Kenyon bids farewell to retiring professors

Michael Evans

Professor Emeritus of Humanities and History

Professor Emeritus of Humanities and History Michael Evans joined Kenyon's history department in 1965 and has since served as an active member of Kenyon's faculty for longer than any of his predecessors. In 1975, he co-founded the Integrated Program in Humane Studies (IPHS), for which he has served as director from 2001 to 2008. A specialist in the Italian Renaissance, Evans has spent much of his career studying the writing and philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli.

"[Evans] was a master of the seminar, as generations can gratefully testify," Professor of Humanities Timothy Shutt said. "As Director of IPHS, he was a mentor and inspiration to us all."

"In over 40 years of teaching at Kenyon, Professor Evans was a remarkably successful teacher, especially as a leader of seminars and class discussions on a formidable array of demanding topics in history and the humanities," Associate Professor of History and Humanities Matthew Maguire said.

Over the course of his many years at Kenyon, Evans has seen the College undergo great change but is optimistic about the direction the school is headed.

"In the last few years it seems to me that there has been more of an intellectual culture in the faculty and student body," Evans said. "That is something that I have not always thought to be the case, and I've seen that improving in the past five to ten years. It's something that I see as critical to the health and vitality of the College."

"I love teaching, and [Kenyon] is a great liberal arts college," he said. "It has been a wonderful place to spend a career."

Evans is currently living in Arizona "relaxing [and] enjoying the sunlight and the warm weather," he said. "I don't quite feel retired yet. I keep feeling like I'm on a long vacation."

The Michael J. Evans Seminar Room, built with donations from former students to honor Evans and his contributions to their lives and to Kenyon, will be opened in Timberlake House next week.

-Phoebe Hillemann

John Idoine

Professor of Physics

Professor of Physics John Idoine is looking forward to two things in retirement. One: having time to think about things. Two: reading the classics, various books and literature he has not had the time to focus on over the years.

"[I have] too many things to do," Idoine said. "I want to travel, spend time with my family and do some reading on theology."

While Idoine has developed a newfound interest in the science versus religion debate late in his career, he has devoted much of his research over the years to medical imaging and radiological physics. Since joining Kenyon's faculty in 1981, Idoine has "made a tremendous impact on the physics department," according to Associate Provost Paula Turner, who has known Idoine since she joined the department in 1992.

"[He initiated] our calculus-based introductory physics course and [infused] our senior-level advanced lab program with several new experiments in atomic and nuclear physics," Turner said.

Since then, Idoine has incorporated new digital video image capture technology into the classroom and brought the seminal ideas of 20th century physics into the first year of the physics program, according to Turner.

"I'm very proud of the department, but not myself so much," said the always-modest Idoine. "I don't think people are aware of how good the science department is here. We are overshadowed by what we call the 'curse of the English department.' Over the last decade, Kenyon has become one of the best places to study physics as an undergraduate."

Idoine is also one of the founding members of The Physics Band, an impromptu get-together of science majors and professors that has met every Friday for the past 25 years. Unfortunately, he has missed many of the meetings over the past semester because he has been on sabbatical, traveling to France, Boston, Russia and various Scandinavian countries, doing research in molecular imaging.

"He is a consummate lab teacher, able to challenge and motivate students to go beyond their comfort zones, to do more and learn more in lab than they ever imagined they could," Turner said.

Idoine will remain in the area, continuing his research with 3D nuclear imaging. "I will miss the interactions with students-something I've also missed while I've been on sabbatical," he said.

-Richard Wylde

Perry Lentz

Charles P. McIlvane Professor of English

Sitting in his office crowded with multi-volume epics and American classics, Professor of English Perry Lentz is about as comfortable quoting Milton as most of us are "Mean Girls."

To explain why he is retiring after 40 years at Kenyon, Lentz told a story from Book Two of "Paradise Lost," when two fallen angels disagree over what to do after being beaten by God. One, Moloch, wants to keep fighting. Belial, on the other hand, advocates being quiet instead, reasoning that if they don't bother God, he will forget about the angels.

"That was clothed in reason's garb, but he was just preaching sloth and ignoble ease," Lentz said. "And that sounds pretty good to me. I'm going to practice sloth and ignoble ease."

Lentz, who graduated from Kenyon in 1964 with a degree in English, returned to teach the subject at his alma mater in 1969. He remembers it as a place with "ivy on the walls, ashtrays in the rooms … and the professors all wore tweed in the English tradition."

Lentz is not the only English professor to return to Kenyon from the class of 1964. Writer in Residence P.F. Kluge met Lentz during their first year, when they studied "Paradise Lost" under the renowned Denham Sutcliffe.

"We were both two killer-diller students in the English department, and of course we were rivals. We were tied for first in the class; we both got highest honors," he said. Kluge has since returned to reading "Paradise Lost," though this time he is auditing his former classmate's course. "It confirms to me that … he has a passion and authority that he brings to his teaching. It's rare when those qualities combine in a classroom performance," Kluge said.