Favorite Professor

cyeah · 06-12-2008, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by cloneu

Gary Koppenhaver was a good teacher and I learned the most in that class.

Originally Posted by IcSyU

Another one I really liked was Anne Clem. Her Accounting 284 class was extremely easy, but she didn't just hand you an A. You had to do the homework and ok on the tests. Enjoyed going to class because you could always count on an interesting story from her family happenings.

Originally Posted by CyGal

My major was accounting, and my 2 favorite teachers were Jim Kurtenbach, who was a great teacher,

Gary was a great teacher. His stories about being on the floor of the exchange on black Tuesday were always cool.

I am good freinds with the Clem's I will let Anne know tonight she is getting some good press on here. Tony (her husband) and I are good friends.

Jim and I are still friends to this day. He knows his stuff on accounting and is probably a big reason I am in M&A today.

When I was an undergrad therre was this big leftist history prof Wayne something or the other. I liked him even though we totally did not see eye to eye on politics.

Anyone ever have Mark Federle for construction engineering?

drmwevr08 · 06-12-2008, 01:21 PM

Rob Thompson - CRP - only there a couple of years but a great guy and teacher

Tim Borich - CRP - definitely helped me out a time or two

Yong Lee - PoliSci ret. - about as low key as you can get and an amusing dry wit

MaxPower57 · 06-12-2008, 01:23 PM

I liked Jack Blanshan for my biz law class, Russ McCullough for my Macro and Real Estate Classes, and of course Shoba "Shobs" Premkumar for Finance. Choobineh was kinda weird but fun.

travman23 · 06-12-2008, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by Ficklone02

I enjoyed Choobineh as well. Jack Blanshan was a good lecturer, and was always good for some laughs. I'm probably the only one, but I really got a kick out of listening to Lehman B. Fletcher's rants. (Econ) I was not an Econ major, but just had this distinct style about him that cracked me up.

I'll agree with you on Blanshan, that guy was pretty good. Had him for TransLog and we got ahold of the class notes somehow which ultimately after about 2 weeks of following them in class and seeing him talk word for word from them allowed you to miss class once in awhile without missing anything.

Fletcher, for some reason that name sounds familar but not sure I had him. I took one of my Econ classes at DMACC 1 summer and wished I had just taken both there afterwards.

IcSyU · 06-12-2008, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by jdoggivjc

Wow - I'm surprised no one mentioned Anne Clem from Accounting. Probably my favorite professor my entire 6 years up there (and I only took 1 Business class in that time). She was humorous, she explained things well, and she didn't **** anyone off. My favorite line from her was when she was explaining something on stocks. She said something like "...if _____ happens you're SOL. And if you don't know what SOL means, it means you're not getting your money." She then had this knowingly smirk on her face and the entire class erupted in laughter. On class evals I was able to look at about 10-15 of them sitting on the table. No one strayed from the first two "positive" columns.

I also like Eric Northway. The guy's a Christian, but he doesn't push religion in his class - he just puts the facts out there in class and lets you make up your own decision.

In JLMC, I really liked Lulu Rodriguez, Erin Wilgenbush, and Barbara Mack (I know, that one's a rare opinion).

I think I did earlier but I'm too lazy to go back and look. If I didn't, I completely agree with you.

CycloneErik · 06-12-2008, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by Phaedrus

I think I will split the honor between Dr. Apt and Dr. K. G. Madison.

Dr. Apt, (who taught military history at ISU) until he was taken from us, was the most enthusiastic lecturer I've EVER heard speak. And there was never a class that he "just mailed in".

I remember listening to him with rapt attention, as he got more and more worked up over the topic of the day. He just had "it".

Dr. K.G. Madison taught medieval history, and had a personable manner that was hard to beat. I was an awful writer, until he sat me down in his office once, and in a 30 minute session, taught me all one needed to know in how to write a paper.

After that one lesson, I blossomed into a good writer.

OK, you picked two history profs I never took. Arp did Mediterannean military history, didn't he? I remember that he was a Mediterranean guy (yet not Greece like Avraamides, or Rome like Ruebel. Those guys were awesome!).

My favorites would be Dr. Wilt for his Military history. I still remember the end of the last lecture for WWI, in HIST 389, "And so it was, the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918." It was powerful.

My most favorite would be Dr. Richard Kottman. He was an absolutely cruel and uncaring person as a teacher (seeing Nixon with a swastika for an x makes a big impression about his bias), and I loved the challenge of actually succeeding in his impossible Cold War History (470 and 471) classes.
As he said, "These exams are designed to be answered adequately given two hours. I'm giving you one."

Before my 1st exam with him, someone asked (I had been previously warned, thankfully), "So, Dr. Kottman, what do we need to know for the test?"
Dr. Kottman, "You need to know everything that I have said in these class periods. You need to know everything in the books I have assigned. You need to know everything in those videos you should have watched in the library. And you need to know everything that I meant to say in the lectures, and never had time to say."
Young lady: "Dr. Kottman, that's a lot of material. Can we use our books and our notes."
Dr. Kottman: "Young lady, if you feel that you can look that information up and answer these questions to my satisfaction, you just go ahead and try."

