History professor touched the lives of thousands of students

After 42 years of teaching history to the students of Dana College, Professor Don Warman announced his retirement earlier this year. To honor his service to the college, Warman was named professor emeritus of history at Dana’s Commencement Ceremony held May 24 on its campus in Blair, Neb.

Best known for his wit and insatiable urge to learn and teach, Warman taught thousands of students in his time at Dana, including several who would later go on to become his colleagues on the faculty. In his first years at Dana, he interested a young man in English history. When that student later finished his doctorate in history at Duke University, Warman pushed the administration at Dana to hire him. They taught together for 33 years until Dr. Richard Jorgensen retired last year. Warman’s retirement ends their long dynasty in Dana’s history department, making for one of the most dramatic changes in the college’s history.

“ Professor Warman will be missed,” said Dana College President Myrvin Christopherson. “You can’t help but like the guy. He makes history come alive and draws upon all available media to create student interest.”

Warman’s family moved around the country during his childhood, but his unusual intelligence caused one school to skip him from the fifth to ninth grade. Then in his early teens, Warman’s father died, and Warman hit the open road, hitchhiking all over the United States at the age of 13.

Warman chose to attend his mother’s alma mater, Park College in Kansas City, Mo., which was then a small Presbyterian college. After graduating with a degree in social science, he held a series of odd jobs, including selling typewriters in the Kansas City stockyards (he never made a sale in six months) and one in which he was hired and fired within three days (because of his draft status).

In this time period, Warman married his wife, Sandy, and started a family. He was drafted into the U.S. Army when his son was 6 months old, and was faced with making a moral decision about his conscientious objector status. He could go join the army or go to prison. In the end Warman chose the military for the sake of his young family.

It was in at Fort Sill in Oklahoma that Warman gave his first history lecture. As his non-commissioned officer, one of his duties was to give lectures on military history to the troops. (He was chastised on giving one lecture on the Battle of Little Big Horn, told “We don’t talk about the ones we lost.”)

Warman was given an early discharge to pursue his master’s degree at the University of South Dakota. He also spent a year working on a doctorate before becoming the first historian at the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Neb. Much of the text found within the museum today was written by Warman during his tenure there.

After a one-hour interview with then-Dana College President C.C. Madsen, Warman was hired as a new member of the Dana College faculty in 1961. It was at his first faculty dinner that Warman decided he never wanted to leave. “This is where I want to be,” he remembers saying to the rest of the faculty. “This is where I need to be.”

Warman lived through several changes at Dana. In his time the college went from predominately Lutheran to a college that reflects the demographics of the Omaha area. He was involved Dana’s humanities program for a quarter-century, a program, he said, “Every student who’s taken it loves 10 years out.” He also saw the program’s elimination.

Warman also embraced changes in technology in use in the classroom. He’s creator and developer of Professor Gigabyte’s Gateways to Infinity (www.dana.edu/dwarman), a well-known academic clearinghouse of reference web sites begun in 1995.

But Warman’s real passion is teaching. He said he was born to teach and all his real professional accomplishments have been in the classroom. He would never leave, but a series of strokes has left him physically weaker.

“ First and foremost, Professor Warman is a teacher,” said Dr. John Mark Nielsen, professor of English and one of Warman’s former students. “Professor Warman has pursued learning with a passion throughout his long career.”

Warman’s favorite classes over the years have included Russian History, History of the Non-Western World and Late 20th Century History. But he holds a warm spot in his heart for his classes in anthropology and geography, topics he’s never took a single day of instruction in.

“ I would rather teach than eat,” Warman said. “And obviously I like to eat.”

In recognition of Warman’s service to Dana, the college is establishing the Donald G. Warman Award for Outstanding Senior Student in History, which will be presented for the first time to a student of the Class of 2004.

Warman is also leaving a physical reminder of his presence with the college — his house, which he has sold to Dana. Almost on campus, the home could become a spot for new faculty to live in while looking for more permanent housing. Warman and his wife, a retired English professor, will be moving this summer to New Hampshire to be near their oldest son.

“ The Warmans of the world are a rare commodity,” Christopherson said. “He represents the old and the new. On the one hand he is a Renaissance man schooled in the traditional humanities and social sciences. On the other, he represents and uses cutting-edge technology. We’re just glad Professor Gigabyte will still be accessible on the web.”

Dana College is a private, liberal arts institution that currently enrolls approximately 600 students. The campus is located on 150 acres overlooking the Missouri River Valley in Blair, Neb. Dana grants bachelor’s degrees in more than 35 liberal arts, business, education and pre-professional programs, with an emphasis on personalized teaching from experienced and dedicated faculty. Dana is a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and its athletic teams compete in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.

More information on Dana College can be found at www.dana.edu.

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For more information contact:
Sarah Cavanah, Dana College Communications Coordinator, 402 426-7216, scavanah@dana.edu