by Aaron Butts
Capital University has lost one of its greatest educators with the passing of Dr. Tom Christenson on Friday Feb. 8. Dr. Christenson served this university faithfully since first coming here in 1989, giving to the students and faculty at Capital almost 24 years of his life and forever changing this campus for the better.
This past Monday, Feb. 11, a group of faculty who were very close to Dr. Christenson assembled at Barrel 44 to raise a toast to his memory. All dear and close friends of his, they shared in the memory of a man who has greatly affected their lives for more than 20 years. He was known by many different titles in this group: not only a colleague, but also a teacher, an academic, a philosopher, a poet, a mentor, a story teller, and a good humored friend.
Right after this meeting, another group assembled in the basement of the campus center. They were students who felt the impact of Dr. Christenson’s passing after interactions both within the classroom as well as the personal relationships that he developed with each of them.
With his sudden passing, many were left to abruptly reflect upon his memory, and contemplate a life at Capital without him. But in both groups, there was a greater focus on rejoicing in the life that he had, rather than lamenting the passing of a friend who deeply influenced the lives of so many.
Dr. Christenson made a profound impact on this University which he loved and served it faithfully until his passing. He had an extensive resume outside of academia; he was a sign maker, a fisherman, a prosthetic limb adjuster, car salesman, and a carpenter who once made a set of cabinets for a wealthy man in New Haven, Connecticut. But of all of his occupations, his most satisfying was his role as a professor.
“Being a teacher means being a communicative learner,” Dr. Christenson said years ago in an interview for The Chimes after the publishing of his most recent book. “If you stop learning, you’re missing part of the equation. Part of teaching is the excitement of learning something and then wanting to share it with your students.”
Chrsitenson’s passing was greatly felt by those that he taught, both current and former students.
“Dr. Christenson was a mentor, teaching me to think, wonder, and develop in my studies of Philosophy,” Chris Meyer, junior, said. Meyer served as Dr. Christenson’s assistant for the past year. Dr. Christenson worked as the director of the Center for Faith and Learning, and Meyer was helping him organize a conference for the Association of Lutheran College Faculties that is taking place at Capital Oct. 4-5 of this year.
Meyer recalled one fond memory of Dr. Christenson’s wit from the spring semester of 2012, which involved one of Meyer’s reflection papers which Dr. Christenson asked for weekly.
“I was in Dr. Christenson’s Greek Philosophy Class. During the course we were reading Plato’s ‘Symposium’ – specifically the section about the development of love and partnership. I wrote my reflection paper about the differences between the views on love from the ‘Symposium’ with that of today’s society. Well, when Dr. Christenson came to class after reading our papers, he looks and me and says ‘Chris, I really enjoyed your paper. Why don’t you explain to the class why we have the sexual urges that we have.'”
Meyer was also in one of Christenson’s Philosophy courses last semester simply titled “Stupidity” in which Dr. Christenson sought to discover the secrets of human stupidity in a series of different areas ranging from a discussion on the follies of Easter Island, to an analysis of the stupidity of the movie “Dr. Strangelove”.
Two quotes concerning stupidity still hang on his door. One by Frank Zappa: “Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen and that is the basic building block of the universe.”
And one by Friedrich Schiller: “Against stupidity even the gods contend in vain.”
Dr. Christenson was also a notorious teller of stories that were so grand and so unbelievable that those that heard them were never quite sure if they were true or not. But according to Dr. Joy Schroeder of the Religion department, people didn’t worry much about the facts of his fantastic stories.
“I don’t know if they were true, but they didn’t need to be,” Schroeder said.
The group of colleagues that assembled Monday shared many his stories. There was the one about the time when he was struck by lightning at 8 years old and then thrown across the street.
There was the one about his daughter Zoe who asked a car salesman if the car’s roof could support the weight of two bears, because not long before the family was attacked by a pair of bears who sat on the roof of their car. While Dr. Christenson and his wife pressed up on the roof to prevent it from collapsing.
And then there was the story that was passed around the table of faculty that many agreed was incredible, and one of their favorites. It recalled the time in Dr. Christenson’s youth when he encountered the renowned physicist Albert Einstein in a bathroom stall at a train station in New York.
The story goes that he walked into a train station and saw Einstein across the way with a gaggle of admirers and his personal entourage. He saw Einstein enter the bathroom and so he followed too and ran into Einstein as he was exiting one of the stalls. Dr. Christenson then immediately went into the stall that Einstein had just used and sat down, and he said he could still feel the warmth of the seat left behind by the 20th century’s most famous genius.
He had a story for every situation and every occasion and employed his experience to demonstrate concepts in class, sometimes dwelling on a story for a considerable amount of time.
But Dr. Christenson didn’t tell these stories to be boastful. He was sometimes quiet but not soft-spoken.
