University retirees look back at careers, look forward to other pursuits

Some 131 UI employees entered the next stage of their lives during the 2007–08 academic year, which is to say they retired from the University. Some will stay busy with ongoing research, others will give time to worthy causes, and still others will find plenty to do around the house. Five retirees recently told fyi about their plans.

Claibourne Dungy

	Claibourne Dungy is looking forward to traveling during retirement—he has visited all but one of the seven continents and all but three of the 50 states in his previous journeys. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Clai Dungy says he never thought about his tendency to map out the future until this past June, at his younger daughter’s wedding, when friends joked that whenever they ask “What’s the plan?” they say they’re “doing it the Dungy way.”

Thinking ahead served Dungy well during his 35-year career. Since coming to the University in 1988, Dungy, a professor of pediatrics, epidemiology, and law, served as director of the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at UIHC, successfully balancing patient care, teaching residents and medical students, researching breastfeeding choices, and leading the division.

Planning is serving him just as well in retirement.

“Over the past 20 years, I attended retirement sessions at Human Resources and thought about the fact that it would come up,” he says. “So retirement wasn’t a shock.”

During Dungy’s career, life was full. He especially enjoyed working with parents and children, meeting them when babies were born and staying in contact until the children’s adulthood. He also relished his administrative role, helping junior faculty shape their careers and providing leadership and a common direction for a division of individuals.

 “My working years gave me the best of all worlds,” he says. “I had my own wonderful family, I lived in a nice community, I had wonderful colleagues and worked in a fine physical setting. I enjoyed getting up every day.”

Has he felt the same since his Oct. 1 retirement?

“I still enjoy getting up every day,” he says with a quiet chuckle. “I just get up later.”

In retirement, Dungy is joining his wife, Madgetta Dungy, who retired from the University two years ago as assistant dean in the College of Medicine. Although Clai has continued with board responsibilities, completing his presidency of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association and continuing as chair of the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners, he’s held back on other volunteerism.

“I wanted to give myself a year to relax and to assess where my skills would best be used,” he says.

The term “relax” is somewhat misleading: In addition to his board responsibilities, Dungy still sees patients in the pediatric clinic one day a week.

But he’s also found time for leisure reading and for pursuing one of his major goals: travel. He and his younger daughter celebrated his retirement with a trip to Antarctica, which helped fulfill one of his lifelong plans: to visit all seven continents (he’s got just one to go), in addition to all 50 states (just three more to tick off the list). And as a young boy, growing up in Springfield, Ill., he developed an interest in state capitol buildings: he intends to visit the 20 he hasn’t yet seen.

Foremost on the Dungys' list of travel plans is spending time with their daughters, who reside in Sarasota, Fla., and San Francisco. While both are excellent locations for sampling the snowbird life, Dungy sees Iowa City as the base from which he’ll continue to hone his medical skills, catch up on his reading, and plan the next phase of life. Retirement may have even loosened up this methodical man.

“I like the flexibility,” he says. “You wake up and plan to do ‘A’ but instead do ‘X.’ You may or may not get back to ‘A,’ and that’s okay.”

by Linzee Kull McCray

Carl Jackson

	After years of coaching the ground game for the University of Iowa football team, Carl Jackson is looking forward to tending the grounds around his home. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Carl Jackson spent more than 40 years of his life teaching the game of football to young men throughout the nation, with more than half of that time as a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes. After retiring from The University of Iowa earlier this year, Jackson looked back on his time with fond memories and no regrets.

“It was something I had been thinking about for a couple of years,” says the 68-year-old Jackson. “I just felt at some point you have to step away. I felt this was as good a time as any.”

Jackson coached the Hawkeyes in two stints, the first from 1979 to 1991 under former head coach Hayden Fry. After five years with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and one year with the University of Texas, Jackson returned to Iowa City in 1999 to be a part of Kirk Ferentz’s staff as running backs coach. Several players made the jump to the NFL during Jackson’s coaching tenure, including former Hawkeyes Ladell Betts and Fred Russell and former Texas running back Ricky Williams. Jackson also owns a Super Bowl ring from his days in San Francisco.

Jackson noted how much the game has changed during his time as a coach.

“When Coach Fry brought us to the Big Ten, it was very much a running conference. We passed the ball and that changed the landscape,” Jackson says. “The game has changed so much over the years from offense to defense to recruiting. We just tried to keep up.”

Jackson recalls Iowa’s victory over the University of Michigan in 1985 and the Rose Bowl–clinching win over Michigan State University in 1981 as his two fondest memories as a Hawkeye. But Jackson is quick to point out that while those memories remain strong, he will still miss football Saturdays.

“I’ll miss game day and working with the young men,” Jackson says. “The game-day atmosphere here in Iowa City is one of the best I have ever been around.”

Jackson has done some traveling since retiring in February, but eventually plans to move back to Houston, Texas, to spend more time with family.

by Brad Rudner

Becky Johnson

	Becky Johnson is taking a drawing class at the Iowa City Senior Center. Johnson is also volunteering now that she has retired from her position with UI Libraries. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Most people want to hit the ground running when it comes time to retire. For Becky Johnson, retirement was literally approached in smaller steps.

Johnson, who retired as head of the reference and instruction department in University of Iowa Libraries, broke her left foot about six months before her retirement. The injury required an operation to fuse many of the bones together. Immediately after, she had to relearn to walk—a lengthy but successful process.

“That was all I thought about for six months, so retirement took a backseat,” Johnson says. “Now I’m beginning to enjoy my time off.”

