Two Longtime Houghton Faculty to Retire: Roederer

Senior Faculty Member J.L. Roederer to retire, after 44 years as a French professor at Houghton College.

It is hard to imagine a man with a name as French as Jean-Louis becoming anything but a French professor. For Jean-Louis Roederer however, his vocation was anything but straight forward, and Roederer has since become far more than a French professor to the Houghton community. Roederer, senior faculty member and Houghton alumnus (’64), has been teaching at Houghton College for 44 years.

The senior faculty member is chosen based on years of full-time service at Houghton College, not age.

Roederer was born in Beirut, Lebanon to a French father and a Lebanese mother. As a multi-cultural child, Roederer spent the first decade of his life in a house speaking three languages and hearing five from his relatives. His father worked as a lawyer in international law, and he was attuned to the rising tensions in the Middle East during the 1950s. One day, Roederer’s father sat him and his sister down and flatly told them that they were to learn English, because they were moving to America the next year. Several years later civil war broke out.

Once in America, Roederer attended The Stony Brook School in Long Island, NY where his father found employment as the French teacher. Roederer was active in many sports, however Roederer cites his high school Cross Country coach Marvin Goldberg, a Houghton alumnus, as having the greatest impact on his life and future career. Throughout the trials of his life, his coach’s shout to “Keep running!” would return to him and enable him to persevere. Coach Goldberg also initiated Roederer’s long connection to Houghton.

Roederer attended Houghton College as an undergraduate from 1961-1964 with a Major in French, and minors in Spanish and secondary education. While at Houghton, Roederer also met his future wife Sandy (then Carlson), a fellow French major, who he married in 1965. The year after graduation, Roederer taught French in a Long Island high school, at 20 years of age. However, his calm demeanor and creativity with his students fostered a mutual respect. After a year of teaching in Long Island, Roederer received a call from his Houghton mentor and friend, Dr. Gordon Stockin, then Houghton’s language department’s program director. Stockin asked Roederer if he would be interested in returning to Houghton to lead its French program. Roederer accepted, and moved back to Houghton to teach that fall.

At the age of 22, Roederer faced the unusual task of teaching students his own age. Roederer took to the challenge head-on, and even started Houghton’s first Cross-Country team in addition to teaching. “I entered as the junior faculty member, and here I am at the other end of the scale!” Roederer said with a smile. Although Roederer found himself in a wonderful position out of college, and enjoyed his work, Roederer remained unsure whether teaching French was absolutely what God wanted him to do.

Over the next three summers, Roederer earned his Master’s degree in French from Middlebury College in Vermont, and continued to teach at Houghton.

Roederer has always fostered many interests, including a love of aviation. He learned to fly small aircraft in Olean, NY, and began to consider enlisting as a military pilot. His wife Sandy was less than thrilled by this prospect, especially once they had their first child. Roederer then looked into missionary aviation, which was marginally better as far as his wife was concerned.

In 1972, Roederer was accepted as a candidate for Moody Aviation’s missionary pilot program. He resigned from Houghton, his family sold their house, and that summer the Roederers headed to Tennessee on a long shot. After a week of evaluation in many areas, including flight, and plane maintenance skills, Roederer didn’t make the cut. It seemed that he had been led down a dead-end.

A friend, seeing that Roederer had nothing lined up for the fall, offered him a high-school job in the Adirondacks, which Roederer accepted. Roederer taught there for the next four years, but he and his family could not be torn away from Houghton so easily, as they returned to spend each summer there. After four years of this annual migration, Paul Johnson, Roederer’s replacement at Houghton, asked him if he would consider joining him as an additional French professor. After Johnson warmly welcomed him back in 1976 the two became fast friends. They shared the  French department until 1998, when Johnson retired. Between the two of them, Johnson and Roederer were the French department, “Johnson had the gift of administration and did very, very well for the Foreign Language department.” Roederer recalled. He said Johnson “is one of the major reasons I stayed as long as I did at Houghton after coming back.” Roederer lauded, “He constantly pulled for me.”

In his time at Houghton, Roederer has taught every French course in the book, as well as Spanish for ten years. In the process, Roederer has become renowned among students for his gentle, amiable nature, and his sense of humor. “It’s like everything that comes up in class he has a funny life story he’s willing to share,” said Leah Shadbolt, a junior with a French Concentration. She first met Roederer when she visited Houghton as a prospective student, and has taken a class with him every semester since. “He’s just so patient all the time, and really kind.” The personal impact that Roederer has had on his students’ lives is evident in talking with them. “He was such great positive influence, and a great spiritual mentor,” Rachel Anacker, senior, confided, illustrating the support that Roederer provided when she was going through a hard time last fall.

The resilience and creativity that Roederer exercises in his teaching stem partly from his father, who often quoted the Portuguese proverb, “God writes straight – but he uses crooked lines.” Looking back on his life, Roederer sees the many twists and turns as times that God was working. Even Roederer’s failure to become a pilot ended up being the event that brought Paul Johnson, Roederer’s long-time colleague and dear friend, to Houghton.

Although Roederer has many things he wants to do in retirement, he nevertheless foresees a huge transition. “I think it is going to hit hard, like running into a brick wall.” Roederer gratefully acknowledged the great support of his colleagues past and present, especially Marlene Collins-Blair and David Kinman over the last few years. “I see in them character that honors God in all they do, and a desire for excellence in their careers that inspires me to do my best each day.” Roederer said it is hard for him to imagine a better community to live in, or a better college at which to teach. “One of the most beautiful things about Houghton is the people.” Roederer expressed, “You have a great ethos here of helping each other.”

Jean-Louis Roederer and Sandy, his wife of 50 years, plan to remain in the Houghton community they so love. Art Professor Gary Baxter is expected to be the next full time senior faculty member.