It is fascinating to watch professors David and Irmgard Howard together, and it is difficult to explain why. If you ever have the privilege to sit down with the two of them and have a conversation, this feeling will make sense to you as well.
For example, if there is a question presented to them that requires both partners to answer, there will be a slight pause when the Howard’s look at each other. This is the part that is hard to explain, because you can feel the presence of the information highway that is passing between David and Irmgard, a connection that slows down time and allows the two of them to non-verbally communicate with each other before answering the question. Perhaps that’s just the power two people gain with forty-five plus years of marriage.
The Howards have been teaching here, David in History and Irmgard in Chemistry, since 1970. This effectively makes them the most experienced faculty couple here on campus. The swing set near the science building used to be the place where their home stood. There, David and Irmgard raised four children while continuing to teach at the college. “I was teaching full-time and she part-time,” said David. “This allowed us to switch off with child care, so we never really had to hire a babysitter. We always had a parent right there with the kids. We lived within walking distance to our job as well, so it was as convenient as you could possibly imagine.”
“Houghton College arranged our schedules so that we could…” Irmgard began, but then was cut off by her husband. “Well, we arranged our schedules and they agreed to it,” said David, and both professors shared a laugh. “Right, we could always switch off,” finished Irma.
Remnants of this schedule remained in the class schedule until very recently. Some science labs used to begin at 2:15pm instead of 2:00pm like it is done now. This was so one Howard could run home to take care of the kids while the other Howard ran to begin the next set of classes. One couple affected the schedule of a whole college for almost forty years.
When asked if the school has changed over the years in terms of hiring both men and women as professors over the years, the Howard’s explained that the college has employed married couples since they started back in the 1970’s and has been willing to work with couples and their complex schedules. They also agreed that working as a married couple is not any different today than it was back then.
“My conclusion is that, if you’re not in direct competition with each other, that working together is a great way to strengthen a marriage,” explained David.
After forty-four years of working as a team and teaching at the same school, retirement is on the horizon for at least one Howard, with Irmgard in semi-retirement this semester. As far as the other Howard is concerned, it may still be a while longer before he’s ready to move on.
In response to the question if he was looking forward to retirement as well, David answered with a definite “No.”