I was speaking from my heart when I said that my 27 years of teaching full time at Fu Jen have been a lot of fun. Much of this has been because of the great people I’ve had the chance to work with. A very big “of course” remains. Of course, most the fun has been with my students. I have never tired of face to face interaction with the people I love the most in my life, my students.

The biggest thrill of my life, and it continues still now in my courses as a part-timer, is the thrill I feel when I walk into a classroom. Nothing quite amazes me as much as the feeling that comes when I look out and see the expressions on the faces there waiting for us to get back to the business of learning. I meant it literally at the reunion when I said that I could never pay back all I owe to the students at Fu Jen who have been so kind and so good to me in so many courses I tried my best to teach.

Mentioning names is dangerous because of the risk of forgetting someone and causing hurt feelings. I brought up the names of a few colleagues at the reunion, but I forgot a few, too.

Ray Schulte was sitting near the back of the room. He tells me now that the hubbub around him made it impossible to hear my voice.

Well, last June I forgot to say out loud, Ray, what all of us feel. You are our hero. You represent what Fu Jen is supposed to be all about. Your courage and spirit and humor in the face of adversity have touched every last one of us. More than your poetry, your scholarly writing, and even more than your inspiring teaching, it is the man who you are that will forever be your legacy among us. I have been blessed to be your friend and colleague.

I also forgot to mention two “shen-fu” friends who were with us not in person, but in spirit. The first was my first chair, Father Demers. He hired me and offered me language courses. He also asked me to open “Existentialism and Literature.” He thought Fu da was the only university in Taiwan in 1977 to offer a course with a significant part devoted to Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Thanks, Father.

I also want to mention my religious order confrere, Father Joseph “Chuck” Stier. Chuck took me under his wing from Day One in my Taiwan life. He was a valuable mentor for me as I began to teach future luminaries like Joyce Liu, Yuan Yun-pi, Chen Sheng-I, Austin, and their generation of English Department students in 1977. His extended family in Kentucky and Ohio still give me much encouragement today.

Time limits made it impossible to speak about the days I had in administration at Fu Jen. From 1993-96, I served as the last old fashioned “swo chang” of the English Department Master’s program. The positions of chair and M.A. director were united on August 1, 1996. From 2001-08 I was chair of the night division English Department. We were then, as we are now, a double section department, and thus had up to 440 students each semester.

My boat would have followed the Titantic in those years without the secretaries God sent like angels from heaven. Only two of these young women did not attend either the retirement party the department threw for me two days before the reunion, or the reunion itself. Maggie and Judy were in the USA at the time. It meant mountains to me to see Josephine, Amy, Selena, and Julia. Night and day, those six perfect people served a couple thousand students and colleagues under my watch.

One of my goals as chair of our night English Department was to bring in as much young talent as I could for the good of everyone. I am proud to have smoothed the way for Sherri Wei to join our faculty. The same goes for another Department alumna, Daisy Yeh. Some half a dozen or so other young instructors from other universities are also on my mind. Our students benefited immeasurably from their young blood, knowledge and care.

As I look back over 27 years, I wish that I could have done better for you all. I know I’ve disappointed some very good people, and I know I was not able to match the size of all my own hopes. I am grateful for your understanding.

In the time left to me at Fu Jen and in life, I hope to write. Perhaps, with luck, I’ll one day leave behind some pages worth reading. If that for some reason does not happen, all will still be right. I will ride off into the sunset one day on my faithful Rocinante, happy with warm memories of the many people I’ve known and loved at Fu Jen.

This is a blessing and a privilege I never deserved, and it is enough for me.

Father Bauer (now, happily, Bau Yeh yeh)