She failed, and dropped the course right away. It would really thin out after that first exam

Ficklone02 · 06-12-2008, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by travman23

I'll agree with you on Blanshan, that guy was pretty good. Had him for TransLog and we got ahold of the class notes somehow which ultimately after about 2 weeks of following them in class and seeing him talk word for word from them allowed you to miss class once in awhile without missing anything.

Fletcher, for some reason that name sounds familar but not sure I had him. I took one of my Econ classes at DMACC 1 summer and wished I had just taken both there afterwards.

I can still hear Fletcher say, "the production possibilities frontier"...

I also liked Mark Power, he's a really cool dude...

Palmer · 06-12-2008, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by CycloneErik

My most favorite would be Dr. Richard Kottman. He was an absolutely cruel and uncaring person as a teacher (seeing Nixon with a swastika for an x makes a big impression about his bias), and I loved the challenge of actually succeeding in his impossible Cold War History (470 and 471) classes.
As he said, "These exams are designed to be answered adequately given two hours. I'm giving you one."

Before my 1st exam with him, someone asked (I had been previously warned, thankfully), "So, Dr. Kottman, what do we need to know for the test?"
Dr. Kottman, "You need to know everything that I have said in these class periods. You need to know everything in the books I have assigned. You need to know everything in those videos you should have watched in the library. And you need to know everything that I meant to say in the lectures, and never had time to say."
Young lady: "Dr. Kottman, that's a lot of material. Can we use our books and our notes."
Dr. Kottman: "Young lady, if you feel that you can look that information up and answer these questions to my satisfaction, you just go ahead and try."

She failed, and dropped the course right away. It would really thin out after that first exam

Yes! I had him as well. I hated his style initially....but began to warm up to him as the semester wore on. Ended up taking all of his cold war classes (despite not relevant to my degree).

Wonder where he is now?

CycloneErik · 06-12-2008, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Palmer

Yes! I had him as well. I hated his style initially....but began to warm up to him as the semester wore on. Ended up taking all of his cold war classes (despite not relevant to my degree).

Wonder where he is now?

I think he retired. I was in the history offices early last year, and took a stroll around the hallway. Seems like his corner office had a different name on it, and didn't have books stacked to the ceiling anymore.

I loved the challenge, and I really like hard classes. That last phrase is the one I used to badger Dr. Reubel into my add slip for Roman history (403 back then, it was all in one semester.). He absolutely didn't want to add one more. I pointed out that people always drop. Didn't matter.

I badgered him for a good couple of weeks. Finally, he tried to dissuade me by saying, "This is going to be a hard class, a very hard class."

I told him, " I like hard classes. Bring it on."

He signed the add slip, brought it on, and I got an A having an awesome time in Roman history.

Palmer · 06-12-2008, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by CycloneErik

I think he retired. I was in the history offices early last year, and took a stroll around the hallway. Seems like his corner office had a different name on it, and didn't have books stacked to the ceiling anymore.

I loved the challenge, and I really like hard classes. That last phrase is the one I used to badger Dr. Reubel into my add slip for Roman history (403 back then, it was all in one semester.). He absolutely didn't want to add one more. I pointed out that people always drop. Didn't matter.

I badgered him for a good couple of weeks. Finally, he tried to dissuade me by saying, "This is going to be a hard class, a very hard class."

I told him, " I like hard classes. Bring it on."

He signed the add slip, brought it on, and I got an A having an awesome time in Roman history.

I remember walking into Kottman's office and was thunderstruck at the stacks upon stacks of books in his office.

CycloneErik · 06-12-2008, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by Palmer

I remember walking into Kottman's office and was thunderstruck at the stacks upon stacks of books in his office.

Walking has to be a relative term, with the careful steps a person had to take.

Wonder what a thunder strike would do to those stacks? Or how much he would have to pay someone to help him move. Books ain't light.

Did he ridicule the survivors from your 1st year about their failure to answer well about Paul Nitze and NSC-68?

josier · 06-12-2008, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by Ficklone02

I can still hear Fletcher say, "the production possibilities frontier"...

I also liked Mark Power, he's a really cool dude...

We used to call him Captain Power like the old TV game, he got a kick out of it.

Dryburn · 06-12-2008, 02:07 PM

I was a student at ISU before most of you were alive, but my favorite prof was Dr. William Schrampfer......he taught business law. I still remember the course numbers......I Ad 365 and 366.

Anyway, Dr. Schrampfer was ISU's version of the John Houseman character in "The Paper Chase". Most everyone was terrified of him, but you did learn contract law.

cycloneman42 · 06-12-2008, 02:09 PM

Steffen Schmidt- PolS 343 Latin American Studies.
I couldn't wait to go to that class. He is from Columbia but has lived here most of his life. Never taught boring "book stuff" but focused on current events and analysis. If anyone has the chance- take one of his classes

Palmer · 06-12-2008, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by CycloneErik

Walking has to be a relative term, with the careful steps a person had to take.

Wonder what a thunder strike would do to those stacks? Or how much he would have to pay someone to help him move. Books ain't light.

Did he ridicule the survivors from your 1st year about their failure to answer well about Paul Nitze and NSC-68?

Ha! NSC-68. I remember the ridicule very well. I found him to be hilarious.