Sue Rosenfeld (Niamey, Niger; Class of 1970)

None of the classics majors of my generation called Dr. Lockhart ‘Dr Lockhart.’ He was ‘Uncle Phil.’ And Stanley Nodder was ‘Uncle Stan.’ It was a great department.

I might have been the 2nd Dickinsonian to study in Rome at ‘Il Centro.’ Back in the day it was on Via Ulisse Seni but I think it moved (but as I understand it, it is still in Monte Verde Vecchio). Uncle Phil decided for me that I would go to Rome because D’son was paying consortium membership fees but no one had gone in a year or two. At first I was not pleased. I didn’t want to go. But I went and never looked back. Totally changed my life. Although I am not involved directly with Latin or Classical Studies that year out of the USA has led to my spending 35 more years outside the USA. I went back to Italy 3 yrs after graduating to better learn Italian (I was at l’Universita per Stranieri in Perugia).

I met a lot of Africans in Perugia and have spent the last 34 years in Africa, first as a Peace Corps volunteer (4 yrs in Senegal), then as a Fulbright lecturer (3 yrs in Burundi) and the last 26+ yrs in Niger, first running an English as a Foreign Language program and then directing Boston University’s study abroad program here.

My senior year Uncle Phil was on Sabbatical at the U of Ohio. So I convinced my roommate (not a classics major, but she had a car) to drive out to Ohio to see him. What I mostly remember from that weekend is Uncle Phil’s saying, on Saturday morning, ‘So, wanna’ see “the factory?”‘ (because the U of Ohio was so huge compared to Dickinson).

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