Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Robert Shipman.  He was born in Braddock and raised in nearby Rankin, two small communities seven minutes by car outside of Pittsburgh.  These communities were integrated and were very family-oriented.  He attended public schools and graduated from General Braddock Area High School in 1973.  His mother was a parti-time domestic servant and a housewife.  His father was a steelworker for U.S. Steel.  Robert was the fifth of thirteen children.  He remembers that his father told them, “I might not be able to provide for you a formal education, but I can make sure that you are educated.”  He did this by purchasing many books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc., for the family and insisting that they read them.  For example, he purchased the Harvard Classic series of books, and he made his children memorize sections by writers like Dante and Edgar Allan Poe.  He also owned a number of books by authors of the Harlem Renaissance and encouraged Robert and his siblings to read those as well.  Robert remembers Countee Cullen, Tom Skinner, and James Baldwin in particular.  While all of this reading was very important to him, Robert always loved electronics growing up.  He used to retrieve any electrical appliances or equipment that had been discarded by his neighbors.  After replacing tubes or otherwise repairing these items, he resold them.  After high school, he was unable to get into electronic school.  So, he went to technical school to learn how to do upholstery.  At this same time, he got married.  The upholstery industry, however, was never for him.  He then got a job working for Westinghouse Airbrake Company.  While working there, he began part-time school for electronic wiring.  He worked at Westinghouse for about ten years.  During this time, he was called into the ministry and began working with local churches.  He applied to go to Seminary, but he could not get into most of them without a college degree.  However, Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh made an exception and admitted him into their program.  In 1981 or so, he got his first call to serve as a minister at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in the town of Cardale.  So, for a number of years, he was driving to this church, which was over sixty miles away, while continuing to work for Westinghouse and studying both electronics and theology part-time.  He was at Mount Ararat for about ten years, when he received a call to go to Prince of Peace Baptist Church in Philadelphia.  This was a small congregation that was housed in an old school building with four floors and encompassing 44,000 square feet.   He has been there ever since, and he will probably retire next year, after completing over 32 years of service at this Church.  In his early years at Prince of Peace, he had a number of individuals in his congregation that did not have formal post-secondary education degrees, though they were gainfully employed and successful in their careers.  For a variety of reasons, he recommended that they should earn a formal degree. In giving them this advice, he felt that it was also important that he lead by example.  So, he enrolled at Rowan in 1997.  He graduated from Rowan University in 2001 with degrees in history and secondary social studies, as well as a minor in African American Studies.

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I chose Rowan University because I had moved to Washington Township from Philadelphia.  It would also have been just as easy for me to go to Temple University or Drexel, due to my commute into Philadelphia every day.  However, Rowan had a good reputation as a teacher’s college, and I wanted to teach.   

I enrolled as a history major, as it was one of my favorite subjects, along with geography.  I remember drawing maps as a child, and I always had a good memory for places.  The first class at Rowan that made an impression on me was Public Speaking.  I thought I was in good shape in this class given my background, but I thought differently after I received my first paper back from the professor.  I was one of the oldest students on campus.  I remember that that the professor did not doubt that I had been a successful speaker, but she said that my form was still wrong.  I still use her comments sometimes when I am teaching others these days.

I also remember DeMond Miller’s class in sociology.  He made me really reexamine the role of religion in social development.  Although his presentation style often frustrated me, I admit that he led me to rethink some things quite deeply. 

While those classes stand out in my memory, I was most excited about my history classes.  That interest had been increased by my time at Seminary as well.  The Rowan history classes immediately gripped my attention.  My love for the subject, present since high school, deepened.  I soon added a minor in African American Studies.  One of my favorite components of the history program was the class I took on historiography, which explained how history was written.

The faculty in the Department were both empathetic and demanding.  The faculty understood the mental struggles that students sometimes battled.  For example, they made it clear that they understood my situation as an older student who was working full-time.  They also encouraged me to add my own perspective into class discussions.  I remember in particular that you, Dr. Carrigan, encouraged such discussion in your Civil War and Reconstruction class.

I remember Janet Lindman well and admired her teaching style very much.  She was more subtle than some of the other faculty.  Due her somewhat quiet nature, I think that my younger classmates often did not fully appreciate how carefully she spoke and how well she had planned our discussion.  She listened to us and always responded in a way that impressed me.

Gary Hunter was an important mentor to me.  Not only did I learn much in his classes, but we spent much time in his office outside of class.  We talked about everything from the influence of African Americans on music to the history of African American communities in southern New Jersey.  We also discussed his travels and time in Africa.  He understood the challenges that I faced on campus, as an older African American male who was trying to balance a full-time job and my school work (and who also happened to be tall).

I also remember Corann Okorodudu.  I had her for Introduction to African American Studies, and she was an exceptional person.  Not only was she extremely knowledgeable, she helped a group of us restart a Black Student Union on campus.  She combined her passion for Liberia, her motherland, with an uncanny passion for the American values of freedom and justice. The way that she taught made you care.  She made a major impact on me, and I remember her helping us bring Molefi Asante to campus. I was the moderator of the lecture when he visited. 

I remember that faculty in the College of Education were very helpful to me not only in my education classes but also in a project related to my church work.  They helped me develop the materials that we needed to establish a remedial education program targeting local students in the neighborhood surrounding our church.  With the help of Mrs. Stone from Blaine Elementary School, we successfully implemented this program and helped students who had fallen behind on their reading skills, and, later, math skills.

My time at Rowan helped me in a number of ways.  Socially, it helped me improve my ability to communicate with younger people.  I learned how to communicate with them as a peer and not just as an elder or a leader.  My passion for research, which certainly existed before I began at Rowan, grew after the history major.  I also gained a greater appreciation for how there are multiple perspectives on key historical moments and events.  By the time I graduated, I was certain that understanding history was essential for living life itself. 

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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.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 entries on the Web:  https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_highlights/project_100/