But there are many colleges and universities with interesting architecture. The people who are Wabash are one of a kind.
One of those people is my friend Tom Runge ’71, who occasionally muses about Wabash as this “good place.” But he, too, tends to tie his thoughts about the place to the people who are Wabash.
Tom will be leaving us a director of alumni and parent relations this March after having served us longer than any other alumni director in recent memory. He has been an innovator, leader and—when we’ve needed it—a taskmaster lighting a fire under the alumni body. Through it all one thing has been constant in Tom’s service: his love of our alma mater, this place called Wabash College. When you see Tom and Carol in the coming months, please wish them well and thank them both for their service to Wabash.
Thanks for all you do for Wabash.
Rick Cavanaugh ’76 is president, National Association of Wabash Men.