"Up Close and Personal: Stacy Cordery" The Courier (October 8, 1999)

By Rebekah McBeth, Copy/Layout Editor

A selfless, compassionate mentor is who every college student looks up to, and a selfless, compassionate mentor is who helped push Dr. Stacy Cordery to become the professor that she is.

Cordery, who earned her B.A. from the University of Texas, began her college education at Anderson College, a small liberal arts school. After her first semester, she transferred to Indiana University, and then proceeded to transfer to University of Texas.

She also earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas.

Cordery, throughout her time as a professor at Monmouth, has been involved in the lives of students in a variety of ways.

She has served as the faculty advisor for Pi Beta Phi and also as the faculty advisor for the cheerleaders.

She currently is the curator of the Monmouth College Archives and Coordinator of Women's Studies. In addition, she is the advisor to PRISM (People Respecting Individual Sexuality at Monmouth) and co-advisor to Phi Alpha Theta.

Cordery is currently on leave and is in the process of writing two books.

She is the exclusive author of the first book, entitled Come and Sit by Me: The Life of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. A biography of Theodore Roosevelt's eldest daughter, the projected date for this publication is 2002.

Cordery is a joint author of the second book with Shawn Parry-Giles. Collective Voices: First Ladies and the American Rhetorical Tradition documents the thoughts of first ladies on public matters. Every chapter in the book is dedicated to a different first lady.

She also currently serves as the senior daily editor for H-Women, a listserv out of Michigan State University. H-Women currently has more than 2000 subscribers. In addition, Cordery is one of the founding faculty advisors for H-HistMajor, a listserv for undergraduate history majors. Cordery felt strongly that undergraduate students needed to have a forum to share their ideas and concerns, without the interruptions of faculty.

Cordery stated that she would not be where she is today without the help of three important professors in her life, Lewis Gould, Oscar Brockett, and Tom Philpott.

"I firmly believe that where God closes a door, he opens a window," she said.

She first became interested in history when she sat through a theater history seminar. Brockett asked for the name of a certain queen's grandmother, and no one in the class knew. He turned around, erased the board and silently wrote the entire genealogy of all the kings and queens of the English Royal Family to Elizabeth the II.

"That is the moment I said, 'that's what I want to do,'" said Cordery.

In her senior year, Cordery discovered that she needed six credit hours of history. She signed up for a class on first ladies, in which she was the only non-history major. Gould, the professor of the class, suggested that Cordery should research the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Anna J. Pennybacker.

"He took an interest in me even though I was a theater arts major. He never let that detour him. I hope that I am always that open minded. I hope that when I see students, I see them and say, you are a talented, unique individual, and I can help you if you want me to," she said.

As Cordery conducted research, she read several letters between the two women. It became evident to Cordery that letters between the two women were missing, and she sifted through boxes of Pennybacker's documents, which were donated to the school. It was through this research that Cordery discovered 237 letters from Eleanor Roosevelt, which had previously never been discovered by either historians or archivists.

Cordery, after concluding her research, was sent to Hyde Park, letters in hand to deliver the letters to the F.D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Gould continued to mentor Cordery, and he was the first individual to talk to her about her potential in graduate school.

"Every time I mentor a student, I continue to pay my debt to him," said Cordery.

Another of the most influential men in Cordery's life was Tom Philpott. Philpott, a professor at the University of Texas, gave his life for civil rights and taught Cordery that teaching goes beyond the classroom. Every year Philpott collected a baseball with the signatures of his students on it. When student and faculty protests could not get the University of Texas to divest holding in South Africa, Philpott found a way to demand attention. Taking all the balls from his office, he grabbed a bat and went to the common area of the college, which was in direct view of the president's window. He batted each one of the balls at the president's window to demand attention. He was arrested and dragged off.

Philpott later committed suicide, and his son allowed Cordery to pick anything from his office that she wanted. She choose a baseball she had signed, although it was no longer legible from the time it hit the president's window. She now keeps it in her office. It always reminds Cordery "to keep my eye on the ball," she said.

"I always hold these professors [Gould, Brockett, Philpott] in my head and set my heart on teaching like them," she said.

"If I live my life in balance between intellectual rigor and social passion, I will go to my grave happy," said Cordery.

Cordery said that the most rewarding part of her profession is working with her students.

"I pray all the time for my students," said Cordery. "The prayer I pray most often is that each one of them will fall in love with learning."