Like Father, Like Son?
After teaching at Wabash for 28 years, you’d think Professor of Chemistry Richard Dallinger had seen it all.
But Fall 2012 brought something he never expected: His son is teaching at Wabash.
Greg Dallinger is Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry, a one-year appointment that puts a father-son team in the same department for the first time in recent Wabash history.
The younger Dallinger’s path back to Crawfordsville would have amazed those who knew Greg during his early high school years.
“I think the biggest misconception people assume about me is that since my father is a chemist at Wabash, he just shuttled me into doing chemistry, which couldn’t be farther from the truth,” Greg says. “He was very hands off on that; he didn’t want me to do that just because that’s what he did, though I think he’s obviously pleased I went that way.
“For the first part of high school, I was into dance,” he explains. But a chemistry class he took at Crawfordsville High School with Pru Phillips, the wife of Professor of Chemistry Emeritus David Phillips, piqued his interest.
“I took my chemistry classes with Mrs. Phillips and it just sort of clicked.”
She inspired Dallinger to follow a similar career.
“I’ve had the privilege in my life to have very good instructors guide me along the way,” he says.
Although his son’s appointment is only for the year, Rich Dallinger is savoring it.
“It’s not something too many people get to experience,” he says. “It’s great to see him and watch him become such an accomplished teacher at a young age. To teach alongside him is just great.”
—reported by Taylor Kenyon ’15, from The Bachelor