With the surgery and a long winter behind her, Johnson hit the road in April, traveling with a friend to Florida to get warm. She’s looking forward to more extensive travel: she is eyeing a trip with friends to Spain and Portugal in the near future.

Johnson, who came to the University in 1970 after finishing her graduate studies at the University of Washington, helped students and faculty find their way at UI Libraries. In addition to answering reference questions and assisting researchers, she taught credit courses and helped identify materials needed from Interlibrary Loan.

In later years Johnson helped with the installation of two online catalog systems. Technology—more specifically, its constant evolution—provided the biggest change to her work over the years. “When I began my career, computers in libraries were just a dream,” she says.

Before the computer was commonplace, Johnson says a reference librarian was vital to comprehensive research. “The job was a lot of fun, almost like being a private investigator,” she says. In the computer era, Johnson and her staff spent a great deal of time teaching users how to do their own research.

The high level of service provided by Johnson’s staff amid constant change is a source of pride. “The staff embraced change and moved forward, adopting all the new technologies as they came along,” Johnson says. “They never failed to do what was expected of them—and more.”

Now Johnson will devote time to volunteering where help is needed. She serves on the board of directors for the Shelter House in Johnson County, and recently started volunteering at the Iowa City Public Library. But she hasn’t forgotten the good times in her UI job.

“My job was fun—not everyone can say that,” Johnson says. “I will miss the many people I worked with, including all the students and faculty. I also will miss the challenge of learning new resources and sharing them with others. 

“What I won’t miss is getting up early to be at work by 8 a.m. every day,” she adds.

by Christopher Clair

Barbara Stay

	Barbara Stay plans to stay busy in retirement, as she is enjoying her lab research studying cockroaches, termites, and beetles. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

The only time in her career that Barbara Stay played hooky, the water had frozen on the City Park pond, and the devoted ice dancer took to the ice.

In retirement, Stay plans to lace up her skates at every opportunity. She recently bought new blades for her skates—a retirement gift to herself. She also replaced the 1940 Raleigh 3-speed bike she is known for riding around town.

But Stay, who is retiring after 41 years as a faculty member in the Department of Biology, will be quick to tell you that she has merely retired from teaching. She’s having too much fun studying cockroaches, termites, and beetles to quit her research pursuits anytime soon.

“My family said, ‘do you know how old you’ll be when your next five-year grant runs out?’” she says. “My grant ended, and then I got another one.”

Stay’s lifelong interest in insects began as a kid growing up in the country, where she “spent a lot of time down by the stream turning over rocks.”  As a student at Radcliffe Graduate School, she was determined to work with the most energetic professor in the biology department—who just happened to study insects.

Later, Stay arrived at her first job as an entomologist at the Army Research Center on the same day as a shipment of viviparous cockroaches from Hawaii, beginning a longtime affinity with the creatures.

“These cockroaches are really adorable,” she says.

Stay came to The University of Iowa in 1967, and remained the only female faculty member in the department for some time. Her research focused on how information flows from the cockroach’s nervous system to the endocrine system to control reproduction and development. Her work has also involved the cockroach’s close relative, the termite, a social creature with a complicated caste system. And more recently, beetles have sparked her interest.

 “It’s an amazing pleasure to enjoy what you’re working on,” she says. “Research is fun. I get paid for having fun.”

Giving up her large introductory biology course, which she has taught to pre-nursing students for the past 20 years, will free up more time for research, ice dancing, and tending a butterfly garden near the Music Building.

“I won’t be teaching, which is nice, but it’s sad too,” she says. “To see students all of a sudden see the light, it’s really a wonderful thing.”

by Madelaine Jerousek-Smith

Marianne Weiss

	Volunteering is nothing new to Marianne Weiss—her volunteer work at the Johnson County Crisis Center is something she will continue to do during her retirement. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

As office coordinator for two nonprofit organizations in University of Iowa International Programs—the Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities (CIVIC) and Iowa City Foreign Relations Council (ICFRC)—Marianne Weiss had the opportunity to build friendships around the world.

Now retired, Weiss hopes to continue meeting new people while traveling the world to visit friends of old.

“To me, this job was perfect because what I love about travel is the opportunity to meet people from other cultures and learn about this wonderful world of ours,” Weiss says.

Weiss first began to volunteer for CIVIC in April 1997, helping set up visitor hospitality and coordinating volunteers. That summer, she accepted the part-time job as office coordinator for both CIVIC and ICFRC, a position she held until her retirement.

Weiss says her job entailed keeping the books of both organizations, setting up and maintaining a database of volunteers, coordinating ICFRC events, assisting in international visitors scheduling, supervising student interns, and working with both boards of directors to fulfill their missions.

Over the years, Weiss has enjoyed watching the two groups grow closer with International Programs yet still maintain their independence. She also has taken pleasure in the visitors she has met and become friends with over the years.

One of Weiss’ fondest memories was the first picnic she scheduled to welcome the International Writing Program participants to the community. It was here that she met Suchen Christine Lim, an award-winning author from Singapore. Twelve years later, the two are still close friends.

As for retirement? “For the first two months, I want to do nothing but work on my “bucket list,” Weiss says. “I want to seize the moment and not be tied down.”

Weiss looks forward to taking aqua aerobic classes, trying senior classes at the University, going on day trips with friends, and doing all the other things you can’t do when you’re working.

Later, Weiss hopes to travel to places like Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, and Prague to visit the international friends she made through the CIVIC program.

Although Weiss is excited to enjoy the road to relaxation, she says she will miss being involved in day-to-day operations of the groups, but plans on volunteering.

“This time around, I get to attend lectures as a guest, instead of having to work at the lunches,” she adds.

by Aly Dolan