“He was very humble,” Dr. Craig Burgdoff, another of Dr. Christenson’s colleagues, said. “He had aspirations to be a poet.”
He was critical of many things, but his criticism was an indication of his affection. He loved working at Capital, but the faculty and students could recall many times where he would question the students, departments, or the administration as a way of strengthening it. Dr. Dan Skinner remembered Dr. Christenson speaking up at a meeting and saying, “This is great. Are we actually going to do it this time?”
He criticized and debated regularly and those ended up being some of the faculty’s fondest memories of him. He wasn’t afraid to hold back his opinions and admitted to himself that he tended to laugh at inappropriate times.
Dr. Skinner recalled a time at a meeting where they were all asked to anonymously write down a dream that they have, and a list was compiled of what everyone wrote. Dr. Christenson looked down at the list and saw that one of the dreams was “The end of Capitalism” to which Dr. Christenson instinctively turned to Skinner and said, “What’s wrong with you? This is a serious institution.”
Everyone had a story like this where they remember a funny and memorable experience spent with him. Dr. David Belcastro remembered the time that they both went to San Francisco together and had to share a bed. Belcastro awoke to Dr. Christenson hitting him with a pillow because he was snoring so loud. Belcastro went back to sleep, but was again woken up by Dr. Christenson dragging Belcastro’s cot out into the hall to prevent himself from being further disturbed by his colleague’s snoring.
Dr. Monica Mueller remembered the time that he brought her a potato and an empty glass, put it on her desk, and wished her a happy St. Patrick’s Day. The significance of this gesture was never quite clear. She also remembered a quote by Dr. Christenson which still stuck with her as something she found incredibly funny and memorable. He said, “Speaking of unbridled capitalism, have you ever tried to ride a wild buffalo?”
Pastor Amy Oehlschlaeger remembered all of the times they went out to different restaurants, “When I first started here, he took me out to many restaurants around Columbus. Hidden gems he called them,” she said.
“He was a great mentor for new faculty,” Dr. David Summers said, and many agreed. Dr. Skinner, Dr. Mueller, and Pastor Amy all credited much of the guidance and warmth that they received upon arriving at Capital to Dr. Christenson. But he was also a mentor for the students that he taught, as Chris Meyer noted, “My approach to study, academia, and work are better not only because of his teaching and mentorship, but also because of the friendship we developed. I will miss him greatly.”
Many of his students remember him fondly as a professor who genuinely cared about them and their ideas. Jessica Paulik is one of those students who has since graduated but still remembers Dr. Christenson.
“I took 4 classes with him,” Paulik said. “In each one he was always supportive of each of the students in the class. He never made anyone feel like they were asking dumb questions or voicing irrational opinions. Dr. Christensen encouraged us to think about things that were sometimes “taboo” to think about, but he never forced us into believing or talking about something we were uncomfortable with. Each day he walked into his classrooms with a smile and a readiness for learning. He was just as excited about learning from us and the world around him as he was to teach us something new.”
Paulik also formerly wrote for The Chimes and interviewed Dr. Christenson on his most recent book: Questioning Assumptions: Rethinking the Philosophy of Religion. In that interview Dr. Christenson talked about how some of his inspiration for the book came from his students and class interactions from his course on the philosophy of religion.
“What I really like about this book is that I have incorporated questions from my students at the end of each section. Each week, they have to do a reading response, so I took some of those questions along with questions from class discussion and incorporated them to show how students might respond to the text, and my response to their questions,” Christenson said in the interview.
That book was also dedicated to the students in his Philosophy of Religion class. “I figured they deserved something for enduring the class,” Christenson had said, unable to contain his humor while giggling.
Such humor came to define much of what people remember of him. He was careful to consider things critically, and occasionally not approach it too seriously. He took the time to invest himself into the interactions that he had with other people, and that may be what most contributed to his lasting memory.
For Doug Gugel-Bryant, the one thing he will remember most about Dr. Christenson is how supportive and genuine he was. “He was a constant advocate for the style of music that I play and was the greatest influence to keep me playing the way I do,” Gugel-Bryant said.
Dr. Chrsitenson’s legacy is the profound effect that he had on not only the students, but also upon the faculty and the university as a whole. The memory of his life and his character serves as an example to all those who had the pleasure of knowing him. His genius and his personality have inspired people for decades, and his memory is not soon to fade.
During the meeting of faculty on Monday, many toasts were raised in honor of Dr. Christenson. Dr. Belcastro made one of those toasts, speaking to the true legacy of Dr. Christenson’s life. He spoke of how, despite the fact that Dr. Christensen is physically absent, his spirit and memory still reside within the hearts of all that knew him and cared about him. His life lives on in his teachings and in the memories of those who knew him.
Dr. Christenson ended the interview that he did for The Chimes previously by describing the drive that he felt to push himself to teach, and to write: “It’s an important part of what I do. It helps to keep us alive.”
