Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Bryan Dickerson.  He was born in Point Pleasant and raised in Brick Township, New Jersey.  His father was a housing contractor who later joined the Department of Civil Service for the State of New Jersey. Her mother was a bookkeeper at several car dealerships.  He went to public schools and graduated from Brick Township High School in 1991.  He has one younger brother, who went to Loyola College of Maryland and then the College of New Jersey.  He graduated from Rowan University in 1995 with a Bachelor’s degree in history.  He was the winner of that year’s Medallion Award for Excellence in History.  After graduating from Rowan, he began working for the municipal government of Brick Township.  Although he was accepted into the graduate program at George Washington University, he chose to go to the Master’s program in history at Monmouth University for financial reasons.  He earned that degree in 1999, having focused on United States military and diplomatic history.  In 2007, he was appointed as the Director of the Archives Division of the Township, a position he still holds to this day.  In 2003, he joined the United States Naval Reserve, and he subsequently served two tours in Iraq.  In 2022, he began an online graduate certificate program in Archival Studies through Louisiana State University, which he completed in 2023. He is the author of two books on military and naval history, the first of which (The Liberators of Pilsen:  The U.S. 16^th Armored Division in World War II Czechoslovakia) was published by McFarland Company in 2018 and the second (Dive Bomber Down:  James A. Nist, Naval Aviator in the Pacific War) is due out later this year. His wife Lisa is also a Rowan graduate and they have four children. 

*****

Glassboro State College was not my first choice academically, but the financial offer was too great to pass up.  So, I began in the Fall of 1991.  I had always loved history, and it was a natural choice for me.  My main focus when I started, however, was joining the Army.  I was in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).  At the time, the end of the Cold War meant the reduction of the armed services.  I foresaw that there might not be the opportunities for me upon graduation that I had hoped for when I began.  So, I left the program at the end of my first year. 

In my first year, I had Dr. Kress for both United States survey courses, Dr. Hewsen for the first half of Western Civilization, and Dr. Applebaum for the second half of Western Civilization.  David Applebaum thought very differently from what I was used to, but that was a good thing for me to experience.  I soon adapted and quite enjoyed learning from him.  He was my advisor that first year, and I ended up taking several classes with him.  Dr. Kress became my advisor for my last three years. 

Dr. Hewsen was an expert in Armenia and the Caucasus region of the Soviet Union.  I remember him coming in one day on fire, angry that someone in Europe had plagiarized his work.  His overall store of knowledge was amazing.

Dr. Kress’s depth of knowledge and his analysis of history were fantastic.  I took so many of his classes that he actually advised me to take someone else during one of our advising sessions to get a different perspective on history.  He set the foundation for me, allowing me to succeed in graduate school.  He was very supportive when I decided that I wanted to go to graduate school in history.  Dr. Kress was also the one who invited me to participate in Phi Alpha Theta.  He was also one of the ones who nominated me for the Medallion Award.

During my Junior Year, I considered going to law school, and I took a Constitutional Law class with Dr. Bernadyne Weatherford.  In January of 1994, Dr. Weatherford took us to Washington, D.C. to listen to oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court.  That course ended up being one of the best ones that I had at Rowan due to this experience and the very interesting paper that she assigned.

I was involved in several activities outside of the classroom.  I had an interesting time in a Greek fraternity while at Glassboro State College.  Even more important to me was my participation in the Newman Center.  There I reconnected with my Catholic faith and made fantastic friends, including Father Cadmus Mazzarella, the priest who ran the Newman Center.  Later, he officiated at my wedding. 

While I was an undergraduate, in the Spring of 1992, Glassboro State College celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the Kosygin-Johnson summit.  This took place right after the Soviet Union collapsed.  It was fascinating because the end of the Cold War meant that we were witnessing the transformation of the meaning of this important historic event.  It was a first-hand look at how current events shape how people perceive and interpret past events.

My time at Glassboro State College and Rowan was providential.  While it was not my first choice, it turned out to be critical in shaping my life after graduation.  My time in the History Department prepared me for graduate school and for my career in archives.  I met some of my very best friends at Rowan.  Although I did not meet my wife, also a Rowan alum, while a student, I would never have met her if I had not attended Rowan.  Six of the eight individuals in our wedding party were Rowan alumni.

*****

This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions. Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.