Ronald Joseph Messerich

Ronald Joseph Messerich was born on October 08, 1948, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Joseph and Caroline Messerich, and died on April 14, in Baptist Health Hospital in Richmond, Kentucky, where he had been a patient for about two weeks. Ron and his three siblings, Kathy, Bob, and Betsy, grew up in New Brighton, MN, and moved to St. Cloud after the death of their father in 1962. Ron graduated from St. Cloud Technical High School in 1966, where his knowledge and love of baseball and folk music were legendary. His sister Betsy wrote recently that “While Ron always did well in school, it was during his college years at Hamline College that it became clear he had an exceptional intellect and inquiring mind.” After completing his B.A. degree in 1970, he entered a Ph.D. Program in philosophy at Syracuse University, completing his degree in 1979 and staying on as a visiting professor. In the spring of 1982, he received the phone call that would change his life: the offer of a teaching position that began a truly remarkable 34-year career at Eastern Kentucky University.

It had not taken the faculty at EKU very long to decide unanimously to offer him the position he had come to check out. Dr. Messerich excelled as a teacher, able to engage students beginning their undergraduate degrees, young people, even those innocent to what is studied in a philosophy class. Faculty and students alike praised his clear and down-to-earth presentations of even the most sophisticated philosophical topics. Using the Socratic method, he would begin with a question; a student would respond. Then more questions, more answers; other students jumping in; and eventually a range of ideas were laid out, and students would learn not only a concept but that they themselves could bring clarity to these ideas by thinking for themselves. It was difficult to remain a passive learner in a Messerich classroom.

In the fall of 1988, Dr. Messerich played a key role in launching a new Honors Program. Aided by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation from 1990 through 1995, Dr. Messerich and a small group of faculty from a variety of disciplines developed a rigorous and unique 36 credit hour general education program that would introduce students to content and methodologies in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Natural Sciences.

Consultants were brought in from all over the United States, and Dr. Messerich himself served as the consultant for the development of the curriculum in philosophical ethics. When these specially designed Honors courses were taught, students experienced team teaching by faculty from different disciplines who were always in the classroom at the same time, not merely taking turns. Such team teaching modeled for students how different disciplines would approach the same topic and how faculty might have intellectual, but civil, disagreements with each other and remain personal friends. Dr. Messerich typically team-taught with professors from the Department of English and collaborated closely with faculty in the Social Sciences following parallel historical curricular tracks.

Questioning and thinking did not end in Dr. Messerich’s classroom. He inspired and encouraged students to explore further. Working on topics that came out of their classes or their own passionate interests, students asked Dr. Messerich to work with them to prepare presentations for the Regional and National Honors Program conferences. He did not turn them down. These extra-curricular collaborations led to EKU’s leading the nation in both the number and quality of presentations. No small feat! And as they worked with faculty to develop content, both disciplinary and pedagogical, students were also learning intellectual rigor, collaborative skills, and the protocols and processes of the dissemination of intellectual property. Always the teacher, he good-naturedly accompanied them in the often overnight bus rides to conferences held in distant cities and helped students make the most of the cultural opportunities they were being exposed to.

Dr. Messerich’s reputation as a teacher made him sought after by the Kentucky Governor Scholars Program, and he joined that faculty ensemble from 1992-1997. Philosophy turned out to be a very popular major for the high school students who participated in the five-week summer program, and it became necessary to offer multiple sections of philosophy each summer. Who would have ever thought this would happen in the inaugural summer of 1983, when no philosophy was offered as an option? Another of Dr. Messerich’s significant accomplishments was his collaboration with his colleague Frank Williams in 1985-1986 on a National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Education Program on the topic of Computer-Assisted Instruction in Informal Logic. They developed a 10-diskette software package for teaching logic, “Learning Logic: The Basics,” which was published by Wadsworth Publishing Company, a prestigious educational publishing firm, in 1987. This software package was used not only at EKU but around the country as well.

Hardly the stodgy, intellectual, head-in-the-clouds, stereotypical philosophy professor, Dr. Messerich enjoyed movies of many genres and often challenged students to a good video game. And you never wanted to challenge him to a game of ping pong unless willing to run your legs off chasing hard-hit balls around the table. Perhaps the true measure of the warmth students felt for him and their respect for his intellect is the fact that he was asked by over 60 students in the Honors Program to serve as a mentor for their required senior thesis. Although they could choose a topic within their major, because of Dr. Messerich’s early inspiration, in their senior year, many chose projects on philosophical questions or historically important philosophers. And some asked him to mentor projects which took him outside his own academic area of expertise. And so he did, relying on his vast knowledge in other areas like cinema, baseball, and other sports, pedagogy, music, and current events. He never passed up an opportunity to learn right along with the students.

Dr. Messerich’s family and his faculty and student friends will keep this unique man in their hearts always as someone who influenced both their professional and personal lives. May we meet again, perhaps in a movie theater where we can join him in his practice of attending the first showing of a new movie with his good friend, Dr. Bruce MacLaren, and staying to watch every repeat showing of that movie for that day. Serving as faculty advisors for the Honors Program Quick Recall Team, matched intellectuals of the highest order, these men modeled a professional–personal relationship for about 40 years. Coaching the team, they traveled on select Saturdays to compete with other universities in Kentucky. And since Dr. Messerich never owned a car or drove after moving to Richmond, Dr. MacLaren

always did the driving. On Saturday mornings, these two professors would shop at Kroger, each pushing his own cart but pulling items off the shelf to discuss whether or not they should eat that much fat, salt, or calories. They ate dinner together many nights of the week, watched movies, debated philosophical ideas, played poker, and on and on. After Dr. MacLaren’s death in 2021, his beloved wife, Marcia, stepped in for the necessary grocery and appointment runs. We should all be so fortunate as to enjoy a friendship as long-lasting and deep.

Dr. Messerich is survived by his two younger siblings, Bob Messerich and Betsy Messerich Pahl and husband Chris; four nieces, Lisa Kleven, Melody Schlapper, Robi Messerich, Maggie Pahl, and one nephew, Matt Pahl; and his brother-in-law, Dale Kleven and wife Marie. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, his oldest sibling, Kathy Messerich Kleven, and one nephew, Joel Kleven. And we cannot omit Dr. Messerich’s two cats, Elijah Joe and Tater, which provided companionship for many years. Elijah Joe was first, and then Tater, an eight-year-old, when Dr. Messerich picked her because he worried no one would choose a cat already that old. Now 21 years old, Tater survives him and has been adopted yet again by Dr. Messerich’s former student and good friend, Kathy McCormick. Dr. Messerich is also survived by a host of faculty colleagues and former students who shall all miss him very much but who consider themselves much, much richer for having known him. Lakes Funeral Home in Berea, Kentucky, is in charge of arrangements. Donations in his name are suggested to the Madison County Humane Society https://humanesocietyall.com/gifts/ or to a charity of one’s choice.

A celebration of life event is scheduled in Walnut Hall in the Keen Johnson Building on the Eastern Kentucky University campus from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13th. A reception will follow in the same location.