Linfield professor Peter Richardson loves interacting with students in his German classes.

Submitted photo

Linfield College German professor Peter Richardson has been named Oregon Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

CASE chooses one professor from each state for its annual award program, saluting “the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country ... who excel as teachers and influence the lives and careers of their students.” Winners are chosen on the basis of “extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching,” including involvement with students, scholarly approach and contribution to school, community and profession.

Richardson said he is excited about the CASE award, not only for himself, but for Linfield. It will focus well-deserved state and national attention on the college, he said.

“I’m such a supporter of Linfield,” he said. “It doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.”

Richardson, who earned Edith Green Distinguished Professorship honors from Linfield last year, flew to Washington, DC, to accept the honor in a Thursday ceremony. He was accompanied by his wife, attorney Beverly Richardson, who was not at all surprised that her husband had been named Oregon’s top professor.

“Peter loves Linfield and loves his work,” she said. “He’s happy every day he can go to class.”

She is teaching a Linfield language class herself this fall, in Spanish, and said she couldn’t have a better role model than her husband.

“He’s truly interested in students,” she said. “He stays late and has lots of calls from students who feel they can speak freely to him. Every morning, he goes out the door whistling.”

The chance to be work closely with students is what drew Richardson to Linfield in 1980.

He had been teaching at Yale University, from which he had received his doctorate, for 10 years. Although he loved the school, he and his wife wanted to move to a different part of the country with their daughters, Jennifer and Laura.

When he saw an ad for a position in Linfield’s language department, he looked up the college catalog on microfiche in Yale’s library. He discovered a liberal arts college that “gives students the latitude to figure out what they love,” he said.

At Linfield, he realized, he could really help students explore their interests and develop the skills they will need later in life.
The Richardsons were somewhat familiar with Oregon, having visited his mother in Portland. But they had never heard of Linfield before he read the ad.

“I got out my map,” he said. And he realized McMinnville would be a perfect fit.

“We’ve been so delighted living here,” he said. “We’re right were we want to live and we’re doing what we want to do. If that’s not a great blessing.”

Linfield’s language department had only three professors when he arrived, one each for German, French and Spanish. He started teaching a fourth language, Latin, and another new professor added a fifth, Greek.

Nowadays, the department includes nine professors and covers Japanese as well as German, French and Spanish. Greek and Hebrew are offered through other departments, and Richardson teaches beginning Latin every two years.

He calls Latin “the living, breathing parent of so many daughter languages,” thus an aid to understanding English and the romance languages.

Latin was the native English speaker’s first foreign language.

His father, a paleontologist who worked at the Field Museum in Chicago, spoke several languages. One day, he sat young Peter down with a book in simple Latin.

“I thought how clever it was the writer had used English cognates,” he recalled, realizing only later that the words were actually of Latin origin.

He began studying Latin in earnest when he reached high school. “I loved the structure and the challenge,” he said.

As a sophomore, he added German, choosing that language because he liked its structure and logic.

He recalled arguing with a friend back about the respective merits of the two leading European languages, he touting German because it was more manly and his friend French because it was the language of love.

He went on to study languages at Stanford University. Along the way, he learned French as well.

For his next step, he was considering the Peace Corps, where he could put his language skills to use. Then e was offered a teaching assistantship in German at Ohio State University.

“I immediately knew that’s what I would do,” he said.

Richardson no longer claims any particular language is better than another. What’s important, he said, is learning at least one other language besides your native one.

“It’s immaterial which, just as long as there is another,” he said.

“If you have just one language at your disposal, it’s like looking at the world with one eye,” he said. “Things are flat. Add the other eye, or another language, and all of a sudden you see things in other dimensions.”

Richardson calls language the verbal expression of culture. He said knowing another culture’s language “will allow you to interact, meet people and establish a level of trust you wouldn’t otherwise have,” going on to note, “It fosters understanding.”
The professor — and the college, as well — strongly urge every Linfield student to go abroad for a year, a semester or at least a Jan term.

For language students, study abroad is required. Majors must spend a full year immersed in a culture where their second language is spoken, and minors must spend a semester.

Overall, well over 50 percent of Linfield’s students spend time overseas — a statistic that makes Richardson proud.

He also is proud of a course that’s unique to Linfield. Designed for language students who’ve just returned to the U.S., “Advanced Cross-cultural Seminar” helps them re-enter their own culture, which hasn’t changed even though they have.
“They’re more interested in the world when they return,” said Richardson, who now leads the course that was developed by former International Programs coordinator Ellen Summerfield. “They’ve become adults.”

Courses like the cross-cultural seminar, opportunities to shape the lives of students and a research project translating old Swiss German documents all contribute to Richardson’s satisfaction with his job — and his habit of whistling Handel or Bach tunes as he leaves for work each morning.

He sings, too, making sure to start each beginning German class with a song. “Singing is great practice for getting the mouth to move,” he explained.

Both students in the beginning classes and those who are more advanced hold a special place in his heart.

Richardson said, “I love to work with seniors, who now are looking ahead, and with first-year students who are crossing a major border in their lives. I like to help people find their way.”

He has no plans to retire, he said, “as long as I feel I’m doing something positive.”

During an interview, Richardson takes a break when a student knocks on the door of his office, seeking a recommendation for graduate school. She and Richardson consult for a few moments in German, speaking quickly and softly, their conversation punctuated with laughter.

“Danke, tschüss,” she calls gratefully as she leaves.

“Tschüss,” he says.

Returning to his desk, he explained, “That’s one of the most important things we do for students: write recommendations.”

As a professor, he often feels almost a parental bond with his students, he said.

Watching them graduate can be bittersweet. While it’s hard to say good-bye, he’s eager to see them succeed in the world.
“Then you turn around and wonder, who’s going to walk through that door in the fall?” he said.